JOHN KALISKI has completed architecture and urban design projects in Southern California and nationally during twenty years of practice. His work has been recognized with awards from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the American Planning Association (APA). Recent projects include two automobile showrooms in Calabasas, California and Woodland Hills, California respectively, façade improvements for commercial buildings in Pacoima, California, and mixed-use, multi-family, small-lot subdivision, work force and single-family housing projects throughout Los Angeles. At present he is also working on the North Hollywood Vision Study for the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles (CRA/LA), and housing and development guidelines for Los Angeles’ Bel-Air community.
A key component of his work is his ability to integrate public concerns into design processes. He has led workshops, charrettes, and meetings in Des Moines Iowa, Kansas City Missouri, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Anaheim and numerous other municipalities and worked collaboratively with communities and professionals on a broad range of project types.Prior to private practice John Kaliski was principal architect of CRA/LA. There he was responsible for urban design, historic preservation, and the design aspects of this agency’s housing and childcare programs. Before this he worked as a designer for Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in Los Angeles and Houston.A graduate of Yale University (B.A., M.Arch.), Kaliski has taught history, theory and design at the University of Houston, the University of Southern California, The Southern California Institute of Architecture, the University of Michigan, and Cal Poly Pomona. He has also served as a juror for Progressive Architecture as well as local, regional, and national AIA awards programs. In 1996 Kaliski served as chair of the AIA Regional and Urban Design Committee. During his tenure he developed a national urban design policy that was adopted by the Institute in 1997. He has served three times as a fellow for the Mayor’s Institute on City Design and in 1994 was named as one of fifty future leaders under forty by TIME. He recently served as an appointed member of the City of Los Angeles University Park Historic Preservation Overlay Zone Design Advisory Board and serves as a design advisor to the Cultural Affairs Commission of the City of Los Angeles. Within his own neighborhood in Los Angeles he also was a member of the working group assisting the City of Los Angeles Planning Department prepare design guidelines for a Community Design Overlay District for the “Miracle Mile”. John Kaliski’s writings have appeared in numerous magazines including Harper's, Design Book Review, Harvard Graduate School of Design Magazine, California Architect, ARCA and Cite. In 1999 Monacelli Press published his work on the dynamics of the existing city, Everyday Urbanism. This book, co-authored with John Chase and Margaret Crawford, analyzes the opportunities of everyday space and illustrates how design affirmatively addresses the intricate social, political, economic, and aesthetic forces at work in the present environment.
