Judy Jeska

Architecture and design have always been a part of Judy Jeska’s life. Growing up in Minnesota, she remembers how she would carefully arrange piles of autumn leaves into floor plans in her family’s backyard, complete with doors and windows. She did it while moving around on a pair of crutches – a constant in her life after contracting polio at age 1-and-a-half, before the vaccine became available in 1954.

Jeska went on to get an architectural degree from the University of Washington. She went to work for Starbucks in 1994 designing stores, and was on a team that then-CEO Howard Schultz challenged with opening 2,000 stores by the year 2000. They beat the challenge by 200 stores.

Life took some unexpected turns for Jeska and her husband, Rodger, in 2007. Jeska fell and broke her arm, making getting around difficult, since she couldn’t use crutches. Then Rodger was laid off and two days later he fell and broke his arm. They reassessed life and decided to move to Rodger’s hometown of Salinas.

As they drove into town, Jeska asked Rodger to stop at the 1937 art deco courthouse building, designed by Robert Stanton, on West Alisal Street to admire its beauty. She had no idea then that she would one day lead the county’s project to renovate and restore what is now known asthe East West Wing, a $40 million effort. She took a job in the Monterey County Department of Public Works Architectural Services Department in 2008.

The last four years have been intense for Jeska. She simultaneously managed both the courthouse renovation and the Schilling Place project, an annex of county buildings in an industrial park off Highway 101. Next week she’s retiring, and plans to move with her husband back to Minnesota, where they are restoring a 100-year-old house.

Weekly: Congratulations on the East West Wing. What’s your favorite thing about it?

Jeska: I’m just so in love with the courtyard. I love being in that space now, everything before was so overgrown you couldn’t see the architecture or the Jo Mora sculptures or the fountain. Now it’s neat and clean, back to the original design intent that Stanton had. I’m extremely proud of both projects (Schilling Place), but the East West I find to be an exceptional piece of architecture to begin with, and to have it as my last project – I was very honored.

I assume the East West Wing was the harder of the two projects, given that it was an older building?

The Schilling building was much harder, because when the county got the site (from Capital One) it also came with complete workstations inside. It was like a ghost town. It was almost weird and scary, because there wasn’t even a paper clip on the floor but there was a sea of workstations, of every size and configuration. We had to tear apart all the workstations and stack them into similar piles so when we got done with the design we could rebuild all of those things. We literally built everything back, and we had only two little pieces left over. It was a crazy mess.

What was it like rolling out more than 2,000 Starbucks stores?

It was quite the challenge. It was an exciting time, lots and lots of hours. It helped launch Starbucks in a completely different direction. After that I and another person teamed up, and because we were rolling out stores so fast and getting so many that in essence looked alike, we were charged with coming up with a new design.

Today I have to snicker because when I go into some [Starbucks stores], I’ll say, “Oh yeah, I remember that concept.”

Can you give an example?

In some of the stores – you’ll notice stores are always evolving – a good seven or 10 years ago you were starting to see quite a few stores with an industrial look to them, a lot of heavy metal, thicker bases to tables and heavier wood. That was one of the concepts we had.

Your favorite Starbucks drink?

They all know my drink: a tall latte, nonfat. That’s all I ever get.