Cocktail Table

The Four Seasons Grill Room was a celebrated icon of American modernism from its opening in 1959 until its closing in 2016. Philip Johnson orchestrated the design in collaboration with several of the most important design luminaries of the period: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, William Pahlmann, and Garth and Ada Louise Huxtable. With luxury finishes including Pahlmann’s signature beaded metal curtains, French walnut panels, and smoked cracked glass room dividers, alongside iconic works by Pablo Picasso, James Rosenquist (MMA 1995.436), and Richard Lippold, the restaurant synthesized a minimalist aesthetic with mid-century bonvivant opulence. In this room, some of the most important heads of business, real estate, and architecture met daily at Philip Johnson’s reserved lunch table, where the famed American curator and architect arbitrated career-making deals between clients and a veritable who’s who of the architecture world.