096 OUTSIDE SPACES


Cultural Landscape Foundation in 2006, she declared, ‘My favourite project is when something gets done.’


Johnson’s projects included a lot of transforming derelict sites into striking civic parks: a nature reserve on the Mystic River, waterfront reclamation in Boston, the John F Kennedy Memorial Park in Cambridge, the Chinatown Park in Boston; she won a national competition to design a terraced landscape in honour of a former chief justice in a neglected area destined to become a car park, the John Marshall Park in Washington; she worked


Left John Marshall Park in Washington DC


Right Johnson, in front of the fountain at John F Kennedy Memorial Park in Cambridge, Massachusetts


with Buckminster Fuller at Expo 67 in Montreal, and did public housing projects. As far as she was concerned, it was all about the history and meaning of a place, contextualism – in the US and, later, overseas. Just some of those distinguished international projects were: the American University in Cairo, the US embassy in Tunis, the LG Research Park in Seoul, Shams Island Park in Abu Dhabi, plus projects in Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Morocco and Dubai. President Lyndon Johnson’s Model Cities Programme began a long tradition of the firm’s engagement of communities in the design process – North Common in Lowell, Massachusetts in the 1970s being one of the first results of that involvement. In tandem with its work on park and waterfront revitalisation projects, the company seems to have continuously expanded its footprint with design and planning on college and university campuses in the north-east of the US, undertaking landscape master planning, site design and restoration efforts at Wellesley College, Williams College, Harvard University and Boston University. For ten years, Johnson served as a City of Boston Civic Design Commissioner. Her studio took on the role of lead landscape architect for Boston’s Big Dig, a ten-year project for 16 full-time staff that, unsurprisingly, triggered significant growth for Carol R Johnson from 1985. Te Big Dig was the Central Artery/Tunnel Project that rerouted Interstate 93 – the main highway running through the heart of the city – into a tunnel, and included major road bridges and a linear park through several downtown neighbourhoods, including gardens, promenades, plazas, fountains, art and special


‘Johnson was a pioneer, not least because she was a woman. She always created enduring landscapes embraced by their communities.’


lighting, all bound up in a 50–50 public-private funding model run by the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, established as an independently incorporated non-profit organisation. Senator Ted Kennedy played an important role in establishing the park. However, the Big Dig was a cavalcade of problems, interference and compromise. Tere were obstacles and difficulties, setbacks and casualties. Not as a result of Johnson’s work, but when a project goes wrong, the dirt spreads as people attempt to shift the blame. It was the most expensive highway project in the US, over budget by 190%. It was also nine


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161