Raised in New York City, Jan graduated from Williams College in 1985 with honors in the history of ideas and later went to the Harvard University Graduate School of Design to receive his MA in architecture in 1990. He has worked as an architect in Berlin since 1994. He has been a regular contributor to a wide range of publications, including The New York Times, the Harvard Design Magazine, the International Herald Tribune, Places Magazine, and the Architectural Record, writing chiefly about European architecture and urbanism. He teaches urban studies and sustainability at the IES Berlin Metropolitan Studies Program, and has served as an invited guest critic or lecturer at the Technische Universität in Berlin, the University of Warsaw Architecture School, and the Architectural Association in London. Jan is the Academic Director of the Northeastern University School of Architecture Berlin Program, where he also teaches two required seminars.