John sees architecture as a strategic balance between artwork and craftwork. John feels architecture must be driven by clear ideas and concepts, but also, it must meet the technical requirements and conditions of the real world. Consequently, John has endeavored throughout his career to maintain a level of expertise in both the “art” and “science” of building and even more so since joining Studio Hillier in 2022.
John has had the good fortune of working on projects of all types and of all sizes. This includes residential projects for individual users, as well as commercial and retail for individual proprietors. It also includes medium-scale institutional projects like schools and museums. On a larger scale, John has worked on corporate campuses and urban centers, as well as multi-use cultural centers.
Some large-scale projects include Brookfield place in Battery Park City, Manhattan, New York City and LUHU Cultural Center in Shenzhen, China. Brookfield Place was a 6-year endeavor with Pelli Clarke Pelli (NY), which involved an extensive reconfiguration of the 4 tower podiums + lobby and exterior facades.
The LUHU Cultural Center is a 104,500 sq m structure, focused on cultural arts (opera, theater, fine art) and library sciences. Some small-scale work include brewpub/ restaurants in Princeton, NJ and New Hope, PA, for Triumph Brewery, as well as a museum addition for The Morris Museum, in Morristown, NJ.