She founded Carol R. Johnson Associates, a landscape architecture firm in Boston, and designed large-scale projects throughout the United States.
As a child she inherited her brother's small time newspaper, The Boulevard Bugle, and increased its readership twenty-fold, marking her first foray into business.
[5] Between 1959 and 1970, Johnson operated her practice initially out of her apartment in Cambridge and then out of a small office on Mount Auburn Street in Harvard Square.
She also focused on the social purpose of design and was part of President Johnson's Model Cities Program while working on North Common in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1972.
[3] For the Mystic River Reservation in Medford and Somerville, MA, she transformed a toxic landfill into a beautiful riverside park.
It was an early example of Johnson's firm's ability to meld its interest in history (in this case Charles Elliot's approach to scenic and natural resource values) with state-of-the-art environmental sciences.
[6] Between 2000 and 2011 CRJA did a majority of their work on projects in the Middle East which motivated them to establish a temporary studio in Abu Dhabi from 2007 to 2011.
[1] More information about Carol R. Johnson can be found in the book "Women of Steel and Stone: 22 Inspirational Architects, Engineers, and Landscape Designers" [12]