Veteran course architect Brian Silva has invited longtime colleague Brian Johnson to partner in a new design firm, Silva & Johnson Ltd, whose roots, ethos and client list each reach back to the golden age of course design.
“More than 40 years ago, Geoffrey Cornish — who got his start as an agronomist working for Stanley Thompson in the 1930s — extended to me the same sort of partnership opportunity,” says 72-year-old Silva. “I’ve worked alongside Brian Johnson for 25 years now. He’s as good a strategist as there is working today, but I might not have recommended this move 10 or 15 years ago. There wasn’t enough work out there. But today there is.
“This move means Brian, who brings so much to the table, can really spread his wings — and we can accept commissions that previously did not make sense, not for a lone ranger with grandkids. I’m excited to pass the torch while there’s still time to work together in earnest.”
Three high-profile renovations, what the new partners prefer to term ‘transformations’, will dominate the 2026 calendar. In December, Silva & Johnson broke ground at San Antonio Country Club, laid out 112 years ago by Alex Findlay. AW Tillinghast revamped the course during the 1930s, and Silva executed equally sweeping work there in 2005. He and the Houston-based Johnson return to complete the project this winter.
The new partners are already underway on a similarly comprehensive refurbishment at 27-hole Old Westbury G&CC (William Mitchell/Gil Hanse) on Long Island. In the spring, they will begin the transformation of Boca Raton Golf & Country Club (Donald Ross/William Flynn) on the east coast of Florida.
Johnson, 48, has been working with Silva since 2009, providing hole strategies, AutoCad plan production, grading and drainage development, turf specifications and the detailed hole renderings that enable the master plan process. As such, he worked closely with Silva in developing those masterplans soon to be realized at San Antonio and Old Westbury, along with dozens of others from the golden age that Silva has revitalized and transformed.
“Brian has been a such a generous mentor to me through the years,” Johnson says. “He and his partners gave me my first job in the design business, but the last 15 years have been different. It’s been a privilege and education to see how he has planned and executed the renovation work at places like Seth Raynor’s Country Club of Charleston, the Ross courses at Interlachen and Brookside, in Canton, Ohio, and original designs like The Renaissance Club and Great Horse in Massachusetts. To be out front a bit more, as a lead designer and partner, is pretty much a dream come true.”
