Q&A with Jared Heller
Continuing in our People, Passion, and Performance series, we recently spoke with Jared Heller, AIA, who serves as a Senior Architect for our Belleville, IL office.
Quick Facts about Jared
- Outside of work, Jared enjoys hanging out with his children and girlfriend, camping, canoeing, hunting, fishing, and shooting.
- Jared has been with Farnsworth Group for four years after 12 years with a firm acquired by Farnsworth Group.
- Jared got his Associate of Art in Art at Southwestern Illinois College, and a Bachelor of Architecture at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
How has technology influenced your career? I have seen the architecture industry and its advances greatly change over the years, from my beginnings with hand drafting, to AutoCAD, and now Revit. I have had to greatly adapt the processes of architecture over the years. I joke with staff that we used to fax addendums to contractors!
Talk about some of your career milestones or achievements. My career milestones are the projects I have worked on over the years. Having 25 years of projects in the St. Louis Metro East area, I can drive any direction and see a project I worked on. Each one represents a moment in time personally and professionally in my life. Certain projects remind me of the birth of my children, the group of people I was hanging out with at the time, or simply what songs were popular that year!
What inspired you to pursue architecture? I grew up in Red Bud, Illinois. Living in a small community and having family and friends who are tradespersons and farmers taught me a lot about construction and how to come up with solutions to everyday issues, also known as “design.” This led me to pursue a career in architecture.