Life Together.
John and Alyssa of KUNST
I had lunch today with John and Alyssa of KUNST. Over the years, we’ve worked on several projects together as their company has evolved. Our initial collaboration was a magazine project. The publication covered old local buildings and the people who take care of them. Nowadays, John and Alyssa are the ones taking care of the buildings, restoring them into private apartments, and co-living communities around downtown Cincinnati.
John and Alyssa are neat people who are interested in more than packing apartments. John hails from Upstate New York, and he moved to Cincinnati to study engineering and business at The University of Cincinnati. He still practices his engineering skills by hopping into code every so often to escape the chaos of a building project. Alyssa is a Cincinnati native and historian with a Ph.D. from The University of Cincinnati. She has written two books related to citizen activism, social justice, and policy-making. For her next book, she is hoping to write a history of post-Cold War era refugees.
In the photo above, the couple appears to have a European sense of style, but don’t be fooled. It’s not uncommon to catch them in their work clothes, layered in the dust and dirt of a building that they are tending to. John and Alysa’s combined range of interests and side-projects makes them a dynamic duo. It gives KUNST character, unlike any other urban developer.
Following our lunch, I felt motivated to pull a few images out of the archive from past KUNST projects. Together, the images represent an evolution of a ideas, a company, and relationships.
Consider living in one of John and Alyssa’s buildings. At the very least, join their newsletter.