School of Architecture College of Architecture + Planning

Jory Walker, AIA is a Principal Architect and President of Beecher Walker, located in Holladay, Utah. As a design architect, one guiding principal has consistently impacted Jory’s creativity in architectural design—and it all started with an insight from Pablo Picasso. “Good artists borrow, great artists steal.”  A great artist drinks in all that others have created, they absorb it, they learn from it, then they use it to stimulate their own creativity to produce something that is fresh and belongs uniquely to them.  For the last 25 years, Jory has done just that and as a consequence has been influential in changing the design landscape of the Salt Lake Valley and many other markets across the country.

Jory received his Bachelor and Master of Architecture degrees and his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Utah, where he was honored with many awards and scholarships, including the Arcom Computer Design Scholarship, The University of Utah Teaching Fellowship and an A.I.A.S. Award for Design. He has also spent time previously as guest faculty at the University of Utah. Early in his career, Jory explored and forged new ground through the creation of a computer design tool to bring three-dimensional animation capabilities to life and create a new way of looking at the design process—something that many take for granted now as part of architecture but at the time was ground-breaking. Since then, Jory has continued to be an out-of-the-box thinker and designer by pushing the boundaries of where aesthetic meets function. Jory has a diverse portfolio of work from large scale themed hotel work in Las Vegas, to commercial high-rise, mixed-use, retail, restaurant, residential and public works projects in Utah, Texas, Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming and more. Jory and his team at Beecher Walker have been honored with numerous design awards from prestigious organizations both nationally and regionally. Between work and speaking engagements, Jory enjoys painting, sculpting and mountain biking the beautiful mountains and canyons of the nearby Wasatch Range.