Jason Ivaliotis is the director of design at Hill West Architects in New York and has taught digital fabrication, visualization and construction technology at Columbia, Parsons and Pratt. He spent eight years on the two largest buildings at Essex Crossing on Manhattan's Lower East Side, one drawn in AutoCAD and the next in Revit. He is worth hearing because he moves between theory, the job site and community board meetings, and argues that communication is the architect's core skill.

Jason Ivaliotis, Director of Design, Hill West Architects

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In this conversation

How Jason chose to stay uncomfortable, from an arts-first undergraduate program to experimental studios at Columbia.

What changed between an all-AutoCAD tower and a Revit tower at Essex Crossing, and how construction lessons fed the next design.

Why a community board will not be won over by a building that makes the sun shine on one condo roof.

A Florida resort where buyers toured their future condo in VR, and why Jason's own wife reminds him not everyone can see a design until it is built.

What owners of half-empty office towers in New York should watch as the city rewrites its conversion rules.

If I was too comfortable I wasn't learning anything and I wasn't growing.

Jason Ivaliotis

Chapters

Comfortably uncomfortable

From New Jersey job sites to Columbia's digital studios and a teaching career.

From concept to execution

Speaking the contractor's language, and what Revit changed at Essex Crossing.

Are we at the mercy of our tools?

Why pioneering digital design needs a proven path to production.

Telling the community a story

Essex Crossing, South Station and why New York's specialists free architects to design.

Seeing it before it's built

VR tours as a sales tool and the limits of what clients can picture.

Empty towers, full waiting lists

Office conversions, mixed use and the growth of urban living across the country.

By the numbers

1991

New cutoff year: most nonresidential buildings in New York City built before 1991 can now convert to housing, up from 1961

Jason hoped city planning would open conversion eligibility to more office buildings. The City of Yes for Housing Opportunity rules, adopted in December 2024, moved the cutoff forward by 30 years.

Source: NYC Department of City Planning, City of Yes for Housing Opportunity: Conversions ↗

You can't have the concept and expect somebody else to execute it if you don't understand the execution yourself.

Jason Ivaliotis

Takeaways

Learn how things are actually built. Knowing how tile is laid or concrete is poured lets an architect judge work on site and design details that can be executed.

Treat each project as input for the next: Jason rolled construction questions from one Essex Crossing tower directly into the drawings and model of the second.

Owners of older office buildings should check whether their building qualifies for residential conversion and position it for investors, since tenants will compete for the most amenitized offices.

I would say take some courses in psychology and sociology. Psychology is going to help you with your communication, your negotiation skills and understanding where people are coming from.

Jason Ivaliotis