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My Story About Watching Famed Architect, Philip Johnson in Action

Feb 1, 2010 industry stories

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Craig Noble

While in Graduate School at Columbia University in New York City, I did an internship with a Condo Sales & Marketing Firm that had a few big-time real estate developer clients.  During the Winter Semester of 1996, the internship allowed me the opportunity to tag-along with my boss and sit-in on many of the early planning and design meetings for huge projects that are now part of the New York City skyline.  One of my boss’s consulting projects was Trump International Hotel & Tower New York – a huge renovation of the former Gulf+Western Office Building on Columbus Circle.  Donald Trump had recently purchased the building with the intent to renovate it into a hotel/condo property.  With the help of famed architect Philip Johnson, when all was said and done, The Trump Organization succeeded in creating another jewel in its portfolio of very impressive properties.  However, when I hear someone mention Trump International New York or see a picture of this awesome building with the shimmering steel globe at the base, I think of the surreal project meeting I attended with Philip Johnson.

On a cold Manhattan morning, as my boss and I made our way up 5^th Avenue, walking from his office to Trump Tower, I had no idea I was about to be in the same room with one of the most well-known and respected architects of all time.  I had been to Trump’s offices before for similar meetings about this project, so I didn’t think too much about the meeting.  Donald Trump had attended one of the past meetings (yes, it was cool to sit across from him and not worry about him firing me!), but he usually did not attend.  The folks that did attend were representatives from the project’s interior designer, interior architect, construction company and a few of Trump’s high level staff.  The tone was always high-energy with the purpose of solving space planning matters such as:  reconfiguring an apartment floorplan because someone discovered that the toilet would be visible from the living area when the bathroom door is open (I learned that these kinds of details are meaningful to buyers of apartments that sell for $1,000+/sf.). 

Although I expected another productive but typical meeting that morning, I did a double-take as I walked in the conference room and noticed a tiny bald man wearing fat black-rimmed glasses.  I took a seat along the perimeter of the room and said to myself, ‘That’s Philip Johnson!’  I immediately thought of Crystal Cathedral and Glass House.  As folks were milling around before the meeting, shaking hands and exchanging hellos, the surreal began to set in.   I noticed Philip Johnson sitting very close and talking privately with someone who appeared to be his assistant – a fairly pretty lady in her early 40s.  They had found their place at the conference table, and were visiting with each other as if no one else in the room mattered.  Even after the meeting started, the two continued their own quiet conversation.  And a number of times during the room’s open discussion and enthusiastic problem solving, Philip Johnson would just start audibly mumbling – which prompted everyone to stop talking so they could try to make out what he was saying.  When it was clear by the silence in the room that none of us understood, his assistant would translate what he said.  What made the situation even more odd was the fact that no matter what she said, no one asked a clarifying question; rather, everyone just tried to decipher and apply her translation.   This happened again and again throughout the meeting.  It was bazaar watching and listening as ideas effervesced from Philip Johnson, and we all tried to decipher his bubbles floating around the room.  Everyone talked with each other – but never once did anyone question Philip Johnson directly.  It was as if it was plainly understood… questioning him would have just been wrong. 

To this day, I am grateful for that internship because it allowed me to have first-hand interactions with so many world-class real estate development people at a very young age.  I also continue to be fascinated wondering how much of the aesthetic brilliance of buildings like Trump International New York is due to the development team’s translation of the genius architect’s bazaar behavior.

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