Our interdisciplinary team of architects, designers, artists, project managers and storytellers take pride in collaborating with clients to create hotels, restaurants, residences, spas, shops, entertainment venues and office spaces throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. 

JMA invents and manufactures the design components for public projects. These include architectural details, lighting, furnishings, artwork and graphics. 

Principals Jordan Mozer, Jeff Carloss and Karen Lilly Mozer, have worked in partnership for nearly 30 years.

Jordan Mozer

Founder / Principal

Jordan Mozer is the founder and principal of Jordan Mozer & Associates, Limited (JMA). Prior to earning two degrees, one in Industrial Design and a second in architecture, he studied painting, sculpture and English literature, all of which inform his work on a daily basis. He is as attentive to the details of every client’s business plan as he is to the look of each logo he designs and the craftsmanship of each door pull he carves by hand.

Stanley Tigerman called him “a Renaissance man.”

Justin Henderson described him as “visionary, idiosyncratic and utterly original”, “a poet, an artist and a maker of magic” and “a springboard into the realm of architecture as art.”

Sleeper Magazine referred to him as “one of the hotel industry’s most innovative and provocative designers.”

Bob Puccini said Jordan is “the thinking man’s designer.”

In Crain’s Chicago Business, Barbara Bucholtz dubbed him “Chicago’s other Jordan.”

Kate Neisser writes:
“If Antoni Gaudi and Lewis Carroll had a love child, it would be Jordan Mozer, the founder, co-owner and president of Jordan Mozer & Associates, Ltd. (JMA). In fact, it was coming across a book of Gaudi’s work that inspired Mozer to pursue an architecture degree. Before then, he recalls, he didn’t realize architecture could be practiced as abstract expressionism.

Since founding JMA in 1984, Jordan and the firm have built an international reputation for consistently original, successful and newsworthy design for clients as varied as Disney, Marriott, Barney’s New York and the Rolling Stones. Approaching each project as a poetic narrative, Mozer creates idiosyncratic ecosystems that reflect the overarching storyline. Every surface and component populating the space is designed and manufactured to Mozer’s specifications, resulting in immersive environments that make you feel like you’re walking into a dream.
For than 33 years, his work has been included in books, magazines, newspapers, museum exhibitions and both public and private collections. Jordan has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the University of Illinois Champaign and the University of Illinois Chicago, sat on numerous design juries and panels and continues to guest teach and lecture extensively throughout the United States and Europe.”

Jeff Carloss

Architect / Principal

Ever since he can remember, Jeff has loved taking things apart. Yes, he was that kid and it’s a good thing, too, because it’s that kid’s tinkering that evolved into the technical innovation necessary to actualize Jordan’s ideas. As Jordan sketches and talks of new ideas, Jeff is thinking about how they might be built or fabricated, what the costs might be, who could do the work and how long it may take to complete.

He has been an integral part of JMA since 1992 when he joined the firm as a project architect and quickly became a key figure for his creativity, effective management style and strong technical skills.

Jeff works closely with Jordan on design, product and project development, client relations, and business strategies, and his oversight helps to ensure that projects are conceived, developed and completed on time and within budget.

He has been a partner since 1999 leading each of the architectural and product design teams for the firm, supervising the implementation of each project from inception to completion, including the coordination of consultants, fabricators, suppliers and contractors.

Jeff has also been a guest lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a juror at Miami University in Oxford Ohio. He currently holds professional registrations in Illinois, Indiana, Florida, California, Texas, Ohio, Mississippi, Washington DC, New York, Michigan, New Jersey and Nevada.

Prior to joining JMA, Jeff was a partner at Felus-Carloss Design Group in Los Angeles, and was Director of Design and Development at Vavrus & Associates, a Chicago area developer.

Jeff’s interest in how things work continues beyond the office, restoring his early 60’s British roadster and competing in vintage racing with his 1959 Austin Healey Sprite.

Karen Mozer

Designer / Principal

"She starts with something true, however small or seemingly inconsequential. She calls it a pivot point. From there she builds outward, creating spaces that feel authentic and deeply resonant.”
-A Happy Residential Client

"I had ideas but lacked the vocabulary to express them. Karen was able to channel what I was thinking and translate it into an aesthetic that reflects me and my family, and functions for how we live.”
-An Ongoing Residential Client

When Karen Lilly met Jordan Mozer in 1989 she never dreamed of co-parenting a potbellied pig named Clemente, let alone becoming a co-owner of and principal designer for an award-winning architecture and design firm. But then, by the time of their meeting she had already opened and managed the Lilly Gallery specializing in 20th-century decorative arts in Saratoga Springs, NY where she graduated from Skidmore College. It was not just the objects themselves that Karen loved, but the way they affected and were affected by space. With this in mind, she moved to Chicago and earned her interior design degree in 1987. Through design and the development of corporate art collections for such clients as Quaker Oats and JMB Realty, Karen joined the movement that re-imagined the workplace. She then branched out on her own and, three years after Clemente went to live on a farm, Karen and Jordan joined forces personally and professionally when they married in 1995.

Karen specializes in contemporary residential design, but when she renovated and furnished a residence designed by local legends Edgar Miller and Sol Kogan, the spark of her passion for historic space was reignited. Karen’s remarkable ability to meld modernity with the original architectural integrity of space can be seen in the many projects she’s completed in homes by icons such as Miller and Kogan, Benjamin Marshall and William LeBaron Jenny.
Karen is a former president and current Life Director of the Architecture & Design Society of the Art Institute of Chicago, helped found and serves on the Board of Directors of The Trotter Project and was a founding board member of the JMTF Foundation. She has extensive experience in not-for-profit fundraising in the arts, politics and other causes, and is a member of the Arts Club of Chicago. She and Jordan have three daughters.