Hasta La Ideas

Usually more heavily weighted toward the east, we have the good fortune today of having Philip Johnson news from both coasts. First, in Los Angeles, the legendary architect’s Crystal Cathedral, which he co-designed with John Burgee, has been sold to the Catholic Church. The LA Times reports that the televangelist-heavy ministries who had originally commissioned the building and had used it for the past 30 years (for things like the “Hour of Power” program) have gone bankrupt and were forced to give it up. On the other side of the country, if you’d like to see Johnson as an apparition, on Friday, December 2nd, starting at 7pm, the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects will be hosting a reading of a new architecture-and-Johnson-related play by Bob Morris (though not the same one who has sculptures at Johnson’s New Canaan masterpiece), entitled “Glass House.” Here’s a description:

Anthony is an architect who idolizes mid-century modern design. When he and his wife, Abby, move into a glass house in the suburbs, Anthony’s obsession with order surfaces as his persona begins to shatter. The play features giants of design who comment on how style, substance and organization affect our daily lives. The great architect (and Nazi sympathizer) Philip Johnson makes a special ghostly appearance.

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