He was born on 3 February 1933 in Warsaw, where as a young boy he spent the occupation and survived the Warsaw Uprising. From 1951 to 1956 he studied at the Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology. As a scholarship holder of the Architectural Association - School of Architecture, he spent the academic year 1956-1957 in London. After returning to the country and completing his studies, he started working in a design office: "Baumiller and Zdanowicz", later "Miastoprojekt - Stolica Południe", where he created the design of the "Millennium School" realized in the Warsaw district of Żoliborz.

In 1960, he left for the United States. For sixteen years he practised the architectural profession in various design offices and taught as an 'associate professor' at North Carolina State University, the University of Virginia, at City College New York (now University). From 1970, Tereshchenko was active professionally as a freelance designer. In Boston, he opened his own design office "Seavey and Tereszczenko Organization, Inc." and taught at the Boston Architectural Centre from 1973 to 1976.

In 1976, he settled in Canada. In Edmonton, at the firm "Bittorf, Holland Christianson", he worked on two projects for the University of Alberta: School of Business and Administration and University of Alberta Hospital, both for the City of Edmonton. From 1994 to 1996 he worked in Jakarta and from 2005 to 2008 he worked in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Major architectural projects from this period include the office building 'Sriwi Tower' in Jakarta, the design-colossus 'MK-11' residential house in Kuala Lumpur.

In addition to designing, Jan Tereshchenko was constantly painting, mainly watercolours, doing graphic work and drawing. His works were exhibited many times in galleries in Edmonton. For many years, he was involved in organising courses for the amateur art group 'The Group of Monday', painters and sculptors meeting to create together. The artist never parted with his 'black book', in which he constantly sketched. Consequently, he collected several thousand sketches on a variety of subjects.

In Singapore, he began to paint watercolours: landscapes, portraits, architecture. He presented his works at exhibitions several times. John Tereshchenko's additional activity is writing, mainly memoirs. He wrote his autobiography "Memoirs of a Varsovian egocentric "I"" and continues to write memoirs.

Work in the catalogue
Jan Tereszchenko, 'Singapore', 2006, ink drawing. Drawing capturing with a quick, light line the openwork architecture of a shopping centre in Singapore.