The Building

Photo: Franko Khoury

The Kreeger Museum (1967) is a modern building that has a timeless quality. American architect Philip Johnson, with Richard Foster, accomplished this by making obvious references to the past and combining those with a modernist vocabulary.

Johnson and Foster were challenged to create a structure that could serve as a residence, a museum and a recital hall. The modern building that they designed not only fulfills these functions, but with a classical style. To achieve this, Johnson and Foster blended modern features with historic quotes. For example, the domes of the structure allude to Byzantine monuments like the Hagia Sophia. As you move through the building, you will notice transitions from small to large spaces. This was inspired by Egyptian tombs. The use of the module, the 22 foot cube that is the basis of the building, dates back to Roman architecture. (The Great Hall, for example, is three modules long.) The result of these historical references is a structure that seems timeless.

Philip Johnson’s long and prolific career spans the two major architectural categories of this century: modern and postmodern.

Johnson first worked with architecture as a curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. In a catalog accompanying a 1932 exhibition of the International Style of architecture, he and Henry Russell Hitchcock, Jr. defined the characteristics of this movement. They noted the importance of steel and concrete, which allowed for innovation in form. They also preached the importance of function in new architecture. The two main principles of the International Style, according to the catalog, were the elimination of the bearing wall, made possible by the new materials:steel and concrete. Walls could now be glass, metal or masonry that served no supportive function. The second principle was the elimination of applied decoration. These new ideas allowed for large buildings that were low-cost and could revolutionize urban planning.

For Johnson, the greatest architect of the International Style was Mies van der Rohe, who refined the basic forms of the movement. Mies' design for the German Pavilion at the International Exposition in Barcelona, 1929, influenced Johnson as he developed his Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut. The other major influence on Johnson was Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret). Corbusier wanted to make houses into "a machine for living," interpreting interior and exterior spaces in new, minimalist ways.

Johnson had the opportunity to work with Mies on the Seagram Building in New York, 1958. This structure has been called "a monument to modern industry, comparable to the Gothic cathedrals that had been monuments to medieval religious belief." It is symmetrical, with clean, modern lines. There is no exterior decoration.

In his later public works of the 1970s, Johnson shifted from the modern ideals of Mies to the postmodern style. Postmodern architecture is not rational – it draws on the past indiscriminately – and is built to suit the site and the needs of the client. One of the most famous, or infamous, postmodern buildings is Johnson’s AT&T Headquarters, New York, 1978-83, which he designed with John Bergee. This structure, with its highboy furniture pediment, changed the skyline of New York City. In an interview, Johnson surveyed this view and said, "See that? Remember those boring boxes? Now we have AT&T. See Citicorp there behind it? See all those interesting tops? Isn’t it better now?" Surely the irony that those "boring boxes" are descended from his one-time love, the International Style, is not lost on him. But for Johnson, modern architecture had run dry.

The Kreeger building can be seen as one of Johnson’s early forays into postmodernism. It possesses all of the characteristics: drawing upon earlier monuments, suited to both the site and the needs of the clients. The Kreeger is organized around a modular system. Every room is some variation of 22x22x22 feet. This use of a proportional system dates back to ancient Greek buildings like the Parthenon. Travertine, the stone used for the building, is the same material used to face the Colosseum in Rome. This material, which is often mistaken for marble, is a form of limestone. To soften the harsh vertical and horizontal lines of the building, a feature that would be celebrated in a modern building, Johnson used domes, which give the structure a Byzantine feeling. Inside, in the lunette windows of the Great Hall, Johnson created screens from cork balls. These filter light and soften noise in the building. The inspiration for these screens came from Johnson’s trip to Egypt. These screens mimic the wooden window screens used in many Middle Eastern countries. When one stands on the Sculpture Terrace, one senses Johnson’s debt to the architects of Renaissance Italian villas, which blend classical forms into the landscape.

While designing this building, Johnson had to create a structure that could be a residence, gallery space and concert hall. Thus, the domes have not only an aesthetic function, but an acoustic one as well. In the Great Hall, they create a natural amplification system that allows one to hear a concert perfectly from any space in the room. The walls are covered in a natural cotton carpeting that also helps with the acoustics by softening any harsh sounds. It also allows paintings to be moved with ease, as any holes in the wall are hidden and repainting is not necessary.

The Kreeger Museum building was designed, in 1963. The structure was completed in 1967. The support materials are concrete, steel, and brick; the finishing materials are travertine, glass, teak and anodized aluminum. Of the 24,000 total square feet, 14,000 is used as gallery space. The building sits on 5 ½ acres of property.