James von Klemperer

Biography: As President of KPF, Jamie leads the firm’s global community of designers in exploring shared architectural agendas and goals, while his own projects have set the bar for impactful architecture in urban centers around the world. Jamie works to translate complex architectural programs to the cultural needs of particular cities, strengthening the infrastructural connections of individual sites and creating buildings that make strong aesthetic statements. His design for One Vanderbilt sparked a revitalization of New York's East Midtown district while establishing major new transit connections and public realm improvements. On the other side of the globe, North Bund Lot 91, an all-electric supertall in the center of Shanghai, supports China’s sustainability agenda while embodying a culturally representative design. As attentive to the hand-crafted detail as to the grand gesture, Jamie believes that an ambitious design concept is successful only when its underlying intentions are thoughtfully and rigorously born out in the details of its material realization. At 64 University Place, hand-laid brick arches complement the historic fabric of Greenwich Village, while a similar motif is expressed in terra cotta and welded aluminum in a mixed-use, tall building at 520 Fifth Avenue. An active contributor to architectural discourse and education, Jamie regularly lectures at universities including Harvard, Columbia, Tsinghua, Tongji, Seoul National, and Yonsei Universities, the ESA in Paris, and at Yale, where he has taught as Saarinen Visiting Professor. In 1980, he was the Charles Henry Fiske Scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge. Jamie chairs the Boards of the Urban Design Forum and the Skyscraper Museum and serves as a Trustee of Bard College; he has given numerous lectures to real estate, architectural, and other conferences including ULI, CTBUH, the National Arts Club, and the Seoul Biennale.