John M. Johansen - Early Life

Early Life

Johansen was born to two accomplished painters in New York in 1916. Growing up in an artful family, Johansen said 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 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. At the time of his death, he was married to Ati Gropius Johansen, noted art educator and daughter of Walter Gropius. They lived in Wellfleet, Massachusetts.