The difficulties of the suburban site-actually two small lots put together-ended up providing the beginnings of a solution. ![]() Johnson eventually decided he would be able to find a way to satisfy his client without moving backward in his work. The one thing that they make clear is how interested he is right now in the connections between architecture and sculptural form, and how little he cares about the traditional trappings of domestic grandeur. All of the houses are large, and they have little in common except the fact that Johnson has broken each of them into separate and distinct structures. He has accepted all three commissions-"At my age, you don't turn down anything," he says-and the designs underscore the continued activity of his restless and vibrant mind. He is still practicing at age ninety-four, and lately three clients have offered him the opportunity to try his hand again at residential work. ![]() Since the late 1950s, however, as Johnson's stylistic leanings became more eclectic, he has been engaged mainly in designing bigger buildings, producing an oeuvre that ranges from museums to office towers to churches. Philip Johnson first achieved note as an architect with a house-his own, the Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut-that is one of the great residential buildings of the twentieth century, and in the years following its completion in 1949, he designed a number of other houses that solidified his position as one of Mies van der Rohe's most important, not to say creative, followers. ![]() There are two times when architects who are famous for skyscrapers and other large public buildings are likely to be found designing houses: at the beginning of their careers, when no one will trust them with anything else, and at the end, when they have proven themselves and can retreat into the pleasures that come from refining a small-scale design.
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