Staff Spotlight: John Kaliski, FAIA, NCARB

This week’s staff spotlight is on our Principal, John! One of his (many) roles is to work with the staff and establish a strategic direction for the firm, its projects and its future. There are multiple aspects that John enjoys here at JKA whether that’s getting to work with the team, watching the staff create and design together, or best understanding and meeting the needs of the clients. John particularly appreciates being able to do this in a space with books, materials and resources conducive to thinking about architecture and urban design.

When not wearing his JKA hat, John is fond of gardening, and tends to his flowers and vegetables to create a “backyard Eden retreat,” his peaceful sanctuary within the city. Gardening has given John an interest in landscape and outdoors, expanding his interest in design “from spoons to cities.”

John’s hope for architecture is to keep finding innovative and measurable ways to define the value brought to the built form. For John, design is a tool of empowerment to provide creative solutions to daily problems. People should be given the power to design their lives, and the spaces that help their well beings. The more people who participate in design activities, the better our daily living circumstances become.

“I’m a better architect than I was the year before, and I have confidence that I’ll be better next year.”