Joel Berman is the founder and president of Joel Berman Architecture & Design, Ltd., a Chicago architecture firm specializing in adaptive reuse and heritage restoration for restaurant, hospitality, institutional and residential development. Project work includes the award-winning preservation and renovation of a 1920s White Castle Hamburger building, and conversion of a 1906 Chicago fire station into a major video production and editing facility.
Joel is a registered architect, and he is a member of the Association of Licensed Architects (ALA). He is certified as an Accredited Professional in Building Construction and Design by the United States Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED-AP BD+C). He is designated by the City of Chicago as a Self-Certified Architect.
Joel emphasizes the use of clear and fast sketching as part of the design process. Joel is an executive board member of Urban Sketchers (http://www.urbansketchers.org/). He has extensive experience as a teacher of architectural sketching at Columbia College Chicago, The Chicago Architecture Foundation, and The Ontario Association of Architects.
