biography
John Kneski was born in New York in 1964. Before moving to Miami he worked in construction in New York where he developed an interest in architecture. During that time, he played saxophone in the Hamptons Music Festival orchestra, part of that time recording (lp) under the direction of Teo Macero, who had previously produced works by Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Tony Bennett, and Charlie Byrd for Columbia. A professional Bachelor of Architecture degree with a minor in fine art from the University of Miami in 1987 included semesters abroad at the Uniwersytet Jagiellonski, the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia, and the Architectural Association. He received a terminal degree (M.Arch II.) in architecture from Syracuse University in 1990 after residency at Syracuse's Florence campus in Italy. After apprenticing in the firm of Norman Jaffe & Associates Architects he established a furniture design practice, and galleries, in Coral Gables and Miami, which received much national attention. He is a member of the American Institute of Architects and is licensed by the State of Florida Board of Architecture and Interior Design.
Although he has taught thirty different courses at three universities, Prof. Kneski is most passionate about education abroad and undergraduate research courses. He collectively oversaw university programs to Italy, Jamaica, Peru, and China - personally directing a very successful program to Italy for thirteen years - and an undergraduate research program that produced over 300 projects in five years. He also directed the publication of several research books produced with his students; several now included in the Library of Congress. He has represented academic institutions at the state level as the President of the Florida Collegiate Honors Council, which is comprised of over thirty member institutions; and at the national level as an elected member of the Council on Undergraduate Research in Washington DC, which represents over 900 colleges and universities. For four years he served as Project Manger on a $10M US Department of Labor grant to develop a new certification curriculum in Manufactured Housing in Florida that will be used as the model for the rest of the country by the DOL through the NCCER.
In his career as an architect and preservationist, he has been published in various journals, most notably Metropolis, Preservation Today, and Architecture. He is very proud of being the researcher and author of the Historic Survey & Contributing Structures Report that lead to the creation of Miami's fourth historic district, Spring Garden. He was also the editor of the report used in the original accreditation of the Master of Architecture Degree Program at FIU, and was the Editor of the Honors Excellence Paper Series, which has included notable lecturers such as the architect Robert A. M. Stern. He is completing a book on the Dutch exploration of Long Island and currently resides in the Hamptons.
