September 3, 2024 College Welcomes Javier Sánchez, JSa, as BarberMcMurry Endowed Professor

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s College of Architecture and Design welcomes Javier Sánchez, HFAIA, founding partner and principal of JSa, as the 2024 BarberMcMurry Endowed Professor.

A portrait of Javier Sánchez with shoulder-length dark hair and glasses, standing with arms crossed in front of a metal staircase within an industrial building. The Mexican male is dressed in black and leans against a large rusted metal structure, looking directly at the camera. — Sánchez

In 1996, Sánchez founded JSa, a leading architecture practice in the renewal of the Mexico City, with more than 70 employees and offices in Mexico and Peru. The firm is well known for their comprehensive architectural interventions that rehabilitate and restore the urban fabric. They have designed and built over 180 projects in Mexico, South America and Europe.

In 2006, JSa’s project, Brazil 44, a small housing rehabilitation project in Mexico City, won Sánchez and the firm the Golden Lion for Best Urban Projects at the Venice Biennale.

“This was a very small project, but with big importance,” said Sánchez. “People do not need the same space to live. Like families today, they do not need to have a common structure. Families subdivide, they add, subtract, they work and live. So how do you make a space that can adapt to all those needs that families today have?”

This type of adaptive design will be incorporated into Sánchez’s fall studio with students from three of the college’s schools. They will embrace Sánchez’s rehabilitative practice as they reimagine the former General Shale building in Downtown Knoxville, maintaining the building footprint and adapting it into a community hub that celebrates the proximity to the Tennessee River.

This week, Sánchez will take 16 architecture, interior architecture and landscape architecture students to Mexico City and Oaxaca to view JSa projects and other impactful sustainably focused designs and landscapes in Mexico.

Join the college for Sánchez’s public lecture, JSa: Practice and Recent Work, at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, September 23.

Sánchez graduated as an architect with honors from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México (UNAM), received his master’s degree in real estate development from Columbia University in New York City. In 2008, he was selected as an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

Since 2013, the BarberMcMurry Professorship has funded internationally recognized architects as teachers and researchers for the benefit of students at the College of Architecture and Design.

The professorship was established by Knoxville-based firm, BarberMcMurry Architects, to promote design excellence through teaching and research by a prominent visiting professor who is an internationally or nationally recognized practicing architect. It is the result of a bequest from Blanche Barber and a match by BarberMcMurry Architects to produce the $1 million endowment.

Previous BarberMcMurry Endowed Professors include Lawrence Scarpa in 2013; Wendell Burnette in 2015; Billie Faircloth in 2018; Mitchell Squire in 2020; and Jenny Wu and Dwayne Oyler in 2021; and Ryan Jones in 2022.

A drone aerial view of Casa O, a modern, single-story house nestled in a lush, forested landscape. The house features a low, flat roof and blends seamlessly into its natural surroundings, with a circular pond nearby and mountains in the background. Photo by Rafael Gamo.

A photograph of the Juan de la Barrera residential complex, showing a beautifully landscaped garden with dense greenery surrounding a historic, two-story building. The building has a light-colored façade and traditional architectural details, with a modern glass tower visible in the background. Photo by Rafael Gamo.

A view of the MMAC Juan Soriano Museum, featuring a modern, minimalistic concrete building. The museum is surrounded by a tranquil water feature and lush, tropical vegetation, with a large sculpture visible in the foreground. Photo by Rafael Gamo.

An upward view from the interior courtyard of the Volga Hotel, showcasing the building’s towering, symmetrical structure with a series of balconies. Photo by Rafael Gamo.