John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects (JFAK) was founded in 1996 and is based in Boyle Heights. With the belief that architecture has the power to uplift people’s lives, John and Alice use current technologies and tools to celebrates identity and joyful places that inspire.
Recently, with like-minded collaborators, John and Alice founded Open Source Homelessness Initiative (OSHI), a nonprofit that mines open data to accelerate innovations to eradicate homelessness. OSHI expanded the boundaries of what defines the work of an architect, and OSHI was recently named a winner of Metropolis’s Responsible Disruptors inaugural awards program.
JFAK’s civic work includes public spaces and schools. JFAK has recently commenced work on two innovation- and equity-focused public school projects – the Iovine and Young Center in Leimert Park, and the Russell Westbrook Why Not? Academy Middle and High Schools in South Gate. The firm’s Wonderland Elementary School Kindergarten Classroom Building for LAUSD is under construction, along with a new Alumni Center for CSU Long Beach and a new Associated Students facility for UC Santa Barbara.
JFAK’s first book is scheduled to be published by Actar in late 2022. Titled Architecture, Not Architecture, the book will highlight an illustrative range of projects that the JFAK team and its collaborators have had the privilege to design, along with the inspirations and passions that shaped them. John and Alice were named Emerging Voices by The Architectural League of New York in 2004 and are elected Fellows of the American Institute of Architects. They live in Silverlake and have three children.
