I am a human being. I am also a designer, and a co-founding partner of Human Being Design, a full-service design practice at the intersection between individual and environ. Human Being Design offers services including: residences, installations, everyday items, and memorial artifacts. My partner and I are currently working on projects including: a private residence on the peak of a six-acre site in north Santa Fe, a remote residence in rural Vermont, and a series of multi-human urns for private clients.
I have also been a Board Member and the Executive Director for the nonprofit, youth-oriented community gardening organization Trenton Grows. In the spring of 2018, we established a “Garden Club” for first- through fifth-grade students at an underperforming charter school in Trenton, New Jersey. We held twice-weekly meetings with about 25 to 30 student volunteers between the ages of six and 12, with the intended goal to facilitate educational experiences in gardening, nutrition, and fitness. With the help of the students, we collaboratively designed, built, and operated a small, temporary educational garden on the school’s grounds using mostly recycled materials and a budget of approximately $1,000. This project involved activities including: proposal writing, curriculum development, small-scale fundraising and crowdsourcing, material research, resource procurement, and most importantly, cooperative planning and coordination. Through this hands-on process, we introduced the students to every phase of the organic gardening process, from seed to harvest. It was a joy to mentor these amazing and enthusiastic individuals, and on the final day of Garden Club to feast on our harvest with the students and their families, sending each family home with the remaining plants, produce, and gardening supplies.
Beginning in 2009, I’ve had professional experience in the fields of planning, design, architecture, and construction. This includes nearly two years with Arrowstreet in Boston as a Job Captain on projects including all phases of the 20-acre, 500-unit, multi-family mixed-use wood construction of Greybarn Residential Complex in Long Island, and the renovation of Hyde Square Youth Community Center in Boston. With Hart Howerton in New York I worked for three years as an Architectural Designer and Job Captain on several high-end projects, such as the 1,400-acre private residential community Maravilla Los Cabo, sited along the Baja Peninsula near Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. This project consisted of dozens of unique duplex townhouses, two custom homes, eight multi-family villas with two different aesthetics, 12 waterfront villas with ocean access, 36 homesites, and a 60,000 square-foot clubhouse featuring kids’ activity center, indoor theater, fitness center, full-service spa, five food venues, various pools, and other amenities. As a young Designer with the firm, I worked on the “Cloisters at Sea Island” Hotel Renovation and Expansion in Georgia, originally designed by Addison Mizner in 1928. This $40 million expansion included a new Garden Wing with 63 new guest rooms, and a 5,000 square-foot ballroom. With the general contractor Gammon Construction in Hong Kong I worked as a summer Intern on the construction of the KPF-designed Hysan Place Mall.
I am fluent in English, Cantonese, and Mandarin Chinese (both Traditional and Simplified), with basic Italian. For the nonprofit Princeton Chinese Language School, I teach children Chinese as a Second Language and Chinese Brush Painting on Sundays. While living in Manhattan, I volunteered for the Junior Achievement Organization (JAO) “Our City” Teaching Program, introducing third grade students basic principles of urbanism, real estate, architecture, and construction. I also have experience tutoring college students and young professionals basic computer-aided design (CAD) skills.
I attended the Syracuse University School of Architecture and attained a Bachelor of Architecture (BArch) degree. While at Syracuse, I served as an AIAS and ASO Class Representative, and with a classmate, I was a recipient of the First Place Award for the King+King Comprehensive Design Competition. With the Syracuse Architecture Exhibition Committee, I was employed as an Assistant Curator on shows highlighting the work of architects including Lewis Tsurumaki Lewis, Neil Denari, Audrey Matlock, and Preston Scott Cohen. My undergraduate thesis, entitled Architectural Response to the Global Water Crisis: Border Brewery, explored contemporary geopolitical conditions of water scarcity, wealth and income inequality, and resource allocation through the design of independent non-state cross-border spaces for international diplomacy and public engagement.
My particular areas of focus include: master planning, habitation design, food-related architecture, environmental issues, and human rights.
Or, feel free to view my portfolio in PDF format on Issuu here.
JODY CHAN MENOS 