BSLA Fieldbook BSLA 2015 Spring Fieldbook | Page 46
BSLA
/ MEMBER
CAROL JOHNSON, FASLA
ALL AROUND THE WORLD
T
o introduce my career in landscape
architecture I probably should begin with my
childhood. My mother was a school teacher and
my father a lawyer. I was born and raised in New
Jersey which made it easy for my mother to take
my brother and me to the Olmsted Parks and
museums in New York City. We also vacationed
on the beautiful island in Massachusetts, Martha’s
Vineyard, and in the green mountains of Vermont.
My mother and father were serious gardeners and
I helped them with weeding and composting.
During World War II my mother took me to a rally
in Madison Square Garden in support of the brave
Chinese who were being invaded by the Japanese.
After several local politicians, Madame Chiang
Kai-Shek spoke. She was so intelligent and well
spoken that I decided I wanted to go to her College
in Massachusetts, Wellesley. I applied and was
accepted and had four years on the wonderfully
beautiful Wellesley campus.
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BSLA
After that I worked in a plant nursery, New
England Nursery, I loved working there rooting plants, digging them, pruning them, and
selling them to gardeners. Some of my college
classmates had friends who were studying at
the Harvard Graduate School of Design. They
came out to the nursery and
encouraged me to apply to
the landscape architecture
department at Harvard, which
I did and was accepted.
Studying at Harvard was
a great experience. The
professors all encouraged me
and told me I was doing good
work which made me try even
harder. When I got my degree
in landscape architecture the
economy was in recession.
I couldn’t find a job in a
landscape architecture firm
but I did get one in a firm of
engineers. I worked there for a
year on schools, roads and civic
centers. Then the Gropius firm,
The Architects Collaborative,
had an opening for a landscape architect and I
took it. I worked there for a year on school and
urban development.
After a year working at TAC, I was getting
landscape projects on my own from architects
who had been classmates or who had worked
with me. I left and founded my own firm.
Women were not designing major projects then
but, because I had worked at TAC, architects
who needed a landscape architect already knew
me. For the first five years I worked from my
apartment on projects for architects, private
gardens, housing developments and schools.