Johnpaul Jones, an award-winning architect, a renowned landscape designer, and the man who completely revolutionized zoo design, was born in Oklahoma in 1941. His mother was Choctaw-Cherokee; his father was Welsh. Neither parent had gone beyond 6th grade. Neither expected much academic achievement from their son.To compound matters, Johnpaul had an additional disadvantage: he was dyslexic.
Fortunately, his family and several teachers along the way encouraged him to explore, to take in the sounds and sights and smells of the world around him, and to record that world in drawings. It was here that Johnpaul began what he calls his “conversation with the land,” a conversation that has continued throughout his professional as well as personal life.
Settling on Bainbridge Island in the 1960s, his successes have been numerous and impressive, including the Woodland Park Zoo’s groundbreaking gorilla habitat, the Vancouver Land Bridge, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the Daybreak Star Cultural Center. Here on Bainbridge, he has specialized in public places that tell our community’s story, such as the Japanese American Exclusion Memorial and the Waypoint Project.
In 2013, President Barack Obama presented the National Humanities Medal to Johnpaul. He became the first architect to receive the medal. Recently, Johnpaul has exhibited his own paintings on Bainbridge, depictions of regional birds and colorful frogs on a plain backdrop of brown paper that are further reflections of his reverence for nature.