The Johnson Center has been in the works at George Mason University since 1986. Its planning was shared by Mason students (most of whom are now alums), faculty, and staff.

No tuition money was used to build the center. The library portion was paid for through the Virginia Higher Education General Obligation Bond of 1992; the remaining two-thirds of the building was paid for by revenue bonds backed by the commonwealth. The revenue bonds are paid off through revenues from auxiliary services and the capital debt services portion of the student fee. (The capital debt services portion pays for all nonacademic and nonrevenue funded buildings on campus.)

In 1989-90, George Mason University president George Johnson appointed a task force charged with conceptualizing a new university center that would become a focus for university-wide learning to integrate academic studies with student affairs activities and programming.

A year of deliberations and meetings with architectural firms resulted in plans for the George Johnson Center, a $30 million facility with 320,000 square feet. That's eight acres of floor space, or four football fields stacked one atop the other. It took two years and five months to build.

The building opened in stages in October 1995, allowing support staff to become familiar with the building, and providing an opportunity to make any necessary adjustments to the systems before large-scale operations began after January 1st.