James von Klemperer,
FAIA RIBA
Design Principal and President, KPF
As President of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, James von Klemperer leads the New York-based firm responsible for eleven of the towers included in our exhibition Supertall! 2020– which comprises about 20 percent of all the skyscrapers of 380 meters in the world today. Jamie is the design principal for three supertalls: the 555-meter Lotte World Tower in Seoul; China Resources Tower, the 393-meter headquarters in Shenzhen; and New York’s 1,401 ft./ 427m. One Vanderbilt.
In addition to creating skyline-defining forms, Jamie’s work focuses on the role large buildings play in making urban space. He has explored this theme in major projects in Asia, including Plaza 66 and the Jing An Kerry Centre in Shanghai, and China Central Place in Beijing. China Resources Tower in Shenzhen crowns the larger, KPF-planned development that connect retail, residential, and offices with public space and the city’s greenbelt and waterfront and Lotte World Tower anchors at its base complex of mall spaces for entertainment, shopping and special events. Embedded in the dense urban fabric of Midtown Manhattan, One Vanderbilt creates new zones of public space and amenities and greatly enhances access to Grand Central Terminal.
Jamie von Klemperer joined KPF as a young architect in 1983 and now as President is responsible for leading the staff of 700+ people in nine offices around the world. Educated at Harvard College, Trinity College Cambridge, and the Princeton University School of Architecture, he has lectured internationally and has taught at Yale School of Architecture as a Saarinen Visiting Professor. Jamie serves as the Chairman of The Skyscraper Museum, the President of the Urban Design Forum, and on the Board of Directors of the Storefront for Art and Architecture.