John's grandfather taught woodworking at he innovative Francis Parker
School in Chicago, and from an early age, John and his brother were
given real tools to play with.
John's interest in architecture and building developed at his high
school school in San Francisco, where the motto was "Head, Heart
& Hands", and four years of shop classes were required.
After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley,
he promptly became a carpenter, and then a general contractor in the
Bay Area. John designed and built his first passive-solar house in
upstate New York in 1979.
John has worked extensively with community and spiritual groups, and
was offered a place in the first strawbale workshop in California in
order to bring strawbale into community work. In 1995, he built the
first permitted bale building in California with Janet Johnston. They
co-authored an article on the project for Fine Homebuilding
Magazine, and officially launched Skillful Means as a design/build
firm. Since then, John has gone on to build and design over 50
strawbale buildings around California.