Board members - John Ciardullo

JOHN CIARDULLO, B.S. in Structural Engineering, (Bradley University), M.Arch, (Harvard)

John Ciardullo studied fine art at the High School for Music and Art in New York City. In his third year, he changed his major to architectural design and earned the school’s architectural award. Thinking of architecture as a field he’d like to go into after getting more technical knowledge, he studied structural engineering at Bradley University. After graduating he went on to study architecture at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. While at Harvard, John worked at a structural engineering firm. In the mornings he acted as project manager on projects by Walter Gropius and the Graduate School of Design’s dean, Jose Luis Sert. In the afternoons he studied design under Sert and his partners. He earned his tuition and the respect of his peers by working as a teaching fellow in Structures.

At John Ciardullo Associates, John has recreated the comfortable atmosphere of empowering equality he experience at Harvard, where collaborators practice the importance of community that they preach. The social aspect of Ciardullo’s architecture stems also from his upbringing in a vital neighborhood in New York City. John recognized early on that people use space as an extension of their social needs, which swing from privacy to community. In the 60s, an era of upheaval and questioning, John boldly defined all social interactions as a function of architecture. In a graduate project entitled “the private-public continuum,” he stated his philosophy on how architecture should facilitate society. This philosophy found its first expression in the context of three low-rise multi-family public housing developments that John designed in New York City.

Most of John Ciardullo Associates’ early work explored the tight parameters of low-budget urban projects. With it the architects proved that even in low-income neighborhoods, even on tight sites, it you base architecture on social purpose, form and beauty will emerge and engage the community in a positive way. Now, with 33 years and the designs of dozens of schools, libraries, community centers, corporate interiors, private home, and entire communities to its credit, John Ciardullo Associates stands at the head of the field of socially determined architecture.

In addition to his architectural practice, Mr. Ciardullo since Harvard has taught at the university level. His teaching experience includes:

Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York: Department of Architecture, Associate Professor teaching Architectural Design Studios and several levels of structural engineering courses. He also served as a Professor and Director of the first year Planning Studio in the City and Regional Planning Department.

Columbia University, New York, New York: Associate Professor of Architecture teaching second year Architectural Design Studio as well as Coordinator of the Building Technology curriculum.

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