Back to the article: The Work of William Templeton Johnson
Page 166. William Templeton Johnson
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Page 168. Clara Sturges Johnson
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Page 169. This early photograph of Francis Parker School shows the sliding doors that lead to the outside.
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Page 169. The Spanish Mission style Johnson used for the school is evident here in the columns and tile roof. Some influence of the waning Arts and Crafts movement is also evident in the door and the wooden trellis on top of the columns.
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Page 170. This view looking west along the Prado in Balboa Park captures the fantasy element of the 1915 Exposition. The Spanish-style architecture exerted an enormous influence on Southern California design until Worl War II.
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Page 171. The tower at The Bishop’s School shows the powerful influence of Spanish-style design. Build in the early 1930s, the well-proportioned tower with its tile-roofed chapel sits somewhat uneasily between two of architect Irving Gill’s masterful modernist buildings. [Photo 5018]
Page 172. The Fine Arts Gallery, finished in 1927, was a major permanent addition to Balboa Park. This Renaissance-style bilding is considered by many to be one of Johnson’s greatest works.
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Page 172.The ornate cornice at the top of the Fine Arts Gallery was not characteristic of Johnson’s work. Around the portico the architect’s lavish detailing pays homage to Spanish Baroque painters and Italian Renaissance sculptors.
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Page 172. Johnson’s first public commission was the La Jolla Athanaeum in 1921. It showed the growing influence of the romantic Spanish design in his work. Courtesy Athenaeum Music and Arts Library.
Page 173. A 1932 rendering by Johnson showed his conception for the Museum of Natural History in Balboa Park.
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Page 173. This photograph of the Museum of Natural History taken in 1933 confirms that Johnson’s plans were fully realized.
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Page 174. The San Diego Trust and Savings Building at Sixth and Broadway, completed in 1928, was a design departure for Johnson. The bulding had Sapanish arches and balconies but more nearly resembled the solid skyscrapers of a generation earlier in New York and Chicago. [Photo 2119]
Page 175. Johnson’s floor plan for the U.S. Consular Building at the Iberian-American Exposition of 1929 in Seville, Spain, featured a typically Spanish open patio in the center.
Page 176. The solid symmetry of the U.S. Consular Building at the Iberian-American Exposition in Seville, Spain, in 1929 is evident in this picture. [Photo 99-19882-1]
Page 176. In his Spanish exposition building, Johnson also incorportated some fanciful and heavily adorned features that echoed his earlier work on the Fine Arts Gallery. [Photo 99-19882-2]
Page 177. One year after the San Diego Trust & Savings building, Johnson designed the Lion Clothing Company building across Broadway. Only half as tall as the Trust & Savings, it was less imposing and more Spanish in design.
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Page 177. Painter Ivan Messenger’s ca. 1935 painting of the Junipero Serra Museum provided a modernist view of the landmark.
Page 179. Johnson’s elevation drawings of the Serra Museum’s tower showed both the north and south views.
Page 179. William Templeton Johnson’s drawings for the Serra Museum were all done on linen. The elevation of the west side of the building provided George Marston with a beautiful graphic rendering of how the musem would look.
Page 180-181. This 1927 sketch from John Nolen’s office laid out a fantasy landscape for Presidio Park.
Page 182. John Nolen’s 1925 “Preliminary Plan of Presidio Hill Park.” In the upper center section it already shows a long arcade-type building on the northern crest of the hill.
Page 182. This 1939 drawing by Ramos Martinez, “Fray Junipero Serra,” depicts a modern day skepticism about the Spanish conquest of Native Americans. [Serra 39.16]
Page 183. Dedication day, July 16, 1929, for the Serra Musem. A solemn high Catholic mass was celebrated at the morning ceremonies.
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Page 184. Johnson strove for a design that reflected the plain and sturdy architecture of the Spanish missions. Modern design elements, however, give the building a firm footing in both the 18th and 20th centuries.
[Photo 99-19884]
