Jon Anderson
In nearly four decades of exceptional productivity since graduating from the School, Jon Anderson has become a renowned architect—he has earned 35 AIA design awards—who has worked on projects worldwide but always returns to the unfiltered, brightly lit elements that define New Mexico.
“My exposure to the climate, the light and the spaces of this amazing state was an eye-opening experience for a kid from the Midwest,” he says. “Then I was really inspired, both by my teachers at the School and by the special nature of New Mexico architecture and design. It changed my perspective, my future—my world.”
Anderson spent his early years learning the ropes from talented architects including Gene Dyer, Pat McClernon and Geoff Beebe, then spent more than a decade with the legendary Antoine Predock. When he went out on his own in 1991, Anderson found recognition and success with a design philosophy firmly rooted in the most simple and elegant expression of function as form, while respecting landscape, light and human well-being.
“We don’t work in ‘styles,’ ” he says of his Albuquerque-based firm. “If the client isn’t ready to do something special, then we don’t take the project.”
One thing that has remained constant for Anderson is his connection to the School, as a guest lecturer, a career starter—all of his architectural employees are UNM School of Architecture + Planning graduates—and a creative force as the executive architect for George Pearl Hall on the UNM campus.
How many worlds, small and large, will UNM School of Architecture + Planning alumni transform, and will yours be one of them? With your vital support, the answers are “many” and “yes.”