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Jon Maass

Assistant Professor Adjunct

Jon Maass is an architect and maker of things. After earning his first degree in architecture from the University of Michigan, Jon attended the Cooper Union where he was a member of the inaugural group of recipients of the Menschel Fellowship. Following work as a set designer and fabricator for off-Broadway productions in New York, Jon worked as an architect with Anderson Architects, Leslie Gill Architect, Fox & Fowle, and others. He also worked as a builder prior to joining Paratus Group, an owner representative firm in New York working solely with cultural institutions in the U.S and abroad. In 2018 Jon founded maass, a consultancy which directs the programming, design team search, design, construction, and occupancy for cultural, not-for-profit clients. Jon’s past and current work includes:

     •  The Toledo Museum of Art’s Glass Pavilion, SANAA’s first project in the United
          States, which opened in 2006. 
     •  The exterior restoration of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York
     •  The expansion of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, designed by
          Renzo Piano Building Workshop, opened in 2012
     •  The programming and architect selection of a new joint facility for Warsaw’s
          Museum of Modern Art and the experimental theater group, TR Warsaw, designed
          by Thomas Phifer and currently under construction.
     •  The expansion of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington
          D.C., designed by Steven Holl, opened in 2019.
     •  The exterior conservation of Charles McKim’s library for J. Pierpont Morgan at the
          Morgan Library and Museum in New York, and a full-campus landscape plan by
          Todd Longstaffe-Gowan.
     •  Serving as advisor for the reimagining of the Neilson Library at Smith College in
          Northampton, MA, designed by Maya Lin, completed in 2021.
     •  The management of a new education center for the Stickley Museum at Craftsman
          Farms, Gustav Stickley’s homestead in Morris Plains, NJ.
     •  The programming and direction of the expansion of the Museum of Nebraska Art,
          one of the few museums dedicated to the art of a state.

Jon has lectured and served as a guest studio critic at The Cooper Union, Columbia University, Princeton University, Pratt and Harvard. He is a licensed architect in the New York, served on the selection committee of the John Q. Hejduk Award, currently sits on the Dobbs Ferry Zoning Board of Appeals and teaches Construction Management at The Cooper Union.

View Jon Maass' CV here.

List of Projects:
     •  Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion
     •  Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
     •  Gardner Museum: RPBP
     •  Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie and TR Warszawa
     •  Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw and TR Theater: Thomas Phifer
     •  The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
     •  The Kennedy Center: Steven Holl
     •  Morgan Library and Museum
     •  Smith College’s Neilson Library
     •  Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum exterior restoration

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.