John was drawn to architecture at an early age – fascinated with how a variety of parts and materials would come together in making a building. He began his career working in the hills of western Connecticut designing and building custom homes based on solar and sustainable principles. This instilled in him two core values: architecture needs to be responsive to each individual’s experience and it needs to be deeply connected to its place. He is committed to creating architecture that elevates ordinary experiences and enhances daily lives.
At GBR, John focuses on project management and leads the firm’s planning efforts. He sees his primary role as helping clients to make good decisions. This starts by engaging clients to understand their needs, their goals, and their culture to form the basis for decision-making. His design approach is best described as creative problem-solving. John leads the design team to identify and solve a broad series of functional, technical, and aesthetic challenges that are fused into a cohesive solution that blends everyone’s best ideas.
Prior to joining GBR in 2001, John’s focus was on providing planning and design services at educational campuses across the United States. This experience included a position working on-staff for a college facilities management group. In addition to his project workload, John is responsible for overall staffing and resource management at GBR.
