Philip L. Goodwin

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Philip Lippincott Goodwin (March 14, 1885 – February 12, 1958) was an American architect best known for co-designing the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. He served on MoMA’s board, led its Architecture Department, and helped shape the museum’s early direction.

Goodwin was born in New York City. His father, James Junius Goodwin, was a banker, and his mother was Josephine Sarah Lippincott. He studied at Yale University, graduating in 1907, then attended the Columbia University School of Architecture (1909–1912) and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris (1914–1915). After returning to the United States, he worked for Delano & Aldrich (1914–1916) before starting his own firms and eventually becoming an independent architect by 1921. He retired in 1953.

In 1939, Goodwin, with fellow architect Edward Durell Stone, designed the Museum of Modern Art. The building later expanded under Philip Johnson. At MoMA, he was vice-chairman of the Board, chairman and chief supporter of the Architecture Department, and led the Exhibitions Committee and the Committee on the Museum Collections. He spent two months in Brazil with G. E. Kidder Smith to study the project.

One of Goodwin’s notable projects is the Noble Judah Estate, built from 1925 to 1928. It features French Renaissance Revival design with steep roofs, decorative brickwork, and half-timbering, plus landscape inspired by traditional French gardens and a small Korean boxwood garden. The estate was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.

Goodwin was active in professional groups. He was a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (elected 1935) and chaired the AIA Committee on Foreign Relations (1942–). He belonged to the Architectural League of New York and was a Trustee of the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design. He served as a 1st Lieutenant in the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I and helped in negotiations for the peace in Hungary in 1919.

He owned a large collection of sculptures, paintings, and watercolors, which was shared among Yale University Art Gallery, the Wadsworth Atheneum, and the Museum of Modern Art after his death. His nephew was playwright David Hare. In 1939, he placed third in a competition to design a new Smithsonian Institution art museum. Yale invited him to design its art museum in 1950, but he declined in 1951 due to wartime shortages; the project then went to Louis Kahn. Goodwin died in New York City on February 12, 1958.