Houstonist: Houstonist Flickr Photo of the Day - IMG_5330_is_this_parthenon

Jim Parsons

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 08:27:28 -0600

Yeah, Johnson used an unbuilt design from an 18th century French architect as his model, and at the groundbreaking, a bunch of students in Philip Johnson glasses apparently showed up and heckled him. My favorite part of the story is that Johnson himself reportedly burst through a banner showing a rendering of the building, just like high school football players do before a game. Of course, he was already 175 years old, so that took a lot of moxie. Or a banner with a Philip Johnson-shaped perforation cut into it.

RMG

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 23:19:18 -0600

If you pick up a copy of Cite Magazine's Ephemeral City, there's a lot of great articles about Phillip Johnson, one of which focuses specifically on the architecture school. If you're interested in the history of Houston, you should try picking up a copy; it's a pretty cool book.

CUERVO

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:14:01 -0600

There was some controversy when it was built in the 80's. Philip Johnson took the design for a 16th century guild house & ran with it. I never understood why people bitched about it since all of Johnson's work is good. Wait- am I confusing the Republic bank as the guild house influence? no biggie- the Architecture School idea came from some renaissance building plans.

mockbird

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:35:50 -0600

yes, UofH Hines School of Architecture - designed by Phillip Johnson

groovehouse

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:10:18 -0600

Thanks Nathan. I wasn't sure where this photo was taken.

nathanhoang

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:26:45 -0600

The University of Houston's (Coogs' House's) Architecture Building. Though, I'm not sure if it's meant to be a replica of the Parthenon.