As the Eastern Regional Design Principal for Jacobs Global Buildings, Head of Commercial Architectural Design for Carter Burgess, and a Principal and Associate Vice President for RTKL Associates in the commercial studio, Jo has been the design lead on many mixed use projects worldwide including in Japan, Korea, Dubai and Europe. Jo has a strong belief in the importance of a strong conceptual basis for all creative work. Often metaphor and symbolism form the basis of a parti that morphs into exciting architecture.
www.JoSchneiderDesign.com
Jo has lived and worked as an architect and sculptor around the world.
Included: Jo Schneider AIA LEED AP resume
Jo Schneider finds inspiration in the natural world for her sculpture. Organic forms and abstractions of nature generate into artworks. Public artworks are designed to be culturally informed by their location.
Jo’s personal sculpture is informed by emotional interpretations of the world we each inhabit. The Clay and Copper series are expressions of defining conflicts between heart and mind, rational and intuitive thoughts and left brain and right brain. Some of this work is inspired by the book,”The Tao of Physics.” by F. Capra
www.JoSchneiderDesign.com
For her UCLA Master’s thesis, Jo chose to design a physic’s research center, the Think Tank. Familiar with the Bicocca site from Gehry’s urban design competition, Jo used the site maps and created a new urban design plan. The Think Tank was positioned prominently like the cathedral to a piazza. Rather than the cross that is the parti of cathedrals, the parti of the physics think tank was the diagram of the colliding atomic particles with their spiraling forces and jettisoning paths. (The photo of the colliding particles was taken from “The Tao of Physics.”) The parti created a dynamic moving form expressing the dynamic nature of the world as the world of science was discovering it to be. The spiraling patterns formed the cascading wings of the Think Tank.
The renowned Charles Moore was Jo’s thesis adviser. In the Spring of 1986, Jo presented her thesis to the thesis jury including Charles Moore, Frank Israel, Thom Mayne , Tony Lumsden and Bob Hale, to great reception. Tony Lumsden said, “ if you could get this building built today, you would be the most famous architect in the world.” Thom Mayne offered Jo a job. Soon after, Bob Hale offered Jo a full time position at Gehry’s office. Jo’s father became very ill in Baltimore and she chose to move back home for family.
“UCLA Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning 1986-1987 Academic publication” included a page with Jo Schneider’s 1986 Thesis project, the Think Tank.
“Points of Reference”, a 1987 publication of the UCLA Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning published Jo Schneider’s 1986 thesis, the Think Tank.
Jo Schneider’s UCLA Masters of Architecture thesis was created 1985-86. Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain was created 1991-97.
Jo Schneider was a student at UCLA’s Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning from 1983 to 1986. At the beginning of her thesis year, Fall 1985 to Spring 1986, her professor Frank Israel invited Jo to work as an unpaid intern in Frank Gehry’s office making wood models for his Urban Design competition Progetto Bicocca in Milan, Italy. Jo was honored to work for the renowned Gehry and others in his office including his office manager, Bob Hale, who was also a thesis advisor and critic at UCLA at that time.
Upon completion of Jo’s thesis, Bob Hale asked Jo if Gehry’s office could borrow her model for an exhibit. Jo left for Baltimore with her thesis model in the UCLA Gallery with permission for Bob to pick it up. Months later , Jo’s Think Tank Thesis model was mailed back to Jo in Baltimore from Gehry’s office.
In 1997 , Jo was surprised to see Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao on the cover of the architecture magazines as it appeared to bear resemblance to her thesis project. Apparently the design phase for Bilbao began as an invited competition to design the Guggenheim in 1991, a competition which Gehry and his team headed by Bob Hale won. The rest is history.
Jo Schneider’s 1985-86 UCLA thesis has three sweeping silver metal wings cascading past each other atop the rectilinear base with a front portico. In 1986, as documented in the October 1986 Progressive Architecture magazine and his Completed works, Gehry’s profiled works did not contain large metal winged forms. Jo’s UCLA Master’s of Architecture Thesis, the Think Tank, was not any part of her internship with Gehry and was not the property of Gehry’s office.
TIMELINE:
1983 Fall- Jo Schneider (JS) begins UCLA Graduate School of Architecture
1985 Fall-JS works as an intern for Frank Gehry on competition
1986 Spring-JS presents UCLA Thesis- Think Tank to thesis committee
1986 Summer-JS leaves LA for Baltimore & leaves model with Gehry’s office
1986 Fall-October 1986 Progressive Architecture magazine publishes Gehry’s portfolio
1989- Gehry’s dates for Disney Concert Hall
1991- Gehry enters competition for Guggenheim Bilbao
1997- Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao is completed and published
Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain began as an invited competition in 1991. His team was led by Principal, Bob Hale. Gehry won the competition for the Guggenheim. The building was built and opened in 1997. The new building was widely published.
Here is a comparison of Jo Schneider’s UCLA Thesis model, The Bicocca Think Tank created 1985-1986 and Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain competition model from 1991. Note that the tower (outlined in yellow) on the far left of both models is actually built in Bilbao but not visible from the site of the museum. Also note that the portico entry (outlined in blue) on Jo Schneider’s model is seen in the Gehry model and built although it does not function as an entry. Also note the three curved wings descending in size ( outlined in purple) and the rectilinear base ( outlined in red.) Upon request, Jo Schneider left her UCLA Master’s of Architecture thesis model with Gehry’s office upon graduation in 1986.
