Structural engineer helped design Los Angeles landmarks
Roy G. Johnston, a structural engineer and seismic expert whose firm, Brandow & Johnston Associates, helped design such landmarks as the Los Angeles Sports Arena, the Los Angeles Convention Center, the Transamerica Tower and much of the USC campus, died of natural causes March 13 at his home in Santa Barbara. He was 94.
Johnston and his partner, the late George E. Brandow, founded their structural and civil engineering firm in 1945. Over the next several decades, they engineered more than 20,000 projects in Southern California, including high-rise towers, hospitals, airports, schools and industrial buildings.
One of Johnston and Brandow’s first major projects was the Los Angeles County Courthouse downtown. Others included the first all-welded structural steel building in Los Angeles and the first building to exceed a 12-story height limit in the 1950s.
Johnston and Brandow also helped design the Getty Museum in Malibu; the Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport; the UC Irvine and Pepperdine University campuses; and the Los Angeles Central Library renovation and expansion.
Johnston was born in Chicago on Jan. 7, 1914. He earned a scholarship to USC, where he met Brandow. He received a bachelor’s degree in 1935.
He headed many professional organizations, including the Structural Engineers Assn. of Southern California and the Structural Engineers Assn. of California. He also was a director of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute from 1979 to 1981 and a member of the Building Seismic Safety Council during the 1980s, when national seismic safety standards were being developed.
Johnston is survived by his second wife, Lucille; a daughter, Judith; a son, Rob; two granddaughters; and a brother.
He was a member for more than 50 years of the Pasadena Covenant Church, at 539 N. Lake Ave., where a memorial will be held March 29 at 11 a.m.
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