Architecture: The Maverick Designer

"A taste for simplicity," wrote Eugene Delacroix, as undeceived a painter as ever lived, "cannot endure for long." That could be Philip Johnson's motto. The septuagenenan senior partner in the firm of Johnson-Burgee is a lean immaculately turned out dandy with a merrily cackling laugh, a tongue like a sjambok and a power over taste that no other architect can equal. "Old age," he says, "is the most important single thing to have. You just thumb your nose at the world and go about your business. We take about 10% of the work...

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