November 9, 2009

Jack Travis



Jack Travis established his namesake design studio in June, 1985. Since that time Jack Travis, FAIA NOMAC has completed proposals or has been involved in over 100 projects of varying scope and size. To date the firm has completed several residential interiors projects for such notable clients as Spike Lee, Wesley Snipes and John Saunders of ABC sports. Commercial and/or retail interiors clients have included: Giorgio Armani SPA, Cashmere Cashmere of New York as well as the Sbarro family of the famed pizza parlors.

Mr. Travis encourages investigation into Black history where appropriate and includes forms, motifs, materials and colors that reflect this heritage in his work. Travel throughout the United States, Europe, the Caribbean to West and South African countries has given Mr. Travis a most unique focus. Through his work, he continues to make a distinctive and definitive enrichment to the existing American design vocabulary. Mr. Travis' interests have broaden in recent years to include design issues not only concerning cultural content but sustainability in environmental design as well as alternative educational practices that seek to insure the entrance of more students of color into the profession.

Jack Travis is currently an adjunct professor of interior design at Pratt Institute and at the Fashion Institute of Technology.
In 1992, Travis edited, African American Architects: In Current Practice the first publication to profile the work of black architects in the United States.


In 1977 he received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Arizona State University and in 1978 a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.
In 2004, Jack Travis received his "Fellowship" in the AIA, and in 2006 Mr. Travis was inducted into the Council of Elders" of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA), the highest honor that each organization bestows upon its individual members.