A conversation with Vincent James and Jennifer Yoos
Vincent James Associates Architects (VJAA) is a firm that's probably better known outside Minneapolis than here at home. "We're not really marketers," says Jennifer Yoos, a principal at VJAA in a conversation with Todd Melby for a Building Minnesota podcast. "All of our projects seem to come to us from other architects. Our personalities, we're not really that outgoing."

Recent projects include a student center at American University in Beirut and Tulane University in New Orleans. To secure the Beirut project, VJAA won an international competition. Vincent James, another VJAA principal, believes the Beirut project "will put us on a level to compete internationally ... because it is very substantial."

The Tulane University project is complete, American University in nearing completion and a guesthouse at Saint John's Abbey (here in Minnesota) is under construction. In another post and podcast, you'll learn more about the Tulane and American University projects, but for now, we're going get to know Vincent James and Jennifer Yoos a little better.


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In this podcast, we learn about James and Yoos' history, influences and philosophy. Yoos studied with Winy Maas at MVRDV. She says Maas is critical of the ego that many architects bring to their work, especially those that believe that their work should have a certain style. Yet, to be successful, some clients demand that you have a style. It's an interesting conversation. Listen in.


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You can also listen to these interviews via podcast. That's a simple audio recording that you can download for free to your mp3 player of iPod. You can do that at iTunes and the podLounge.