Jack Wood

Urban Design Coordinator

A native of Chattanooga, Jack took great inspiration from witnessing the transformation that took place in the city throughout his upbringing. This inspiration and an innate passion for urbanism led him to earn his bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the University of Tennessee. He then earned a master's degree in Urban Planning from the City College of New York, where he spent a semester collaborating with the Istanbul Metropolitan Planning and Urban Design Center in Turkey on the design of a new city on the region’s Black Sea coast.

Jack’s professional path for more than a decade has given him experience in many facets of the architecture and design field, including urban design; historic preservation; and retail design in the healthcare, foodservice, and retail industries in Chattanooga, Nashville, and around the United States.

Jack is driven by a love of history and how It shapes our built environment and consistently seeks to explore and understand how the historic and cultural strata of a city speaks to the community’s current needs as well as its path forward. He is honored to be home In Chattanooga with a chance to contribute to the city that has given him so much.

 

 

Eric Myers, AIA, NCARB, LEED® AP BD+C

Executive Director


Eric Myers was appointed as the Executive Director of the Chattanooga Design Studio in March 2017. In this role he oversees strategic development, fiscal performance, and is the Studio’s primary spokesperson to the media and the general public. Under his leadership, the Studio has begun to strengthen relationships with various outside organizations and has aligned the studio’s program focus to help the Board of Directors engage on specific mission related opportunities.
Eric is a LEED accredited registered architect and urban designer with a broad ranging background and breadth of experience in Chattanooga and the Southeast. For over 22 years Eric has practiced architecture and urban design in Chattanooga. Prior to joining the Chattanooga Design Studio, Eric founded a design firm and through his 10 years of leadership, the organization helped create urban housing, commercial retail and offices, healthcare facilities, historic preservation efforts, as well as urban design and neighborhood structure plans. Eric was also urban design coordinator at the community’s legacy studio which operated from 1980 until 2005. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Eric currently serves on the Board of Directors for La Paz Chattanooga. He has served on the Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise Board of Directors (2012-2020) and is past president of Cornerstones, Inc. and the Chattanooga Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Myers also served a 2014 to 2017 appointment to the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission.

Board of Directors

Cihan Johnson Chair

Johanna Heywood
Past Chair
LaBella Associates

 

Bobby Hutcherson Secretary
EPB

Eric Myers
President
Chattanooga Design Studio

 

Chris Crimmins
Chattanooga Land Company

Heidi Hefferlin
HK Architects

Andrea Hardaway
First Property Management

 

Jim Williamson
River City Company

Ashlee Patten
The Patten Group

 

Rob Taylor
CityScape Development Services

 

Lisa Pinckney
Advisory Committee
Footprint Foundation
 

Macon Toledano
Advisory Committee
Lyndhurst Foundation

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In memoriam


Christian S. Rushing, LEED AP
Executive Director (2015-2017)

Christian Sinclair Rushing was a founder and the first executive director of The Chattanooga Design Studio. He died Wednesday, February 1, 2017, after a two-year struggle with gall bladder cancer. In many ways, The Chattanooga Design Studio will be a perpetual memorial to Christian’s leadership, his vision, and his unwavering courage. He will live forever within the influence of the lives that he touched and his efforts in urban design. Christian will always be remembered as a great leader who led with great charm.

Christian believed that good design is for everyone. He also believed in the power of collective will and collaborative visioning. He held a bachelor’s degree from the University of New Mexico, and a master’s degree from Auburn University. Christian led and contributed heavily in several urban design visioning processes in Chattanooga and other cities in the US for two decades. He moderated River City Company’s Urban Design Challenge, created the Urban Design Studio Retrospective, and served as lead consultant for Chattanooga’s City Center Plan. Christian was Senior Planner in Chattanooga’s former Downtown Planning & Design Studio for five years and in 2005 he was a founding principal of the planning firm, Kennedy, Coulter, Rushing & Watson. He also designed and developed the LEED award-winning Madison Street homes in 2008.

Christian’s weekly writings instilled many faithful readers with hope and joy while providing an infusion of his opinions and a glimpse into his extraordinary character. But he was more than a talented writer, with a personality larger than the South, his river of life and love were filled by design, sports, cooking and above all his family. He was an enthusiastic chef often testing the genius of the likes of Escoffier and Henderson.

The Chattanooga Design Studio is forever indebted to Christian Rushing’s efforts and talents. It is with Christian’s memory that we recall the connection of life which binds us all and further reminds us to cherish the virtues of urban design that are rooted in human liberty and human happiness.

Christian’s self-written obituary may be read here.