It’s the People Who Make the Place / John Shiver

As Director of Education Practice, Mr. Shiver is passionate about creating memorable places that inspire learning. His 30 years of experience have been solely focused on the education sector for K-12 and higher education projects and clients. Prior to joining GFF, John spent his professional time leading his own firm for 20 years as well as serving as practice and market leader at Stantec and PBK. John has extensive experience in the planning and design of large complex projects and working with multiple stakeholders including boards, administrative teams, staff and community groups. His experience ranges from leading long range facilities master planning efforts for a single building within a campus to leading district-wide planning for large urban school districts. This includes the masterplan for the 14 comprehensive high schools at Fort Worth ISD that included 5 million SF and a $2 billion dollar facility and behavioral assessment.

John is passionate about building relationships and assisting clients in defining their vision and goals, delivering projects at the highest level possible and exceeding expectations. He helps foster a culture of excellence in the pursuit of work, design and execution of the work by leading teams, mentoring staff and contributing thought leadership to the education sector. John is regularly engaged to write, present at conferences and recently served on the Texas Association of School Administrators Committee on Facilities Standards, serving on the Learning Environment Sub-committee where he helped write the new standards that went into effect in 2021.

John has spent thirty years exclusively serving the education sector as a practice leader and thought leader. Mr. Shiver received his Bachelor of Environmental Design Degree from Texas A&M University in 1990 and his Master of Architecture Degree from Texas A&M University in 1992.