Pioneering landscape architect dies

Pioneering landscape architect Carol Johnson has died at her home in Maine, aged 91. Renown for her large-scale public projects Johnson founded one of the first female owned practices in the United States - Carol R. Johnson & Associates. Today the practice continues but under the name IBI Placemaking.

Johnson retired from the business just four years ago, when principal Harry Fuller remarked: “As landscape architects, she has taught us that simplicity is the hallmark of good design; God is always in the details; egos have a habit of getting in the way of sound design and that ‘good enough’ is not an acceptable state of affairs!!”

Carol Johnson at John F Kennedy Park in Cambridge, Mass. Her firm designed the park. Photo courtesy of The Cultural Landscape Foundation.

In her New York Times obituary another principal at her firm, Jennifer Jones, said: “Contextualism was the ruling principle behind much of Carol’s work.

“She was respectful of the history of a place and the meaning of a place. 

“Many designs were about healing the land. When she was working on public housing, she listened to what the tenants wanted, not just the bureaucrats. While historically women landscape architects had worked primarily on residential and park projects in small offices, or as sole practitioners, she really pushed open the door for acceptance of a larger, woman-owned firm doing prestigious and complex projects in the public, institutional and corporate realm.”

Johnson has been recognised by the Cultural Landscape Foundation in America and you can read its obituary of her here.