Jeri Oka
Bachelor of Science, Landscape Architecture, California Polytechnic University
Prior to joining JERDE as a design principal in 2006, Jeri was the firm's go-to landscape consultant for nearly 20 years. As a key design principal for JERDE, Jeri brings a wealth of creative knowledge related to urban mixed-use environments and spatial design. She leads the firms urbanCORE™ group responsible for project pre-design, programming, and repositioning. Her strong understanding of soft programming and placemaking, coupled with extensive expertise in site planning and landscape design, provide her with a special ability to integrate high level experiential qualities with the pragmatic requirements of a project into innovative design solutions.
Our core values are so timeless... it's the ability to evoke an emotion, to create a memory for [people], to create something that's very tangible in the sense of design. That core message, that doesn't change with trends, that's a consistent element that keeps evolving.
From conceptualization to branding, her strategies go beyond traditional mixed-use program categories. Jeri integrates private with public, indoor with outdoor, work with leisure, hospitality with function – and makes strategic use of existing adjacencies to create unparalleled environments. Jeri is an expert at merging multi-use design with the modernization of the social experience. By considering every aspect of a place, Jeri's concepts create the greatest return for clients and guests alike. She believes in creating environments that appeal to modern sensibilities on an interpersonal level.
Jeri's sketches
Jeri believes that in order to create a timeless place, you must consider connective, transformative, and long-lasting experiential design. Architecture as a profession has taken on a sense of formality via sector categories, which need to be approached in a different manor - beyond traditional design. She takes an organic approach to her craft by thinking about how different elements and spaces can work together, to create an inclusive environment that will stand the test of time, for the community and global arena alike.
Explore some of Jeri's work
