"Why is it that people require more ornament, not less?" asks Philip Johnson, who was once a prime exponent of the "less is more" school of architecture. Now he sees the beginning of a new era and, at 71, apparently means to enter it full tilt. His recent design for the AT&T headquarters in Manhattan has been dubbed "the world's first Chippendale skyscraper." But criticism of the project didn't stop the American Institute of Architects from honoring Johnson by presenting him with its prestigious Gold Medal last week. Some past recipients: Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright. In his acceptance speech in Dallas, Johnson ordered up a special blueprint from on high. Said he: "God bless architecture."

Mr. Ambassador needed a trim, so Hairdresser Sebou diplomatically snipped the locks of Fereydoun Hoveyda, Iran's Permanent Representative to the United Nations. The clip job took place during a party Hoveyda tossed to inaugurate Sebou's newly expanded Manhattan salon. Why give a bash for a hairdresser? Because Sebou used to be personal hairdresser and makeup man for Iran's Empress Farah. Besides, Hoveyda, who is a painter and novelist and has lectured on literature and film at Columbia University, believes that hair-styling is an art. "Everybody is creative in some capacity. That applies to hairdressers," he says. In fact, Hoveyda occasionally expends some of his creative energy by cutting his own hair.

On the "tenth anniversary of everything," as it was described, Richie Havens and Arlo Guthrie wailed protest songs. Daniel Ellsberg, Daniel Berrigan, Eugene McCarthy and Cesar Chavez spoke out against nuclear warfare. This blast from the past drew 10,000 people to the Hollywood Bowl for "Survival Sunday--a Festival for a Future," sponsored by 60 religious and political groups. Its aim? To support the United Nations' first special session on disarmament, which opened last week. Ellsberg said the meeting's goal was "to save the earth and everything that lives on it." Jesuit Priest Berrigan was not sanguine about that. To halt nuclear proliferation would take a miracle, he said, adding that "they're in short supply."

The aristocratic Miss Georgina of Upstairs, Downstairs is loosening up. Lesley-Anne Down graduated to playing a Soviet seductress in The Pink Panther Strikes Again and a bed-hopping socialite in the film version of Harold Robbins' The Betsy. For her next act, in a British television special, Down backs into a role as Phyllis Dixey, the legendary English stripper. What is it like to play an ecdysiast, after Miss Georgina? The roles, says Down, have "no comparison."

On the Record

Edward Albee, playwright (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), on his arrangement with Hollywood: "They commission me to write screenplays. They pay me handsomely, and then they don't film them. It's invisible work."

Henry Maier, mayor of Milwaukee: "When are we going to awaken to the plight of our cities? When we begin airlifting its victims to the suburbs?"

Midge Costanza, presidential assistant, who has been relieved of some of her duties, on the move of her office to the White House basement: "I like to call it the ground floor."

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