Caleb Johnson
Founding Principal
As the founder of Woodhull, Caleb has spearheaded a team of award-winning architects and builders that value design-led construction. He and his team’s focus on capturing the essence of the landscape and the value of materials sets the firm apart.
Growing up, Caleb planned to pursue a career as a fine artist. However, by his junior year of high school, he worried the medium wasn’t where his future lay. While working a summer job, his boss asked if he’d ever considered being an architect to utilize his technical drawing abilities. The title stuck. He became focused on becoming an architect, reading as many books as he could get his hands on. He studied everyone from Philip Johnson and Louis Kahn to Leonardo da Vinci.
After graduating from Andrews University in Michigan, while on a trip to Chicago, Caleb picked up The New Cottage Home at a bookstore and contacted the architects whose work appealed to him. Six of those firms were in Maine.
“I think a lot about what’s behind it all, the beams holding it up, how they are represented in architecture, how architecture is an honest expression of the forces and materials it takes to create shelter for us, and how that impacts our daily lives. The quality of a space and what it’s built of can have a positive or negative effect on our lives.”
In 2003, Caleb started Johnson and Bell with award-winning Architectural Photographer, Trent Bell. The two would work on their first projects on Caleb’s front porch in the dead of a Maine winter. In 2006, Caleb took over full ownership of the firm, naming it Caleb Johnson Studio.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I picked up an architecture book in Chicago, and most of the architects in the book were in Maine. Maine resonates with people that just have to be outside, be around a beautiful landscape, and live in towns built on good principles. That’s why I’m in Maine. Maine is built of what I like: stone and lots of wood. There’s an ambiance here. The architecture I create is built of the same stuff. It just feels right to be here. Maine is home.”