Born in Chicago, Johnson (1909-1999) was was responsible for many of St. Petersburg's modern masterpieces including the Pinellas County Judicial Center (one of the city's only examples of the Brutalist architectural style), the St. Pete Beach Library, the Snell Isle Shopping Center, North Shore Pool and the Sebring Building. He also designed about a dozen schools, including Gibbs High and Azalea Middle School in St. Petersburg, Oak Grove Middle School in Clearwater and Oakhurst Elementary in Largo.
Johnson received his education at Crane College, Armour Institute of Technology and Atelier Nelson. During the Second World War, Johnson was the director of a division of Douglas Aircraft, a major supplier of war materiel. In 1952, he came to St. Petersburg and joined George Ely as a land developer, and it is with Ely that Johnson developed his locally-famous "Bird Cage" homes along Pinellas Point Drive and 69th Avenue South. The homes were built with the main living areas on the second floor and the bedroom and bathroom on the ground floor. The porches on both floors were tied together with floor-to-ceiling screens to allow outdoor living free of insects. Johnson oriented the homes to the southeast to catch the sun in the winter and to take advantage of cross ventilation which was aided by jalousie windows. Bedrooms also had wooden jalousies to allow ventilation as did closet doors.