John M. Johansen

John Johansen - (1916-to present). An architect, and member of the Harvard Five, Johansen took an active role in the modern movement.

Early life

John Johansen was born to two accomplished painters in New York during 1916. Growing up in an artful family Johansen says that his childhood was filled with spaces and enclosures and his childhood fantasies are present in many the designs he created during his adult years. He went to Harvard University and was taught the fundamentals of modern architecture by Walter Gropius, the founder of Bauhaus. In 1939, he graduated the Harvard Graduate School of Design with a Masters in Architecture. After World War II, Harvard graduates were highly sought after, and like many of his fellow colleagues, was offered a job right on the spot. He proceeded to follow his career path starting out as a draftsman for Marcel Breuer. He then became a researcher for the National Housing Agency in Washington D.C., and later joined the architect firm Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill in New York. In 1948, Johansen settled down and established his own practice in New Canaan, Connecticut to accompany four of his other colleagues, Marcel Breuer, Philip Johnson, Landis Gores, and Eliot Noyes. From 1955 to 1960, he was the adjunct professor at Yale School of Architecture, which had happened to become a vigorous center for modernism.

Career

Johansen’s designs stressed function over form and focused on social, urban, and anthropological conditions, and strived to avoid creating overpowering mega-structures. He started out exploring the “box,” the single style to accompany the modern movement. Not only was the box economical, it was also easy to build, a stabilizer organizationally and aesthetically coherent. This investigation into such a structure led to the creation of Johansen House #1 in 1950, which was included in the Museum of Modern Art exhibit “Built in the U.S.A.” In 1955, his second box was built, this time a glass box; the Mc Niff House. In some of his houses, Johansen utilized Palladian elements such as the grotto, the classic cross plan, and the Palladian prototype of the central pavilion linked by low bridges to flanking pavilions. The Palladian prototype is most noticeably present in Villa Ponte, or the Warner House, built in 1957 in New Canaan, CT.

Works

Some other noteworthy houses include the Bridge House (1957); the Goddard Library at Clark University (1969); the Telephone Pole House (1968) made from 104 40 foot poles that brace the house into the side of a steep ravine; The Labyrinth House (1966) that has no windows but instead glass enclosures between one wall and another; and the Plastic Tent House (1975) was made of translucent plastic. He was also known for his modern commercial buildings. The Morris Mechanical Theater (1967) is characterized as “a highly sculptural centerpiece among more reserved office buildings.” It was the beginning of a series of buildings that stressed and embraced the functional parts of the buildings, allowing them to emerge, while being increasingly identified and emphasized. The Goddard Library is one of Johansen’s experiments once again. He said that while creating this structure, “I moved toward a more articulated design by emphasizing the distinction between the ponderous structural frame and other elements that appear to be less firmly attached conceivably detachable or interchangeable parts.”

The Mechanic Theater is currently under threat. After much public debate and appeal the "gutted" theater is being considered for landmark status by the Baltimore planning commission. The current building owners, Benjamin and Melvin Greenwald, proposed to replace the theater with a condominium and retail center.

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