Jon Jerde
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Jon Jerde (b.1940) is an American architect based in Venice, California, Founder & Chairman of The Jerde Partnership, a design architecture and urban planning firm that pioneered the concept of placemaking and "experience architecture;" and has created multiple award-winning commercial developments around the globe. Jerde has grown into a multi-disciplinary firm with offices in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul, Amsterdam, and Dubai. The firm is sought after for its ability to create destinations and memorable experiences for people that attract millions of visitors through its innovative design and planning approach. To date, nearly 1 billion people visit Jerde-designed places each year. Jon is also a graduate of the School of Architecture at the University of Southern California.
After early years working at Charles Kober Associates on multiple retail projects, including Plaza Pasadena, Jerde was commissioned by developer Ernie Hahn for the design of Horton Plaza [1], across from Horton Plaza Park in downtown San Diego. The project is credited by some with single-handedly rejuvenating the city's downtown core by replacing several blocks of older structures with a new retail village concept. The design was a radical departure from traditional suburban mall design of the time. It is a five story outdoor retail complex, with the main passage being diagonally oriented to the street grid and at the time anchored by Nordstrom, Macy's, and a Sam Goody music store; and connected to a Westin Hotel and the Balboa Theatre, resulting in a urban mixed-use center. Its spatial rhythms include long one-way ramps and sudden drop-offs, dramatic parapets, shadowy colonnades and cul-de-sacs, and the design shattered many traditional mall-design rules such as lowering ambient arousal levels and protecting the maximal lines-of-sight to merchandise. Its fragmented spaces look and feel more like a postmodern art project than a traditional mall, and its festive colors were a contrast to the ubiquitous beige store architecture of the period. The project was completed in 1985.
Despite the unique and non-traditional retail design approach, Horton Plaza's[2] radical design brought 25 million visitors in the first year, and as of 2004 continued to generate San Diego's highest sales per unit area. The project also sparked nearly $2.4 billion in redevelopment to the surrounding area and downtown core. Westfield currently owns Horton Plaza and is in the process of developing a series of expansions.
The Jerde Partnership also developed its placemaking and experiential philosophy with the design and planning of the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics, which became the only profitable Olympics to date. Based on the success of both Horton (from a retailing perspective), and the Olympics (from a placemaking concept), the firm continued to evolve is creative expertise in creating retail and entertainment destinations, designing the redevelopment of Fashion Island in Newport Beach, CA in 1989; the hugely successful $680M Mall of America[3] in Bloomington, Minnesota in 1992, the original Urban Entertainment Center Universal CityWalk in Los Angeles; the pirate show and facade of the Treasure Island Casino in Vegas in 1993; the Las Vegas Fremont Street Experience in 1995; and Bellagio in Las Vegas in 1998.
The firm developed into a major international company with key urban regeneration projects overseas, including Beursplein in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and Canal City Hakata in Fukuoka, Japan, both in 1996, as well as significant other projects in Japan[4], China, and Europe. Jerde has continued to evolve its design expertise and more recently has completed a string of critically acclaimed urban mixed-use, sustainable developments, including: Namba Parks in Osaka, Japan, recently awarded the Urban Land Institute Awards of Excellence: Asia Pacific, 2009; Roppongi Hills in Tokyo, Japan; Kanyon in Istanbul, Turkey; and Zlote Tarasy in Warsaw, Poland; along with multiple high profile projects currently in the design and planning stages.
Jerde's projects are consistently marked by three things: a respect for user experience unique among American architecture firms, a lasting sense of clarity and entertainment in the final environment, and a very high rate of return - both economically and socially. In the first 20 days of operation, the Las Vegas hotel/casino Bellagio that Jerde designed for Steve Wynn achieved an impressive annualized sales of $1800 per square foot ($19,000/m²), an astonishing feat for even Vegas standards, particularly at a time when gaming revenues far exceeded non-gaming functions. In the architectural and development community, Jerde has received numerous awards for its projects and accomplishments over the past three decades.
The Jerde Partnership continues to design around the world as a mutli-national design studio, currently working on projects in China, Korea, Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe, the UAE, and Los Angeles. Jon Jerde, FAIA serves as Chairman of the firm and Rick Poulos, AIA, is Executive Vice President and Partner-in-charge. The design is overseen by Jon Jerde and led by the firms three Design Directors: John Simones (Partner), David Rogers, AIA (Partner), and Tammy McKerrow (Partner).
