Casey Jones, M.Arch.'92, appointed Director of the General Services Administration's Design Excellence Program

Casey Jones, M.Arch.’92, has been appointed Director of the General Services Administration’s Design Excellence Program. Jones worked with the GSA’s Design Excellence Program prior to establishing the Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based design-competition advisory firm jones|kroloff in 2005 with Reed Krollof, director of Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum. At GSA, he served as a client, participating in architect selections, shepherding the design of a broad range of new construction and modernization projects, and shaping policy for what is essentially the world's largest development organization.

According to archpaper.com, Jones will “oversee the architect selection and design process for the GSA, one of the nation’s largest development organizations, responsible for building and maintaining everything from border stations to federal courthouses.” The article suggests his return to the agency “will likely raise the design debate that some observers said languished during the Bush years, when it received little support from the administration.” Prior to joining the federal government, Casey helped establish and manage the Van Alen Institute, a leading architectural and urban design research center. As the institute’s associate director, he executed a complex program of competitions, lectures, exhibitions, and workshops aimed at improving the quality of the built environment. The institute received an AIA New York Chapter award in 1997, during his tenure. In May 2007 Architect Magazine identified Casey as one of the "hidden powers" practicing in architecture today and put him on their cover.

Casey Jones returned to Taubman College in winter 2009 to teach a graduate studio with Mojdeh Baratloo. The combined architecture and urban design studio was entitled Urban Networks:Energy, economy, and ecology as agents in the design process. He holds degrees in architecture from the University of Virginia and the University of Michigan and has worked in architectural practice in Washington, D.C. and New York City.