Born and raised in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, the backdrop to Jon Calabria’s childhood was rural farmland. After graduating from high school in Augusta County, he moved to Norfolk to attend college at Old Dominion University near the beach. He later transferred to the University of Georgia, where he received his professional degree in landscape architecture.
Jon went into private practice for about ten years, then worked for North Carolina State University on erosion control, stream restoration, and farmland conservation. He earned a master’s in landscape architecture and a PhD in wildlife biology from Clemson University. In 2010, he joined the College of Environment & Design at UGA, focusing on landscape architecture and the two legged wildlife – humans. In his tenure there, he and his students have collaborated on various research projects including watershed conservation, parks, and downtown revitalization.
Outside of work, Jon is a woodturner, selling his pieces as MagPi Studios (named after his dog, Maggie, and the number “Pi” for round stuff!). You can find his work in the Lyndon House Arts Center Juried Exhibit through this Saturday, and for sale at Nest on Price Avenue. He was also an artist in our inaugural Nabo Pop-up Artist Market in April! For his piece in the Lyndon House exhibit, Jon was recognized for his work this year with the Ridley M. Glover Excellence in Wood Artistry Award.
Jon now lives in Five Points with his wife, Jen, and their dog, Maggie. He has three grown children.
What is your favorite part of the work you do?
Educating the future generations of professionals. Because originally, landscape architecture was probably more for people who wanted their estate designed, or a formal garden or something like that. But we’ve really extended it to fortify restoration and thinking about the environment– how to sustain it, and how the environment sustains us. It’s tough work and it’s challenging to try to educate students about that, but the coming generation can do better than we have.
When you’re not working, what are some things you like to do in or around Athens?
I love riding the greenway. Watching its development over the past 15 years in Athens has been amazing. I like going around exploring Athens on my bike, hitting the various farmers markets – whether it’s at Creature Comforts or Bishop Park. I enjoy hot chocolate at Condor, no matter what the weather is. Probably, because I had too much fun socializing at the pub the night before. I’m not a huge bakery fan, but Jen loves going over to Independent Baking Co., so that’s a good weekend prospect. But yeah, just whatever I can do on my bike or on my own two feet.
If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would you go and why?
We did some work in Ecuador and I just think it’s a fantastic spot. The people are amazing. Super, super neat spot. They’re definitely having their challenges now, but I’d love to go back. There’s incredible wildlife, too. Unfortunately, the natural environment is changing rapidly because of the disproportionate impact from climate change. We’d love to spend some time there before that shifts into a different environment. There’s amazing birding there, condors as well as spectacled bears and just all sorts of crazy stuff that is definitely worth checking out.
The people we were coordinating with through the university were just a super group of folks. We did a master plan for a research facility expansion that ArcoLab is moving to the next level. We flew some students down there and got them to see the different environments and envision what an expansion program might look like and how that could fit into the landscape without being like colonizers showing up to ruin it.
If you could put any message on a billboard, what short message would you want to get out there?
It goes back to my Italian ancestry. The first one’s fake Italian– “Illegitimi non carborundum.” Don’t let the bastards get you down. The other one is “non rompermi le palle” (Don’t break my balls)” But, you probably don’t want to print that one.
Do you have a favorite movie?
I probably YouTube-watch more than I movie-watch, but there are a few French and Italian movies that kind of stick out for the way that they depict an apocalyptic future that is also kind of action-y without being over-the-top blood and gore, where there is some kind of great thing that comes out of it. District 13 was one that I enjoyed. Any films with this theme of an apocalyptic future that can get shifted is a good reminder, like “wow, what we do is important.”
What about a favorite book?
We have a faculty learning community and discussed a few books like Braiding Sweetgrass and really beat that to death. There’s a couple other books along those same lines that were nice to think about. I’m trying to get through The Alchemist. My loan keeps expiring because I pick it up and then get sidetracked with all the million other things I’m into.
What advice would you give to your younger self?
I’d probably ask myself more often if whatever I was worried about or felt needed attention is going to matter 100 years from then or now. You know, not sweating the small stuff. In my profession, we’re trained to be pretty cognizant of a lot of things that could go wrong. I’d tell myself to be less concerned about some of the smaller rabbit holes that I went down.
If you could see any band anywhere (it could also just be a show or a singular musician) at any time, who would it be and where?
A long time ago, I was a DJ at an alternate rock station in college. It was something I really latched on to because where I grew up it was just country music or nothing. And then I got exposed to alternative rock, and it was really great. I would say something like Mazzy Star or any of that kind of alt-rock stuff would be great to see. I’d love to see something at Red Rocks.
If you could have lunch with anyone dead or alive, who would it be and where?
Oh, my ancestors were a lot. They all immigrated at different times, but I would love to talk to my great-grandfather. I think it’d be cool to understand some of the circumstances around why they immigrated and what was going on. They’re originally Sicilian, but yeah, they had immigrated from the toe of the boot and came across the ocean. We’ve done a little bit of ancestral research and interestingly many people took on a place name when they came here, but it turns out they were actually named Calabria, so that was a good find. I’d want to see history through their eyes, particularly the environmental history, and try to understand it more, so that we don’t repeat problems.
What three words or phrases come to mind when you think of the word home?
Play. Tinker. (I don’t know what to call my hobbies.) Adapt.
Photo Credit: Andrew Davis Tucker, UGA Marketing & Communications
