My name is Jon Chenier and I am an architect.  I own and operate an architectural design firm called Chenier Design.  I have been drawing and designing for over 20 years.  I began my practice in 1998.  I have designed and managed many different types and sizes of projects.  Below is a short list:

·       Single family residential remodels

·       New home construction

·       Condominiums

·       Master planning single-family residential homes for development companies

·       Capital expenditure project management for a local grocery store in Portland, OR

·       Restaurant design

·       Retail store design

·       Medical office design

·       Design consultation and purchasing of furniture, fixtures and equipment for the house of Blues V.I.P. rooms and Green Rooms inside the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

I have taught design and architecture to college students.  From 1999-2005 I taught architecture and design at California State University Long Beach in Southern California.  While there I taught many types of design classes including:

·       Architectural drafting

·       Professional practice for designers and architects

·       Model Building

·       Building systems and codes

·       Design studios and thesis classes

·       Lighting Design

During my time at CSULB I developed a study abroad program for students who wanted to learn about the arts and architecture in a foreign country.  On two different occasions I lead two trips to Europe.  In one program I took a group of American students to England.  We lived in London for six weeks and traveled to many cities and sites throughout that country.  On a second trip, I lead a group of 22 American students to Italy.  We lived in Florence for six weeks and traveled throughout that country as well.

That was a very rewarding time of my career.  I was fortunate enough to be able to share a unique opportunity with those students.  Several of those individuals had never been on an airplane before.  To watch a young adult student stand in front of a Renaissance sculpture or inside a 600 year old cathedral that they had only seen in a text book and weep for joy was truly an honor.  I was once that student. 

While I was studying for my B.F.A. in Interior Architectural Design I traveled to Florence, Italy with Syracuse University.  I, too, felt a sense of awe, standing inside large cavernous cathedrals 1000 years old.  I realized in those moments that I was drawing inspiration from where Michelangelo, Leonardo, Brunelleschi, Bernini, and all of the other famous architects and designers since their time had lived and studied.  That experience motivated me to pursue a career, a life, in architecture and design.

When I studied for my Masters in Architecture at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCIARC) in Southern California, I worked with many talented professionals and academics from many places around the world.  I saw cutting edge design being created and talked about and knew that I was part of something unique.  The three and a half years I spent at SCIARC ratcheted up my abilities to talk about architecture and think about form in new ways.  It opened my eyes to the world around me and introduced concepts about how we perceive the world around us and apply those perceptions to how we practice architecture. 

All of those experiences have shaped the architect I am today.  I love to practice design and architecture but more importantly, I want to share the love that I have for it with others.  When I meet a prospective client I really enjoy finding out about what it is that they are interested in.  For me, it is the people that inhabit architecture that make the projects I work on interesting.  Architecture is so much more than just making a building and shaping the interior of a space.  Without people, architecture is nothing but a void. 

I have had the good fortune with working with some very intelligent and talented clients over the years.  The majority of those clients weren't only interested in completing a project just to fulfill a need to improve their property or business.  They were also interested in telling me who they were, how they lived and how they wanted their home or place of business to reflect that.  They wanted to participate in the conversation about design.  They wanted to take ownership of their project.  I wanted each client to walk away feeling proud of what we had accomplished together even though the process to get there can be messy, frustrating and time consuming at times. 

As their designer, it was my responsibility to help the client organize a series of specific needs and desires onto drawing paper and interpret the abstract visual language architects and builders communicate in.  One of my key responsibilities as an architect is to clearly communicate what the space would look and feel like and then oversee the construction process, ensuring that the feedback loop was completed.

This blog is about all of those ideas and more.  This is a place where people of all experiences can come and discuss design and architecture.  I welcome your comments and questions.

Best Regards,

Jon Chenier