Amid the mounting complexity of our lives, our projects pursue clarity. We focus on innovation and economy while cultivating wonder and ambiguity in the physical world. Our work distills elemental qualities of form, space, light, and material from a client’s abstract and physical ambitions.

We meet a client’s mission on its own terms but always in architectural territory, drawing on the tools of our craft to communicate insight, beauty, and resonant meaning. With humility and humor we design for authenticity, openness, and flexibility. Our buildings interrogate functionality in pursuit of implied use and appropriation through misinterpretation. The timefulness of our outcomes are a reminder that material decisions are evidence for the future to assess.

J. KURTZ Architects is a practice based in Cleveland Ohio working purposefully across project types and scales to maintain conceptual and technical dexterity while expanding our value to clients. We design buildings of distinct character that shape new behaviors. Our studio navigates ambitious and complex projects while maintaining personal investment and accountability. Partnering with non-profit organizations, boards, developers, and individual clients; our buildings and landscapes enrich domestic space, cultural production, education, and work. Our projects win local and national recognition and our past clients are ardent supporters.

• Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple
• City of Boston Public Works
• City of Cleveland
• Cleveland Institute of Art
• Cleveland Institute of Music
• Cleveland Print Room
• Cleveland Public Library
• Cleveland Rowing Foundation
• Case Western Reserve University
• Congregation Mishkan Or
• Hawken School
• John Carroll University
• Lake View Cemetery
• moCa Cleveland
• Oberlin College and Conservatory
• The George Gund Foundation
• The Temple Tifereth Israel