Philip Johnson has played a decisive role in designing American architecture in the 20th century. Through his designs, writings, and teaching, he has helped to define the theoretical discourse and the built form taken by the architecture of our country for more than half-a-century.

Mr. Johnson pioneered and championed the two architectural movements that have most affected the urban landscape during the last sixty years: the International Style, and "postmodernism", and with it the reintroduction of the use of historic styles in contemporary architectural design. The former was advanced by Mr. Johnson and the late Henry Russell-Hitchcock in the 1930s, the latter through the 1978 unveiling of the design Mr. Johnson created for the AT&T Headquarters building in New York City.

As founder and director of the Department of Architecture of the Museum of Modern Art, Mr. Johnson's efforts defined an architectural style practiced by such European masters as Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, introducing a generation of American architects to this revolutionary approach to design. A design approach characterized by the straightforward use of modern materials such as glass and steel, and emphasizing function and structure over ornamental decoration, the 'International Style' became the guiding spirit of our city skylines for fifty years, and continues to heavily influence contemporary designs. In addition to advocating the practice and benefits of the International Style, Mr. Johnson created two of its most important monuments, the Seagram Building (in 1958, with Mr. Mies van der Rohe), and his own Glass House (1949).

Fifty-two years after this historically critical exhibit, Mr. Johnson again transformed the language of American architecture. Philip Johnson's design for the AT&T Headquarters building in New York (1984), with its stone cladding and identifying broken pediment, changed the dialogue of contemporary architecture as dramatically as the International Style had fifty years before. It was the first major built structure that revived the use of historic styles - an approach to design now prevalent but strongly derided by the profession during the supremacy of the International Style.

In 1994, Philip Johnson joined forces with his previous associate Alan Ritchie and established the new firm of Philip Johnson / Alan Ritchie Architects., P.C.

Mr. Johnson, a Fellow of both The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and The American Institute of Arts and Letters, was the first recipient of the Pritzker Prize for a distinguished career in Architecture. Other lifetime achievement awards include the Gold Medal from the AIA and the Bronze Medallion of the city of New York. He has also been honored for many individual designs, including the Silver Medal of Honor from the Architectural League for the Glass House, a Progressive Architecture Design Award for the Kline Science Center at Yale University, and an AIA award for St. Bail's Chapel in Houston, Texas.