A Forgotten Philip Johnson Home Gets a New Lease on Life

Joanna Rothkopf
·1 min read

For friends Jiminie Ha and Jeremy Parker, renovating and restoring a forgotten home by the controversial architect was a complicated labor of love.

When Jiminie Ha, the senior director of graphic design at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and artist Jeremy Parker stumbled on a real estate listing for a house in Newburgh, New York, it cited, almost as an afterthought, that the property had been designed by controversial giant of 20th-century architecture Philip Johnson.

When Jeremy Parker found a listing for a 1949 Philip Johnson–designed house in upstate New York, it was painted a pastel blue. Thanks to original plans found in Columbia University’s Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Parker and his friend Jiminie Ha were able to restore the home down to its cypress wood exterior.
When Jeremy Parker found a listing for a 1949 Philip Johnson–designed house in upstate New York, it was painted a pastel blue. Thanks to original plans found in Columbia University’s Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Parker and his friend Jiminie Ha were able to restore the home down to its cypress wood exterior.

The home no longer resembled Johnson’s initial design of two stacked boxes—a smaller brick box with a larger cypress-clad box perched atop it, jutting out over a ground-floor patio and grassy slope overlooking the Hudson River.

Recent owners renovated and had all but forsaken Johnson’s original vision. The exterior wood paneling had been extended to reach the ground and obscure the brickwork on the first floor, and a porch had been added to the second-floor dining room. "They brought the exterior all the way to the ground," explains Jeremy. "So you lose that first story kind of floating above the second story. And it was also painted—as I joke with Jiminie—a gender-reveal blue.

Nevertheless, "his ghost was haunting this place," says Jiminie.

A line of doors beneath the windows reveals Johnson’s original ventilation system. Slats open to the exterior and allow the breeze to circulate throughout the home. From the outside, they underscore the large windows and, according to Jiminie, they keep the house a perfect temperature.
A line of doors beneath the windows reveals Johnson’s original ventilation system. Slats open to the exterior and allow the breeze to circulate throughout the home. From the outside, they underscore the large windows and, according to Jiminie, they keep the house a perfect temperature.

See the full story on Dwell.com: A Forgotten Philip Johnson Home Gets a New Lease on Life
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