Jonathan is the owner of The Building Arts Company. He has been making furniture and beautiful objects in Virginia for 25 years in both the Piedmont region and in the Shenandoah Valley. He has taken on wide and diverse challenges ranging from fine furniture and house building to fabrication of art objects, musical instruments and sculpture. While wood is certainly his primary medium, much of his work includes a wide array of materials. With an academic background in design, Jonathan offers his clients formidable design skill. Jonathan strives to give his clients work of uncommon beauty, while creating for them exactly what they desire in terms of functionality.

Jonathan draws inspiration from his surroundings, including the natural world, period and contemporary craft, manufactured objects and randomly occurring visual elements found in nature. While he most often works by commission, Jonathan also enjoys the freedom of speculative work so keep an eye out for prototype pieces that are periodically available for sale on this website.

Jonathan was a longtime member of the Association of Virginia Artisans. His work is on the Artisan’s Center of Virginia’s website, www.artisanscenterofvirginia.org, where he is a juried member. His work has been featured in an exhibition in the Shenandoah Arts Council, www.shenarts.org, and as a juried craftsman at The Waterford Fair, www.waterfordva.org, the first weekend in October. His work often graces the storefront windows of the local design studio, PJ Design, www.p-jdesigns.com. Jonathan has done restoration work for the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Belle Grove Plantation, www.bellegrove.org.

Jonathan’s academic background includes product design, environmental design and fine art. He earned degrees from Rochester Institute of Technology, www.rit.edu and Hiram College, www.hiram.edu; he’s completed coursework at the University of Virginia’s Architecture School, www.arch.virginia.edu, and Virginia Tech’s Graduate School of Architecture, www.archdesign.vt.edu.

Jonathan lives with his family in a 19th century farmhouse he’s restored and works in his studio/workshop located on the homestead near Strasburg, Virginia.