John M. Johansen

John M. Johansen, a celebrated Modernist architect and the last surviving member of the Harvard Five, a group that made New Canaan, Conn., a hotbed of architectural experimentation in the 1950s and ’60s, died on Friday in Brewster, Mass. He was 96.

The cause was heart failure, said his son, Christen.

Mr. Johansen also designed a number of large public buildings, among them, in the 1960s, the Goddard Library at Clark University in Worcester, Mass.; the Clowes Memorial Hall at Butler University in Indianapolis (with Evans Woollen); the Museum of Art, Science and Industry, now the Discovery Museum and Planetarium, in Bridgeport, Conn.; and the Orlando Public Library in Florida.

As an aspiring architect, he assembled impeccable Modernist credentials, studying under Walter Gropius, the founder of Germany’s Bauhaus school, at Harvard (where he was a member of the varsity track team and captain of the soccer team), then working for Breuer (who designed the Whitney Museum of American Art building in Manhattan) and for the blue-chip firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. He later held teaching posts at the Pratt Institute in New York and Yale. In 1948 Mr. Johansen opened his own office in New Canaan, joining the other Modernists in what came to be seen as a five-man architectural movement.

Mr. Johansen is survived by his wife, Ati Gropius, the daughter of his Harvard mentor. Besides his son, Christen, he is also survived by a daughter, Deborah Harris, both from his first marriage; a stepdaughter, Erika Markou; three grandchildren; two step-grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.