ourtiers and thrones: Mies, Johnson and social upscaling in architecture

Abstract

The relationship between Mies and Johnson in the central decades of the last century will shape architecture in its present and future. A stormy relationship, which combines admiration and contempt, companionship and competition, always governed by mutual interest. We will see the double transfer of grace -privileged social position, money and good birth- from Johnson to Mies and of architectural grace, from Mies to Johnson. His grace will allow Johnson to approach the architecturally superior Mies, and to bond with him even to his regret, or rather to his total indifference. We shall see how, with the passage of time, the relationship becomes more and more symbiotic, as Johnson acquires greater power and, contradictorily, greater independence through his permanent association with the master. We will see, finally, how Johnson succeeds in establishing his independent reign in the American architectural world, based at the same time on the association and the break with Mies. A reign whose ramifications reach to this day and which has a physical representation, in the form of alethurg y, in the Four Seasons of the Seagram.