Jun 26
2011
I was thinking of throwing a party. Possibly a pool party. Not an architecture party per se, but more like Philip Johnson's salons where architecture was the backdrop for conversations amongst tastemakers from different fields. He entertained Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and countless others. Johnson made architecture a cultural event. He freed the topics of buildings and design from an endless cycle of architects speaking to each other in favor of a larger cultural forum. Today the Glass House carries on this legacy through the Glass House Conversations and the new program, Conversations in Context.
If we were to throw a party, an updated version of Johnson's salons, who should we invite?
Joel gave the final word
A few people I thought of:
Oprah Winfrey Money CAN move mountains
Bill Gates Ditto
Warren Buffet Ditto
Martha Stewart For her attempts at producing a
self sufficient community
Jonathan Reckford CEO Habitat for Humanity
Brad Pitts Commitment to sustainable housing
Angelina Jolie Ditto
Sandra Bullock Housing work
Arthur P. Ziegler,Jr. President Pittsburgh History and
Landmarks Foundation
Ryan Landry Founder The Gold Dust Orphans and
a strong community activist
Alexandra Billings Actress, producer, community activist.
Joel Folliard Just ’cause!
Wednesday, June 29 at 8:25am
Non-designers, first and foremost.
Majora Carter; she always keeps it real. More here
Robert Hammond or Joshua David, co-founders of Friends of the High Line. Two words: High Line.
Aaron Hurst, founder of the Taproot Foundation, which would seem to have nothing to do with design, but Aaron does some of the most progressive thinking about design of anyone I know.
And if you really want some designers to mix it up: Reed Kroloff of Cranbrook to reliably light a fire; Paula Scher of Pentagram to keep things simple; Thom Mayne of Morphosis to complicate things; Walter Hood, because the secret beauty of The Glass House isn’t actually the house; etc.
Monday, June 27 at 1:09pm
“Non-designers, first and foremost.” – I completely agree. This is the key to making any conversation about design worthwhile. Marc notes Johnson’s ability to engage people from a variety of disciplines in a larger cultural dialogue related to architecture and design which, I think, is what makes Johnson’s legacy of conversations valuable and relevant to this day.
Thursday, June 30 at 2:59pm
Love it! And, if we’re talking architecture + Lady Gaga we should definitely have design critic Aileen Kwun come too – she wrote this fantastic essay: Lady Gaga is a Machine for Dancing - would love to hear her thoughts!
Thursday, June 30 at 2:36pm
Hmmm. Well, it would have to be fun, and it should be a wide cast of characters who could hold their own, so I would start with:
Writer/Television Personality Christopher Mason
Writer/Art Critic Anthony Haden-Guest
Writer Duff Allen
Author Filmmaker Ari Gold
Filmmaker John Waters
Actor and Activist Ed Norton
Activist Bianca Jagger
Artist Julian Schnabel
Photographer Todd Eberle
Intellectual Arthur Danto
Curator Paola Antonelli
Journalist Anderson Cooper
Secretary of State Hilary Clinton
Actress Kim Cattrell
Model Naomi Campbell (to add drama and mix it up a bit)
then of course, my nearest and dearest friends…
Tuesday, June 28 at 1:59pm
Cultural persons of note I would like to see interpreting Johnson and Whitney’s debauched, hyper-intelligent legacy include:
- Marina Abramovic (She showed up at the Rem Koolhaas keynote for the New Museum’s Festival of Ideas and at the exhibition opening the following day.)
- James Franco (Actor/writer/’artist’ modeling himself in the Warhol mold.)
- Kalup Linzy (Contemporary performance artist and Franco pal, often in drag – you know Johnson would have approved.)
- Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Janette Sadik-Khan (The political powerhouse duo is making big changes across New York City, whether you like it or not.)
- Eli Broad (To determine if he has an actual opinion on art and architecture, or just throws money around to mask the fact that he does not.)
Tuesday, June 28 at 2:02pm
Bridgette Shim and Howard Sutcliffe, Toronto Architects. These guys are truly in the spirit of the ‘glass house’ while evolving the sensibilities of Toronto’s cultural and intellectual elite.
See link http://cabbageroseblog.com/architecture/ravine-guest-houseshim-sutcliffe-architects
They are key contributors to the paradoxical nature between necessary force of vision and applied intellectual dexterity. Further, Bridgette and Howard marry the so called ‘building realities’ with power, grace and integrity. These guys are a must invite – ‘A’ Listers to be sure.
Tuesday, June 28 at 2:49pm
If only I could I would invite a famous polish writer Stefan Żeromski to the Glass House party. In his most famous book ,,Przedwiośnie” one of the character’s dream was to see glass houses. He went a long way from Russia to see glass houses in Poland – his father told him about them. And when he finally got to my country he found that there are no glass houses there so he lost his dreams… The famous quotation is ,,Gdzie są twoje szklane domy?” which means ,,where are your glass houses”. It was difficult but really interesting book and the answer for this quotation is – ,,Hey, it’s over there! In New Canaan!” I would love to see the face of the character if I could put him there… :)
Tuesday, June 28 at 3:23pm
I enjoy debates recalling “that one time [insert seminal architect's name] brushed his teeth with caviar and put toothpaste on his toast” as much as the next guy, but how about a few cultural luminaries who haven’t enjoyed quite as much sycophantic fawning?
Aaron Koblin
Rachel Sterne
Mitch McEwen
Choire Sicha
Aaron Jones
Harmony Korine
Gary Shteyngart
Thomas Castro
Tuesday, June 28 at 6:05pm
André Leon Talley (vogue),Christine Lagarde (IMF),Peter Zumthor (architect), Ai Weiwei,Oprah, Bill Ford(Ford motor), Tom Ford, Bernard Tschumi(architect), Melinda French Gates(philanthopist), Susan Orlean(the New Yorker), Kazuyo Sejima (architect),Moby, The Cohen brothers(film makers),Julie Mehretu(artist),Wim Wenders (film maker), Michelle Obama, Steven Millhauser(writer),JamieFobert(architect), Janine Antoni(artist),
Damon Winter(photo journalist),Joshua Walters(comedian),China Miéville (writer),Dr.John Cahn(materials physisist),Alexis Bittar (jewelery designer),Geoff Manaugh(architectural blogger http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/),Moi.
Tuesday, June 28 at 8:34pm
Joel gave the Final Word
A few people I thought of:
Oprah Winfrey Money CAN move mountains
Bill Gates Ditto
Warren Buffet Ditto
Martha Stewart For her attempts at producing a
self sufficient community
Jonathan Reckford CEO Habitat for Humanity
Brad Pitts Commitment to sustainable housing
Angelina Jolie Ditto
Sandra Bullock Housing work
Arthur P. Ziegler,Jr. President Pittsburgh History and
Landmarks Foundation
Ryan Landry Founder The Gold Dust Orphans and
a strong community activist
Alexandra Billings Actress, producer, community activist.
Joel Folliard Just ’cause!
Wednesday, June 29 at 8:25am
Well, if Henry Kissinger is visiting, then we would have to invite Fareed Zakaria too. After all, before his Sunday CNN news program and Newsweek, he was the managing editor of Foreign Affairs, published by the Council on Foreign Affairs. They would have a good rapport… I would love to listen to their conversation!
Wednesday, June 29 at 3:27pm
The 2011 class of architecture school graduates. Considering most of them will have a difficult time finding a job and may leave the industry, if at least temporarily, I think it would be interesting to hear what they have to say about how we’ve prepared them for the theory and practice of architecture.
Wednesday, June 29 at 12:24pm
Tom Ford – He’s genuine, subtly provocative, and very pretty.
Salman Rushdie – He’s genius, a gentleman, and does mad impersonations. Plus the man has some serious balls.
Jay-Z – He’s cool, he’s tall, he’s black.
Tina Fey – She can be my wingman anytime.
Justin Timberlake – Turns out, he’s funny.
Anderson Cooper – You know he can talk about anything.
Jeanne Gang – I would like to be her.
Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch – I think they could hang.
Thursday, June 30 at 11:51am
All attendees should be creative, brilliant and have a sense of humor.
We should harvest our local resources by inviting regional farmers, chefs, comedians, artisans, authors, architects, dancers, scholars and musicians.
REAL PEOPLE like me and other progressive collaborators from Brooklyn and beyond.
Global thinkers from members of various councils (on foreign relations, state governments and economic advisors and non profits).
I’m also thinking a dramatic balance of art and entertainment types, perhaps members from Cirque du Soleil
We should also invite people of all ages (from 6 to 106 ).
Will we have room for puppets like Kermit and War Horse ?
We MUST invite people who currently live in a glass house.
How many can we invite ? How many people will the 47 acre compound allow? Should we have an “A” and “b” list ?
We must have an enormous cake to celebrate Philip’s Birthday.
Thursday, June 30 at 12:19pm
What a great question.
In no particular order:
Mark Lamster – the party needs a critic/curmudgeon
Michael Bierut – the party needs a designer
Zaha Hadid – the party needs an architect of course!
Louis CK – the party needs a comedian
And those four each get to invite someone. Guilt by association.
Thursday, June 30 at 3:16pm
LETS STAY away from the cliché big names, that are simply just names.
And make sure there are powerhouses that would seriously contribute to an intellectual conversation. Kanye yeah, but whose to say he’ll behave himself in the company of such amazing people with such different views on life.
Powerhouses like Michelle Obama, Tom Ford, Brad Pitt, John Legend, Jon Stewart, Mark Zuckerburg, Jay-Z, Russel Simmons are all great ideas.
As well as hidden gems like
Blake Lively
Lisa Love (Teen Vogue)
Rubert Murdoch
Nathan Wolfe
Sergio Marchionne
Scott Schumans
Id also like to suggest that some younger, fresh faces are invited even students who are on the path to become big names in the future.
I myself am an 18 year old college student that would be more than interested.
Friday, July 1 at 11:32am
It would be great if contrarians like Geoff Colvin author of “Talent is Overrated” be invited. Most of us feel very much at home preaching to the choir and having somebody over with an original revolutionary idea would be very invigorating especially for architects who need to think of new ways to solve new problems.
Saturday, July 2 at 4:51am
i’m not sure how this would all work out, but:
Han Han (the race-car driver..)
Joon-ho Bong
Evan Osnos
Saul Griffith
Jonathan Bachrach
Peter Rojas
Mark Jarzombek
Rachel Sterne
Nicola Twilley
Ethel Baraona Pohl
Ross Wolfe
Owen Hatherley
Sara Shafiei
Mitch McEwen-SUPERFRONT
Yung Ho Chang
Junya Ishigami
Alejandro Aravena
Paisajes Emergentes
David Chang_someone’s got to make lunch
Sunday, July 3 at 1:14pm
Keywords
Selected list of words appearing in this and other conversations.
Troy Conrad Therrien
0
What about an updated Johnson salon on Johnson? Peter Eisenman often gets tagged as the puppet master behind the architectural discipline, but the deeper I get into it myself, I realize more and more how much territory has to be ascribed to PJ. Reading PJ’s biography is not only entertaining, it’s also telling: the man himself was not only making history, he spent a good deal of his life writing, re-writing and annotating it to his favor. Now that he’s no longer with us, he is also no longer patrolling the guardians of his secrets. I’d invite the people closest to Philip. Mark Wigley claims to have stories he will never tell. I’m sure Bob Stern has some nuggets. Put them in a room with the aforementioned Eisenman, Phylis Lambert, Sanford Kwinter, Cynthia Davidson and the rest of the ANY and Assemblage set, the Charlottesville crew, perhaps add Andrew Saint of PJ obit-bashing fame for color, and a hidden microphone, and perhaps historical truth will be told.
Sunday, June 26 at 10:56pm