Jennifer Luce, FAIA

Jennifer was born, raised and educated in Montreal & Ottawa, Canada. Family influences included design, fashion and textile manufacturing, guiding her in a measured direction from the start towards a practice of sensual texture sprinkled with the logic of order. After receiving a Bachelor Degree in Architecture (1984) from Carleton University, she began her career winning a 1985 international competition to design the Center for Innovative Technology outside Washington DC; a campus dedicated to innovative thinking and innovation.

Even then, with a competition brief that emphasized subjects of technology, science and math, Jennifer’s scheme suggested a celebration of the ritual of place and the emotional power of scale. The logic of scientific labs for research was paired with poetic folly-like retreats in the woods for meditation and thought (inspired by tarot). The jury, including chair Richard Rogers, noted the intimacy of the scheme’s approach to marrying technology with human emotion.

 Jennifer earned a graduate degree from Harvard’s GSD in 1994, with a focus on Art in the Public Realm and the History of Public Landscapes. These subjects marked a shift in her work; that of committing to architecture that builds community at every scale and touches the soul through empathy. 

 35 years of practice has taken Jennifer on a journey of seeking more of this celebration; of texture in architecture, the infusion of art at every scape and the empathy that space owes our culture as we navigate challenging changes and shifts. She travels to the world’s remote places (Nepal, Iceland, Faroe Isles) regularly to tap into the essence of our purpose on this planet. Sojourns in Paris, London & New York balance that sense of adventure with a passion for art and culture. 

 In 2016 she was elevated to Fellowship with the AIA, a recognition of her contribution to design-thinking.  

 Projects have taken the studio from working with the highly secure studios of automotive design (Nissan Design America) to a deeply intimately crafted residence (@ Zaha NY for instance), a series of ‘empathy workshops’ training product designers worldwide and a home for a Salk Institute Scientist (La Jolla), to name a few. Recently, Jen and her studio completed a civic project for their city; Mingei International Museum; a 60,000-sf museum of craft, design and folk art in a 1915 historic World’s fair building. Here, the passionate focus of Jen’s career has coalesced in spaces that speak to community with delicately and precisely crafted details that one seeks to touch. Craft, architecture and art come together as one.

 Most recently, Jen has embarked on a project that celebrates Nature, designing the visitor center and research headquarters for Nature Collective on the San Elijo lagoon in Southern California. Here, she is honing the craft of collaboration with Martha Schwartz Partners to merge landscape with art and architecture with environment.

 As Jen’s work progresses, the intensification of purpose is clear. She is a voice for the Arts, an advocate of collaborative inter-disciplinary thinking and a catalyst for the intimacy of detail and quality at every scale of our daily lives. Jen listens carefully, as if with a tuning fork, to infuse each project with just the balance of all three. Her art form is architecture. Her inspiration is human joy.