johnson was born in cleveland ohio on july   the son of a cleveland lawyer homer h johnson he was descended from the jansen family of new amsterdam and included among his ancestors the huguenot jacques cortelyou who laid out the first town plan of new amsterdam for peter stuyvesant he attended the hackley school in tarrytown new york and then studied as an undergraduate at harvard university where he focused on learning greek philology history and philosophy particularly the work of the pre-socratic philosophers upon completing his studies in  he made a series of trips to europe visiting the landmarks of classical and gothic architecture and joined henry-russell hitchcock a prominent architectural historian who was introducing americans to the work of le corbusier walter gropius and other modernists in  he met german architect ludwig mies van der rohe who was at the time designing the german pavilion for the  barcelona international exposition the meeting formed the basis for a lifelong relationship of both collaboration and competition