James Vaseff
James Vaseff, AIA has a career spanning some 46 years, starting as an office boy for Walter Gropius, at $60.00 per week, to the last five years doing pro-Bono work in developing economies.
After seven years in architectural practice in Boston and London he embarked on a career where, in most cases, he was “the one architect in the room.” Our profession is unique in that we take what is sometimes confusing and conflicting information and enjoy the challenge of conceiving something that ads value and beauty to those circumstances – we make things. That talent has been applied to Architecture, Historic Preservation, Industrial Archeology, University Teaching, Urban Design, Issue Management, Systems Thinking, Community and Economic Development, film and photography, and leadership in various boards and organizations, local, national and one international. Much of this work is with people in the public sphere. Tangible results are in the projects themselves: developing a useful strategy for a community organization, or institution; for example, developing and maintaining over 20 years the State Energy Code for Georgia, accessibility codes for single family residences, etc.
An example for the LOEBlog is Urban Design as a public policy process (leave the soft pencils home, writing the rules for the “Sim City” has more leverage than drawing). Following the Atlanta Olympic Games, he conducted the three largest rezonings the city has had; Centennial Olympic Park, Midtown Atlanta, and Downtown Atlanta. After nearly 20 years, one can come to Atlanta and witness the results. It is mostly anonymous work, being that those now enjoying it were not present at the start, but very rewarding for those who did it.
This same approach was used in numerous small communities throughout the state as well as state government and some national issues; “It is a process of revitalizing people; the bricks and mortar are incidental.” In these cases, the people “own” the project and want to execute its success – there is no out-of-town expert on which to pin success or failure.
In his Loeb Application he said, somewhat facetiously; “I have found things that work in practice, I want to see if I can make them work in theory.” He has been doing that ever since, and thanks the Loeb Fellowship for that lifetime enhancement and recognition
Update 2018: His current activity is serving as a docent for Porsche Cars North America in a venue devoted to high performance transportation and design that brings him full circle to his roots. — Those roots being; forty years ago he was acting chief of the Historic American Engineering Record of the US Department of the Interior documenting historic industrial sites. This was followed by the primary work for 4 museums and two National Historic Urban Parks. Then 24 years ago on a team which set a world record for running an electric vehicle 831 miles in 24 hours. He is doing some writing on the history of the topics of scientific innovation, transportation and some of the interesting personalities that made these things happen.