Back to the basics

Johnson draws from old-school skills to build career

Photos by Lawrence Silver

Bill Johnson Family: Divorced; four children; five grandchildren Hobbies: Acrylic painter of lake freighters, World War II ships, sailboats andlandscapes and a collector of World War II books “Those boys who fought in the Pacific and Europe truly are a generation of heroes,” he said. “The sacrifices they made were unbelievable.” Favorite places to visit: London Passing the torch: Johnson has been a sole proprietor since 1985. Current project: He’s restoring a barn into a three-car garage with a 1,500-square-foot, second-floor apartment. He’s also building 6,000-square-foot French colonial house with a five-car garage in Mequon.

Technology and innovation drive the architectural world, but for 75-year-old Bill Johnson the keys to success are traditional skills like listening to clients, communicating well with contractors and using practical building design.

Johnson takes pride in using a pencil for his drawings and said contractors still tap on his shoulder because he admits his mistakes.

“My dad always said, ‘Work with your contractors,’” Johnson said. “‘If they are your friends and they respect you, they will bring you work.’”

Johnson lasted more than 40 years in the architectural business by building relationships with contractors and clients.

The son of Elmer A. Johnson, a licensed architect and president of a 100-employee Milwaukee architectural company in the 1960s, Johnson said he believes it takes a trio of experts to hammer out plans for custom-designed commercial or residential projects.

The owner, architect and contractor must be on the same page, he said, whether they build a home, car dealership, restaurant, library, office, up-scale condominium, athletic facility or medical clinic.

Architects need to act as watchdogs for contractors and should avoid arrogance, Johnson pointed out.

“When mistakes occur, the contractor should meet with the architect and get it squared away,” Johnson said. “If my firm made a mistake on the drawings, I would admit it, correct it and move on. When the construction job is finished, you want everyone smiling.”

Johnson listed McMillan Memorial Library in Wisconsin Rapids as a cherished project in his portfolio.

The 40,000-square-foot library, which opened in 1970, includes a 250-seat theater, which is still an unusual feature today, said Andy Barnett, assistant library director.

The design collected a Wisconsin American Institute of Architects Design Award.

“It’s a remarkably innovative design,” Barnett said. “We still have people coming in from all over the state to look at the building as an example of what should be built even though it was built 40 years ago.”

Weissgerber’s Seven Seas Restaurant in Delafield on the shores of Lake Nagawicka is another highlight among the hundreds of projects Johnson completed, he said.

It was built in 1905 as a hotel for vacationers from Chicago and Milwaukee, and Jack Weissgerber hired Johnson in 2000 to design renovations for a major portion of the existing building.

Weissgerber said he still marvels at Johnson’s work.

“Bill was very efficient and uncomplicated,” Weissgerber said. “He did in five months what most people would take two years to do.”

As a boy, Johnson sat at the dining room table while his father “banged out” architectural sketches.

He said he aced mechanicaland architectural drawing classesduring his years at Whitefish Bay High School near Milwaukee.

“I always had a flair for drawing and creativity,” he said.

He spent a year each at a pair of Illinois colleges — Lincoln and Lake Forest — before spending two years at Washington University School of Architecture in St. Louis, but he never graduated.

Instead, he credits the four summers he worked as a construction laborer as the foundation in how to conceive sensible building design.

“Hands-on experience can’t be beat,” he said.

After four decades in the business, Johnson said he has no plans to retire.

“I’m one of the few guys almost 76 still pushing a pencil,” he said. “I still hand draw. Everyone seems to be happy with that.”

— Maggie Rossiter Peterman