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John Maclane Johansen received his architecture degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1942 where he studied under Walter Gropius. He worked under Marcel Breuer and at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill before opening his own private office in New Canaan, Connecticut, where he became known as one of the Harvard Five. He later formed a partnership with Ashok Bhavnani. Major projects include the Oklahoma (Mummers) Theater in Oklahoma City; the Goddard Library at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts; the Charles Center Theater Building (Mechanic Theater) in Baltimore, the United States Embassy in Dublin, Ireland, and the Island House and Rivercross apartments on Roosevelt Island, which he completed with Bhavnani. Johansen also designed numerous private residences in Connecticut and New York, and a series of conceptual projects such as the Leapfrog City project and the "Moon Module" house. The collection largely documents Johansen's professional career, and includes original and reprographic architectural drawings, photographs, negatives, professional papers, publications, reference files, and one scale model.

The material spans the years 1948 to 1958 and documents Paton Price's relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright through the course of planning the New Theater to be located in Hartford, CT. The collection consists of letters, telegrams, publicity material, photographs, and a perspective view of the Theater signed by Wright.