jon zellweger

I am a practicing architect living in Raleigh, North Carolina. I have designed commercial and educational buildings, transportation hubs, theaters, hotels and museums. Many of these involve the adaptive reuse of existing and historic structures. This path began with restoration work on Frank Lloyd Wright’s Bachman-Wilson house and restoration research to serve for the preservation and restoration of Louis Kahn’s Trenton Bath House project. Working with older buildings has been a great joy, perhaps unintuitively, because they provide just the right amount of resistance to change. The architect’s response is, therefore, predicated on a conversation with the past rather than pre-established and ‘self-contained’ rule sets —or an individual or firm’s style— typical of the industry. It’s thrilling to be able to plug into that existing narrative and help write the next chapter for a new owner or use. Similarly, working in small internal teams of equals, collaborating on design solutions together, is far more satisfying than a top down approach involving design directorship from a senior team member. I am a strong listener and enjoy contributing as a responder equally to being a design lead. Between the design discoveries made in working with existing buildings or in the dialog with my fellow design team and clients, the places that result are a great surprise. The process always guarantees challenges and the final solutions are something that could have never been predicted at the start.