James Cleary received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and his Masters of Architecture from Yale University, where he was nominated for the Feldman prize and was selected as the school's sole nominee to the international SOM Traveling Fellowship.

Prior to founding JCA, James worked as a senior project architect at the award winning firms Pentagram Design & Keenen/Riley.

James is registered to practice architecture in New York State.

JCA is a full service architectural firm, involved with a wide variety of commissioned and speculative projects.

As your project evolves, our extensive practical knowledge of construction allows us to find ways to build creative design ideas in a manner that insures your project is carried out on time, on budget, and with the highest level of quality.

Over the past 15 years, we've developed a broad network of strong relationships with skilled consultants, contractors, fabricators, and craftspeople, any of whom can be called upon to help realize your project.

Our clients are partners in the design process. We work with you to give form to your needs and aspirations.

We approach each project on its own terms, and specialize in taking difficult constraints, be they tight budgets, difficult existing conditions, or regulatory straight jackets, and overcoming them with intelligent design.

While every commission is a unique undertaking, we engage each - regardless of size - with the same depth of consideration, and with a curiosity that explores a wide range of solutions and unearths opportunities for thoughtful innovation.