Wheeler Kearns

jon@wkarch.com

Jon joined Wheeler Kearns in 1999 and became a principal in 2006. Jon served as Project Architect for an award winning facility for Southwest Women Working Together, a non-profit organization serving the West Englewood community on the Southwest side of Chicago. He has recently completed two prominent high-rise apartments in Chicago and a 16,000 square foot residence in Hinsdale, Illinois.  Jon is currently working on a new residence in Lincoln Park and a 75,000sf, 7 story mixed use building in the Wicker Park/ Ukrainian Village Neighborhood of Chicago.

Jon graduated second in his class from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee with a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies in 1994. In 1998, he received a Master of Architecture from the University of Virginia. Upon graduation, Jon received the Design Excellence Award and AIA Certificate of Merit, culminating an academic career also marked by winning multiple student design competitions.

Between undergraduate and graduate studies, Jon interned  for two years at Hammel Green and Abrahamson in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where his project experience included work on a prominent office building surrounding the capitol square in Madison, Wisconsin, an IMAX theater for the Milwaukee Public Museum and a Tornado Shelter/ Community Learning Center for the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. During graduate studies, Jon worked for the University Architect for the University of Virginia in the lower concourse of Thomas Jefferson’s Rotunda. Jon’s primary role was initiating programming and masterplan studies for the expansion of the Arts Campus on Carr’s Hill. After Graduation, Jon remained briefly in Charlottesville and worked for William Sherman and Associates.

Jon resides in the Pilsen neighborhood on the near south side of Chicago. Design and construction of his own house began in 2002 and is an on-going, hands-on learning experiment involving design details and construction assemblies and techniques. Jon volunteers his time with the 25th Ward’s Aldermanic office to provide design input for homeowners in the Pilsen area who otherwise could not afford design services.  Jon is a registered Architect in Illinois and a member of the American Institute of Architects.