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Chris Johnson (Australian architect)
Christopher Richard Johnson, LFRAIA, (born 24 June 1945) is a Sydney based Australian architect and former New South Wales Government Architect from 1995—2005.

Early life
Chris Johnson was born 24 June 1945 in Chiddingstone, Kent, England near the end of World War II. His father Peter Johnson was a RAAF pilot who was shot down in France on 11 April 1944, less than three weeks after marrying his mother Jane Meade–Waldo. His father survived almost five months before returning to the United Kingdom on 4 September 1944.

After the war the family returned to Sydney, Australia in 1946, settling on the North Shore where Chris attended Artarmon Public School and later Shore School.

Early Architecture career
Sydney University, Architecture Faculty. Graduated 1968. Worked at McConnel Smith and Johnson 1969 then travelled to India in 1970. Drove overland from Bombay to London and worked at York Rosenberg and Mardell on large projects the after travel to Scandinavia, Russia, Italy and Africa joined Shankland Cox architects to work on housing projects and a nursery school at Letchworth.

Government Architects Office
In early 1974 Johnson returned to Sydney to work in the Schools Section of the NSW Government Architects Branch. Over the next decade he designed 21 school projects, mostly new schools, including Colo High School (RAIA Merit Award 1981) and Hampden Park Public School (RAIA Merit Award 1980, RAIA Sulman Medal 1981). (see Jennifer Taylor Australian Architecture since 1960, RAIA, 1990, p159-160)

He was President of RAIA NSW Chapter 1982–1984 and made a Life Fellow of the RAIA in 1985. Johnson continued working at the NSW Government Architects Branch and in 1995 he was made NSW Government Architect where he influenced the design of residential flats with NSW Premier Bob Carr. He also had a significant role in the redevelopment of Walsh Bay and the Sydney Olympic Park and developed an exhibition of futuristic homes.

NSW Government Architect
As NSW Government Architect he oversaw the design of 300 schools, 30 hospitals and 50 TAFE colleges and a number of these won accolades from the Royal Australian Institute of Architects. (see article in AFR, 1 July 2005, Builder says, we can fix it, by Tina Perinotto) and (Architecture Bulletin, September/October 2005, p22/23, A decade as NSW Government Architect.

In 2005 Johnson retired as NSW Government Architect and became Executive Director of Urban Renewal in the NSW Government Department of Infrastructure Planning and Natural Resources. (see AFR article by Tina Perrinoto). In this role he developed policies for complying development including the NSW Housing Code and planning documents for six regional cities. He was also the Director of the 2008 Metropolis Congress held in Sydney October 2008 and was editor of five books on urban planning.

In 2009 he set up a private practice until 2011 when he became CEO of Urban Taskforce Australia where he represented the development industry through publications and events. After eight years in this role he left to be a part time consultant in 2019.

Academia
Chris Johnson has a Bachelor of Architecture, University of Sydney, 1967: Master of the Built Environment, University of Technology Sydney, 1993; Master of Architecture in History and Theory, University of NSW, 1997; Master of Cultural Heritage, Deakin University, 2002. He has been a visiting professor at three Sydney Universities and was appointed a Resident Professor in 2023 at the Asian School of Architecture, Design and Innovation, Cochin, Kerala, India.

Recognition
He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2012 for 'services to to architecture in the field of urban design and the development of major public projects, to policy implementation and reform, and to professional organisations.' In 2023 he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for "distinguished service to urban design and architecture, to planning reform and compliance, and to the community."