People
Jonathan Ward, FAIA, LEED AP
Design Partner | Board Member | Firmwide Design Leader
Jonathan Ward, FAIA, LEED AP
Design Partner | Board Member | Firmwide Design Leader
As NBBJ’s Firmwide Design Leader and a Design Partner, Jonathan helps steer the firm toward design excellence, championing an integrated approach that drives consistently high caliber work and unique design outcomes. His hallmark is visionary design that challenges commonly held assumptions about program, space and human experience to deliver engaging, healthy and sustainable built environments. Over the past three decades, Jonathan has led the design and delivery of a variety of progressive buildings for innovative clients across the Americas, Europe and Asia.
Jonathan believes in designing from the inside out, starting with the intimate human experience of a space and working outwards at larger scales. He is passionate about creating experiences that marry the authentic qualities of a place with people’s intrinsic needs for engagement, views and nature. His approach is grounded in a highly collaborative, inclusive design process that builds on the notion that the best idea always wins.
Jonathan’s diverse global experience includes some of NBBJ’s most notable and award-winning buildings, such as headquarters for BlackRock in New York, Tencent in Shenzhen and Samsung in San Jose and South Korea. He has also been a part of several pioneering science buildings for Wellcome Trust in the UK, and UC San Diego’s new Viterbi Family Vision Research Center; innovative healthcare facilities like Montage Health’s Ohana Campus; as well as new and renovated sports and civic facilities for the City of Hangzhou, UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion, and Kentucky’s Rupp Arena and Lexington Convention Center.
His work has received widespread recognition, including the highest honors from the AIA, RIBA, CoreNet, and Interior Design magazine, and he has presented and served as a guest lecturer, award juror and critic at conferences and design schools around the world. His work and ideas have been featured by leading publications and media in more than 15 countries, including Architectural Digest, Architect Magazine, BBC, designboom, Fortune, Fast Company, New York Times, South China Morning Post and the Wall Street Journal.