Selected Work

An ideas competition to speculate on an unfinished Loire chateau project based on plans by Leonardo de Vinci. The competition invited 20 international architecture schools to envision a plan for the next 500 years of the Domaine de Chambord, a walled-off royal ground designed on utopian ideals. The project won two national awards including the AIA’s award dedicated to student work. The proposal from Rice University responds to fears of imminent climate disaster and the destruction of national heritage and seeks to establish a positive relationship with the unique ecology of the site.

Après le déluge (After the Flood)

Chambord Inachevé Jury Prize (collaboration with Will Letchinger), 2019.

Collective masterplan for Midtown Houston for medium-density housing across ten parcels. The individual architectural proposal takes the form of three slender towers with modest one and two bedroom apartments. An irreguar central core ‘wobbles’ around the center of each tower to produce a number of self-similar unit types.

How Much Land Does a Man Need?

Medium-density housing proposal for Houston's Midtown neighborhood, 2018.

Nuclear

Promotional video, landmarker for a waste isolation site (collaboration with Arch out Loud), 2020.

In our perception, the built environment tends to disappear into the background through habit and routine. A representational ‘sameness’ allows subtle differences to foreground in our perception.

The project takes a sociological definition of space, positing the latent potential of third places to mediate between the privacy of our domestic environments and our public spheres within the context of our everyday social environment.

Sited in a fictional urban context, the project disguises itself as a normative five-story building containing spaces for domestic, professional, and social activities.

Third

M Arch thesis, 2020.

A 'sanctuary for books' is proposed across the street from a mid-century church on a low-density intersection. The proposal attempts to reinforce the street edge set by the church and connect to library the protected rear lot.

Saint Martin's Neighbor

A proposal for a branch library in Austin, TX, 2017.

An animation created for a fourth year travel studio at the University of Cincinnati.

The Wall & the Death Strip

Berlin site, 2014.

2015, University of Cincinnati

A Periscope Cinema is an 'Exquisite Corpse' inspired process that started with the purchase of an inexpensive framed print.

Thrift shop: Framed print, $10
Google Images: looping image search of the words “grandma’s cottage” contained images of the story of Little Red Riding Hood and themes of voyeurism and privacy.
Collage (analog): Grandma’s mirrored roof hinges open, revealing a terrible scene inside (The Rape of Lucretia).
Rendering: Grandma’s cottage and its saccharine setting are turned drive-in cinema. Two lovers on a date replace Grandma’s cat, watching from a distance.
Construction: the mirror is turned periscope with which to see inside the 'cinema.' You, the viewer, are now the wolf, waiting in the back.

A Periscope Cinema

Architectural construction, 2015.

Rosa Mexicano

A future for the abandoned NAICM construction site for Mexico City, option studio with Frida Escobedo and Heather Rowell at Rice University, 2019.

2:00

A gas station in Dallas offers something unexpected, 2016.

Wienbola

Vienna Museum Competition, 2015. Collaboration with Kyle Winston and Ryan Ball.

The proposal for a mixed use development occupies a complex site, sitting at the edge of the University of Cincinnati and the interstate. In a roommate situation, separate and distinct programs share the same site, made visible on the elevation by an enfilade of arches. A research institution, scholar residences, and art display spaces orient themselves East/West parallel to the campus edge. 3 terraced blocks of market rate housing open to South to maximize sun. The enfilade links the East and West ends of the rectangular site and highlights the separation between residential and academic programs.

Side by Side

University of Cincinnati, 2014.

A 1920s era wooden house is lifted from its home in Brazoria County and moved to a site in Houston’s South Park neighborhood. An addition at the back of the house has since been added. The client asks for the added space to be converted into a third bedroom with ensuite bathroom and to update the existing bathroom and kitchen.The structure’s original four-square plan and the proportional addition created the basis for a six-square planimetric organization of spaces.

The House on Blocks

Houston, TX, 2019-20.

Sketchbook

2011-18

About

Jonathan is a designer in Houston, TX with a Master of Architecture degree from Rice University. He received his undergraduate degree in architecture from the University of Cincinnati and worked in offices in both Chicago and Dallas between degrees. Jonathan is a dual-native from Auckland, NZ and raised in the Midwest.

Contact jonlwilk8@gmail.com

Download PDF work sample

M Arch, Rice University, 2020
BS Arch, University of Cincinnati, 2015

Practice

Tolila+Gilliland, Paris, France

Intern, May–July 2019.

A design-focused atelier with projects in both architecture and planning scope. Work included design and documentation for projects in Greater Paris and Southern France including housing, mixed-use, and logistical projects as well as translation for competition and press packages. Work completed in teams of two to three under the direction of two principals.

Perkins+Will, Dallas, TX

Architectural Designer, August 2016—July 2017. May–August 2018.

Documentation for a public lobby as a part of a medical campus expansion in North Texas. I worked closely with the project’s structural engineer, facade consultants and manufacturers to coordinate the design and engineering for the building superstructure that supported a 50’ glazed exterior wall. Additional work on a design development set for a new patient tower.

I also assisted in the exterior wall design and design development coordination of a seven story patient tower, client presentations that utilized VR models, and physical model production. I received a design award in October 2016 in recognition of my contributions to the project. My relationship with the firm continued in 2018 as an intern in the firm’s Houston office assisting in construction documentation for an emergency department renovation in Houston’s Medical Center (May–August 2018). The lobby addition was formally recognized with an opening in November 2019.

Adrian Smith+Gordon Gill, Chicago, IL

Architectural Designer, November 2015—June 2016. Intern, May–December 2014.

Contributed to a luxury high-rise project in Mumbai that included unique service and residential amenities. Assistance on a competition submission for a high-rise in Jinan. Schematic level documentation of a hotel for a masterplanned district in Dubai. Schematic and design development of the 2017 Astana World Expo.

My relationship with the office began after an internship in 2014 (May–August; December) which was spent working on the schematic and design development of the 2017 Astana World Exposition, a “world's fair” style exhibition in the capital, Kazakhstan, and one of the firm’s largest projects to date. The design was significant for its engineering of an 80 meter glass sphere centerpiece.

Fearon Hay, Auckland, NZ

Intern, September—December 2013.

Produced images for private dwellings, hospitality, and mixed-use projects in competition and pre-design phases. Created concept drawings and physical models; performed field verification and produced as-built drawings for future projects.

Gensler, Chicago, IL

Intern, January—April 2013.

Physical model production and design development documentation.

Research

DC/S David Costanza Studio

Research Assistant, September 2017—April 2019. Houston, TX

Composites material research with 3d printed molds, fiber-winding, resin lay-up, and weaving within a five-person team led by Rice University Technology Fellow David Costanza.

Arch Out Loud

Art Director, February 2017—March 2018

Co-author of Nuclear: Landmarker for A Waste Isolation Site, an international design competition from June—November 2017 that asked designers to propose a marker to deter inadvertent human intrusion to a deep geologic nuclear waste repository in the New Mexico desert. The team of competition authors presented the research alongside the first place winner at the 2018 WM Symposia conference in Phoenix.

Exhibition

2019

Chambord 1519–2019, Utopia at Work. Chambord, France.

2017

Guimard Metropolitain, digital archival font, featured in Max Roberts' Art Nouveau Paris Metro map.

2015

Circuit exhibited in Rethinking Burnet Woods. Niehoff Urban Studio, Cincinnati, OH.

Video clips screened at Final Friday in Over the Rhine. Cincinnati, OH.

2014

The Wall exhibited at 014 Storefront Studio. Cincinnati, OH.

Award

2019

Chambord Inachevé Jury Prize; Margaret Everson-Fossi Fellowship; AIA/ASCA COTE Top Ten Award; AIA Fort Worth Honor Award; SARA NY Design Award for Après le Déluge (completed with Will Letchinger)

Morris R. Pittman Traveling Fellowship

2015

First Place: PINarchitecture: The Nearsighted Wall

2014

Honorable Mention: Architectural Congress of Ohio Pavilion

Service

ACE Mentor, November 2016—May 2017.
AIA Dallas Tour of Homes Docent, October 2016.
DAAP Ambassador, January 2014—May 2015.

Tools

Revit; Rhino; Grasshopper; AutoCAD; Bluebeam, Newforma, Dynamo; V-Ray; Maxwell Render; 3DS Max; Enscape, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere, After Effects.

Laser cutter, 3d printer, RhinoCAM, MIG welding, vacuum forming, lost-wax casting, resin infusion, book-binding.

Selected Work

Après le déluge (After the Flood)

How Much Land Does a Man Need?

Nuclear

Third

Saint Martin's Neighbor

The Wall & the Death Strip

A Periscope Cinema

Rosa Mexicano

2:00

Wienbola

Side by Side

The House on Blocks

Sketchbook

About

​

M Arch, Rice University, 2020 BS Arch, University of Cincinnati, 2015

Practice

Research

Exhibition

Award

Service

Tools

M Arch, Rice University, 2020
BS Arch, University of Cincinnati, 2015