American architect Philip Johnson designed some of the most iconic buildings of the 20th century. Johnson, who died in 2005, has long been hailed as one of the greats. But there's one fact about the man that many people in the architecture community don't like to talk about: Johnson was a fascist who openly supported Adolf Hitler and the Nazis for nearly a decade.P

Today is the 50th anniversary of the 1964 New York World's Fair opening, so special attention is being paid to one of Johnson's most beloved buildings: the New York State Pavilion in Flushing Meadows. It's open today for the first time in nearly 27 years, and there's a line around the block just to get in to see the crumbling structure.

The debate over whether to restore the site rages on. But one thing almost never mentioned when discussing this structure or his architecture in general is that Philip Johnson was a terrible, hateful human being. And he wasn't just some casual Nazi sympathizer whispering, "maybe Hitler has some good ideas" in shadowy bars, either. He actively campaigned for Nazi causes in the U.S. and around the world.P

Johnson visited Germany in the 1930s at the invitation of the government's Propaganda Ministry. He wrote numerous articles for far right publications. He started a fascist organization called the Gray Shirts in the United States. He was with the Nazis when they invaded Poland and wrote about how it wasn't as bad as the American press was making it out to be. He was an ardent supporter of the notoriously anti-semitic Father Coughlin. And he was so in the tank for the Nazis that the FBI even suspected him of being a spy....Continue Reading

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