Design
As archi­tects, we make every­thing count in our designs. From the begin­ning, we estab­lish a clear and strong nar­ra­tive that guides all deci­sions down to the details. The basis of that nar­ra­tive is honest dis­cus­sions with clients, intense research, lessons from pre­vious projects and a col­lec­tive imag­i­na­tion.

Eco­nomics
There is no project without money. How­ever, there is no intrinsic value in money unless it is man­i­fested in useful things. We manage our designs so that they result in useful things. Mon­i­toring design progress with a goal towards budget con­scious­ness is a pri­ority for our prac­tice.

Sus­tain­ability
Energy con­scious design is no longer an option but instead a pre­req­ui­site con­cern for our pro­fes­sion. Our long standing interest in sus­tain­able design started with mate­rials and pas­sive energy sys­tems. Today, Pas­sive House cer­ti­fi­ca­tion is our stan­dard approach to res­i­den­tial projects and when prac­tical, com­mer­cial designs.

Design Build
Our sister com­pany, Work­shop for Con­struc­tion is the “build” side to our prac­tice. Our team of Project Man­agers, Super­vi­sors and car­pen­ters con­struct what we design for our clients. This approach gives our clients a better project aes­thet­i­cally, eco­nom­i­cally and most impor­tantly, psychologically. 



After com­pleting his master’s archi­tec­tural degree at Har­vard Uni­ver­sity, John began his career working at notable firms including Pei, Cobb, Freed & Part­ners. He even­tu­ally became a Design Partner at HLW Int where he led sev­eral large projects including the Schering-Plough Head­quar­ters, Bloomberg NJ Head­quar­ters and Mack-Cali Har­bor­side 10. John was also respon­sible for projects abroad in Shanghai, South Korea and Saudi Arabia.

With the eco­nomic down­turn in 2003, John left HLW and founded Work­shop for Archi­tec­ture. From its modest begin­nings as a solo prac­tice, WFORA com­pleted numerous projects in the NYC region and abroad always focusing on client needs through the lens of thoughtful design. In 2008, WFORA’s first project, the MIG Offices, was awarded a Design Merit by the AIA New York City Chapter. Numerous pub­li­ca­tions and awards fol­lowed.

In 2008, frus­trated by the dis­con­nect between the con­struc­tion and archi­tec­tural indus­tries, John estab­lished Work­shop for Con­struc­tion, a gen­eral con­tracting and con­struc­tion man­age­ment firm. With the two enti­ties, WFORA & WFORC, working together, John has cre­ated a holistic approach to design and con­struc­tion which has resulted in higher quality projects.

Aca­d­e­m­i­cally, John has served as Vis­iting Instructor at Pratt Institute’s School of Design, Inte­rior Design Depart­ment and is cur­rently teaching at the Bernard & Anne Spitzer School of Archi­tec­ture, CUNY. He con­tinues to serve on aca­d­emic juries at sev­eral archi­tec­ture schools. In 2010, he was an archi­tec­tural fellow at the Mac­Dowell Colony.

With over 11 years of expe­ri­ence as an archi­tect working on a variety of building types and scale, he joined the firm having pre­vi­ously worked for Mancini Duffy, AECOM/DEGW and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. He served in senior posi­tions at all these firms devel­oping high level project designs and stan­dards.

Since joining WFORA/WFORC, James led the design of the Millerton Pool House, a large pri­vate indoor pool struc­ture for a pri­vate client. He sub­se­quently became the Senior Con­struc­tion Man­ager for this project after con­struc­tion began. Man­aging the daily oper­a­tions of this project, James has taken on a lead­er­ship role in improving the design-build strate­gies of our office and in turn con­tinues to strengthen our comit­ment to clients.

In his aca­d­emic posi­tions, James taught Archi­tec­tural Rep­re­sen­ta­tion stu­dios at the Pratt Insti­tute School of Archi­tec­ture as an Assis­tant Pro­fessor. He was also a Vis­iting Pro­fessor at the Uni­ver­sity of Buf­falo School of Archi­tec­ture. He has served on numerous design juries at Barnard Col­lege, Columbia Uni­ver­sity and other archi­tec­ture schools. James is a Summa Cum Laude, M Arch grad­uate at the Uni­ver­sity of Buf­falo and a Magna Cum Laude B Sci­ence under­grad­uate from the same school.