{"id":1279,"date":"2018-01-11T13:09:16","date_gmt":"2018-01-11T18:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/?p=1279"},"modified":"2018-01-16T09:53:02","modified_gmt":"2018-01-16T14:53:02","slug":"1279","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/2018\/01\/11\/1279\/","title":{"rendered":"Get to know: James Timberlake ’74, making designs that matter"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"James
James Timberlake<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the son of an Episcopalian minister, the last place James Timberlake thought he would find himself was a Jesuit university.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s his education at University of Detroit he credits with giving him the skills and confidence to build a successful career in architecture helping design significant projects like, most recently, the U.S. Embassy in London with his Philadelphia-based firm KieranTimberlake.<\/p>\n

Establishing a goal<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not many five-year-olds have chosen their career path, but Timberlake knew from about that age that he wanted to be an architect.<\/p>\n

When Timberlake was young, his father moved the family from a church in Ohio to another in Grand Haven, Mich. This new church needed remodeling that involved planning and designing a new parish hall and replacing the existing church. It was the beginning of his design education.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father would meet with architects fairly regularly,\u201d Timberlake said. \u201cOnce every couple of months, they would take my dad out to dinner, and I would go along with him. They would be talking about the project, they would also toss the kid a question or two and I would always ask about a building element and what the definition of that element was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Timberlake\u2019s mother was a self-taught artist who spent much of her time painting and decorating.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us kids were encouraged to take on artistic avenues and ventures,\u201d he said, adding that the combination of his parents\u2019 talents and interests helped shape his decision to become an architect at such an early age. \u201cI think my grandfather asked me what I wanted to be and I said, \u2018an architect\u2019 and it was just something I kept repeating. All through high school, my friends all knew that\u2019s what I wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Timberlake excelled in drawing and drafting classes in high school, but he wasn\u2019t as studious when it came to other subjects, even calling himself \u201cphlegmatic\u201d about his work. That made applying to colleges a little less-than-satisfying. He was denied admission or wait-listed by several schools, and when he was accepted to the University of Detroit, it came with the agreement that he would need to do well in his first semester to be admitted to the architecture program. He had earned his spot that second semester.<\/p>\n

Defining moments<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI started college at 17. You\u2019re talking about an 18-22 year-old male and you\u2019re talking about a point where male faculties and character functions are still being developed,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have someone who is an open vessel. I think the thing the school taught me was really about character development, about developing yourself as a person on just a skills basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Close interaction with the faculty and staff not only honed his skill in architecture but also his self-confidence.<\/p>\n

Late one night, while furiously finishing drawings and designs for review and exhibit, Timberlake said architecture professor John Loss approached him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe showed up at my desk at about 7:30 at night with a six-pack of beer and sat down next to me and said \u2018can we have a chat?\u2019\u201d said Timberlake. They talked late into the night, drinking beer and sharing philosophies. \u201cBefore he left, he said to me in so many words, \u2018you have immense talent and you can be whatever you want to be because of that talent. What you need to do is to make sure you apply it.\u2019 Now, how many kids he told that to in his tenure at the University of Detroit, I don\u2019t know, but when I tell other people about it, it\u2019s a pretty unique experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Timberlake said it opened his eyes to the opportunities that come from the work ethic he had learned. After he graduated in 1974, he moved on to University of Pennsylvania with a scholarship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t have been able to do that without my undergraduate education,\u201d said Timberlake.<\/p>\n

Supporting students<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the time Timberlake was at University of Detroit, study abroad programs were not available to Timberlake. Graduate work was a different story, and he was a Prize Fellow for the American Academy in Rome in 1982-83, which allowed him to live in Italy for a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand the necessity to look outside of your realm and have an appreciation of architecture and culture in other places, along with understanding people and customs abroad. It broadens our view and it makes us better architects and citizens,\u201d Timberlake said.<\/p>\n

His passion for foreign study opportunities was the impetus behind his $75,000 gift to the School of Architecture\u2019s study abroad programs.<\/p>\n

Timberlake supports up-and-coming architects in other ways as well. He participates in a mentoring program at his firm, KieranTimeberlake. He also teaches, speaks publicly and sets an example they can aspire to.<\/p>\n

\u201cWork and life is a constant balancing act,\u201d he says. \u201cFinding time for family, firm, friends and the future \u2014 including those students and young architects who desire and seek mentoring \u2014 is something that energizes me. While I cannot always fulfill each and every request, and family must come first, giving time to others, and \u2018paying it forward\u2019 is something I will continue to do as long as it is meaningful and the results are positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leaving a lasting impression<\/strong><\/p>\n

Timberlake has worked on globally-recognized projects, including the Melvin J. and Claire Levine Hall at the University of Pennsylvania, Cellophane House at The Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Embassy of the United States in London. He has received hundreds of awards for his work, yet to him, it seems surreal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look back on all of these achievements and what we\u2019ve experienced and it\u2019s a little bit of an out-of-body experience,\u201d Timberlake said. \u201cI try to bring down the arrogance of architecture. I think that architecture should be accessible and provide a service to all who need it, whether that be the one percent or the one percent that don\u2019t have anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said while working on the Embassy in London, he\u2019s also working on low-income housing in India.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth projects should be served by architects at a high level,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Among his favorite projects is working with the residents of the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, immediately following Hurricane Katrina. Timberlake\u2019s firm took part in actor Brad Pitt\u2019s \u201cMake it Right\u201d initiative. It\u2019s for his body of work and service to the community that the University named him a Spirit of Detroit Mercy Alumni Achievement Awardee in 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cArchitects need to help and look beyond the obvious, the public glory, and find ways to truly help the human condition,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the end, that is to take one\u2019s talent to help make a difference. Seeing resident\u2019s faces, and relief, in their new homes is heart-warming and the best validation an architect can experience that the work we do matters.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the son of an Episcopalian minister, the last place James Timberlake thought he would find himself was a Jesuit university. But it\u2019s his education at University of Detroit he credits with giving him the skills and confidence to build a successful career in architecture helping design significant projects like, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":1310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[12,2,10,7],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/88\/2018\/01\/timberlake-featuredimage.jpg?fit=600%2C315&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s8Kcng-1279","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1279"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1283,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279\/revisions\/1283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}