JOHNSON, Philip Carter (1913-1976) maintained a practise in London, Ont. Born in Regina, Saskatchewan on 10 May 1913 he graduated from the School of Architecture at the University of Michigan in Detroit in 1942 and was employed for three years by C. Howard Crane. He moved to London, Ont. in 1945 and worked as an assistant to John M. Watt before launching his own career in which he specialised in ecclesiastical buildings. In 1950 he designed the Pentecostal Tabernacle, Grand Avenue, LONDON, ONT. (C.R., lxiii, Sept. 1950, 128) and the following year prepared a decidedly modernist scheme for Knox Presbyterian Church, GODERICH, ONT. for which he received a silver Massey Medal (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxx, Jan. 1953, 18-9, illus.). Inspired by classical precedent he designed a small but elegant chapel at the Maitland Cemetery, GODERICH, ONT., in 1955 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxxiii, Dec. 1956, 468, illus.). In 1958 Johnson was one of nearly 100 Canadian entrants who submitted a design in the international competition for the new Toronto City Hall. The modernist design submitted by him was not among the finalists, but his proposal has recently been published in G.T. Kapelos, Competing Modernisms: Toronto's New City Hall and Square, 2015, 65, illus. The competition was won by Viljo Revell from Finland. His last major commission appears to be that for the City Hall and the Centennial Hall, LONDON, ONT.,erected after 1965. He died in Phoenix, Arizona on 4 March 1976 (obituary in the Free Press [London], 5 March 1976, 17)
SANDWICH WEST, ONT., Paulin Memorial Presbyterian Church Hall, Norfolk Street, 1954-55 (Windsor Daily Star, 6 Nov. 1954, 20, illus. and descrip., inf. Robert Hamilton)