Carol R. Johnson Oral History

1. Childhood

Anecdotes and images from Johnson’s childhood give insight into her later career as a landscape architect.

2. College and Travel

Johnson credits her Wellesley experience and the “wonderful things” she saw on her bicycle trip in Europe with instilling an appreciation of landscape.

3. The Harvard Connection

While working at a nursery, Johnson’s chance meeting with students from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design led to her enrolling in the program.

4. A Woman at Harvard

After a year of being the only woman student in the Graduate School of Design’s landscape program, several others joined Johnson in the program.

5. The Architects Collaborative Years

After graduation, Johnson went to work at The Architects Collaborative (TAC), a firm she describes as “pretty nifty for women.”

6. Her Own Firm

Several early projects lead to Johnson working on the American Exposition of 1967, an assignment she describes in detail.

7. Energy Projects

Johnson’s description of two of her projects highlights challenges she found in designing landscapes for energy projects.

8. The Mount Auburn Street Office

Johnson shares recollections of hiring an interesting group of “less than perfectly trained architects” during the early years of her firm.

9. Travel to Kenya

Like her other trips, Johnson’s trip to Kenya helped her appreciate the physical landscape and ways people adapt and fit into it.

10. The Professional Licensing Exam

Johnson’s recollection of taking the exam for landscape architects in New York includes an amusing anecdote about a fellow participant.

11. Women and the Profession

Initially one of only a few women in the profession, Johnson recounts experiences with the American Society of Landscape Architects.

1. Landscape Architecture

Learn what Johnson loves about the profession and her “opportunities for expression in three-dimensions.”

2. Nature and Culture

Since her childhood, Johnson has been fascinated with the connection between environment and culture.

3. Favorite Projects

Johnson is particularly fond of projects in which “I dream, I think, it happens.” These projects realize a connection with community that is central to her work.

4. Design Decisions

Project examples illustrate Johnson’s description of what she considers in making decisions.

5. Plant Material

Johnson’s upbringing, work experience, studies, and love of her own garden contribute to her hands-on use of plant material in her designs.

6. Landscape Architecture in the Future

Learn why Johnson thinks there will be “tremendous opportunity” for landscape architects, both men and women.

7. Her Muses

After citing some influential individuals, Johnson concludes that she soaked up things wherever she could find them.

1. Kennedy Park: Favorite Landscapes

Connections to her personal life make Kennedy Park, Cambridge, Massachusetts, one of Johnson’s favorite landscapes.

2. Kennedy Park: Beech Trees

Walking through Kennedy Park, Johnson stops to celebrate a “wonderful tree” and relates the reasons she wanted to plant beech trees.

3. Kennedy Park: Connecting Spaces

Johnson explains how she intended Kennedy Park to function in relation to its surrounds.

4. Lechmere Canal Park

As she walks around Lechmere Canal Park, East Cambridge, Massachusetts, Johnson explains what her design added to the canal and basin.

5. Mystic: A Changed River

Johnson’s design has transformed the formerly polluted sites along the Mystic River from Medford to Everett, Massachusetts, into places of recreation.

6. Mystic: A Definition of Success

Johnson credits the Mystic Reservation with being “not only a horticultural success, but also a social and public use success.”

7. Old Harbor Park

Johnson’s Boston design created a linear park between the water and a housing development built on what had been a drug dealer’s heaven.

8. Old Harbor Park: A Community’s Role

Against views of Harbor Point, South Boston, Massachusetts, Johnson describes how “we’re all together on this.”

9. Old Harbor Park: Design

Johnson explains how the community and paintings of Fitz Hugh Lane helped her come up with her design for Harbor Point.

10. Old Harbor Park: Fishing as a Muse

As she walks along the water’s edge of Boston Harbor, Johnson points out references to fishing in her design.