R. Thomas Jones

Tom Jones is Professor of Architecture and Director of the San Francisco Urban Program for Cal Poly, and practices architecture in San Francisco.  He served as a Fulbright Scholar in the UK in 2016.   From 2003 to 2012, Tom was the Dean of the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Cal Poly.  A graduate of Cornell University, his career includes 50 years of private, non-profit, and governmental practice in architecture, planning, non-profit housing development, and land use policy.  

Prior to Cal Poly, he was the Executive Director of the California Futures Network, a statewide coalition of business, labor, housing, environmental, and social justice organizations fostering smart growth models for California.  His career also includes a breadth of positions related to the planning, design, financing, and operations of affordable housing.  This expertise includes sixteen years of direct project work, policy development work, and executive leadership as a HUD Community Builder, as Director of Special Projects in the Mayors Office of Housing of San Francisco, and as Director of Architecture and Community Development at San Francisco based Asian Neighborhood Design.

Over his career Tom has designed or developed more than 800 units of affordable housing.  His work has been recognized with numerous project and leadership awards from the AIA, American Planning Association, HUD, the National Endowment for the Arts, and others.  He also co-authored the book "Good Neighbors, Affordable Family Housing."  San Francisco Magazine named him Architect of the Year in 1998 in recognition of his affordable housing and community facility designs.