Jo Palma is a Portuguese-Canadian

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and founder of PALMA.

Early life

Jo Palma was born in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, and served in the Portuguese Navy. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Victoria College and a Masters in Architecture from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

Career

Jo Palma worked as an architect for the firm

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel A. Owings, Nathaniel Owings in Chicago, Illinois. In 1939, they were joined by engineer Jo ...

. In 2015 Palma joined the architecture firm Perkins+Will, where he served as the Regional Design Director, EMEA, working out of their London office. He later founded the

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

firm PALMA.

Buildings and projects

Over his career he has designed and masterplanned buildings on five continents in total. These projects have included mixed-use buildings, skyscrapers, government headquarters, residential complexes (like the Admirala Lazareva in St. Petersburg, Russia), transportation hubs (like the Dublin Airport New Terminal Expansion), civic institutions (like the Panama International Convention Center in

Panama City Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is locat ...

), and community centers (like the Paulínia Smart Community in

Paulínia Paulínia is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. It is part of the São Paulo Macrometropolis. The population is 112,003 (2020 est.) in an area of 138.78 km². The elevation is 590 m. It is known for hosting the Replan, t ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

). He has also helped to produce master plans for cities including

Antalya, Turkey Antalya () is the fifth-most populous city in Turkey as well as the capital of Antalya Province. Located on Anatolia's southwest coast bordered by the Taurus Mountains, Antalya is the largest Turkish city on the Mediterranean coast outside the Ae ...

. Palma was the Chief Architect of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters in Brussels, which opened in 2017. He also the designed the

Baltimore Tower Baltimore Tower, also known as Arena Tower and nicknamed The Slinky due to its resemblance to the popular toy, is a high-rise residential skyscraper in Millwall on the Isle of Dogs, London, England. The building is located on a site that was pr ...

London, UK London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major se ...

, and the Liansheng Financial Center in

Taiyuan, China Taiyuan (; ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ; also known as (), ()) is the capital and largest city of Shanxi Province, People's Republic of China. Taiyuan is the political, economic, cultural and international exchange center of Shanxi Province. ...

. Palma is the designer of the

Cayan Tower Cayan Tower, known as Infinity Tower before it was inaugurated, is a , 75-story skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates by Cayan Real Estate Investment and Development. The tower is designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill SOM architectural g ...

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

, which is the tallest twisting tower in the world, in addition to the city's

Rolex Tower The Rolex Tower is a 59-floor tower in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The tower has a total structural height of 235 m (771 ft). Construction of the Rolex Tower was completed in 2010; the tower's inauguration was 7 November 2010. The b ...

. In 2018 Palma began designing The Miami Basel building in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

, a thirty-six story mixed-use development.

References

External links

Jo Palma on Palma Architect
{{DEFAULTSORT:Palma, Jo Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Portuguese architects 21st-century Canadian architects University of Toronto alumni Canadian people of Portuguese descent