Hugh Newell Jacobsen is interviewed in this issue of Architectural Digest.
4/25
We have new phone numbers!
General switchboard is (202) 792-6855
Simon Jacobsen’s office: (202) 792-7655
Richard Cho’s Office: (202) 844-2559
Jon Althiemer’s office for business and legal matters: (202)844-6553
3/25
You can rent a Jacobsen house on Airbnb near Charlottesville, Virginia.
Here is the article:
12/24
From Washingtonian Magazine
By Eric Wills, photography by Evy Mages.
Jacobsen at the mausoleum on his farm. Every morning, he says, “I look out the window, say hello to Dad, and get on with the day.”
SIMON JACOBSEN, 59, ALL BUT GREW UP IN THE OFFICE OF HIS father, celebrated architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen. The elder man was a towering figure in the profession, responsible for the Renwick Gallery’s interior restoration, the west-terrace addition at the US Capitol, and hundreds of projects in Georgetown, where he lived. In 2009, father and son became partners in Jacobsen Architecture, where, among other projects, they renovated more than a dozen houses Hugh had designed decades before. When the pandemic hit, they moved to a farm in Delaplane, Virginia. After Hugh died in 2021, Simon designed a mirrored mausoleum on his property to house his father’s ashes. We spoke to him about the meaning behind the memorial.
“HE WAS SITTING IN AN URN in my living room. It had been six months since he passed, and I couldn’t give him a funeral because of Covid. I found this poem by Han Kang, and it read, ‘After you died I could not hold a funeral, and so my life became a funeral.’ I just woke up one morning and said, ‘I bet we could do it like this.’ It was divine guidance.
“The dimensions are three feet 11 inches deep, which is March 11, his birthday, and six feet wide, which was his height. It’s pointing towards Washington and Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he was born. It’s framed the way he framed his buildings. We wake up in the morning and I look out the window, say hello to Dad, and get on with the day. He’s on a stainless-steel-and-slate plinth he designed for another project that just ended up in the office.
“[The mausoleum] will mimic whatever is around it. Which is one of Hugh’s quotes from the ’80s: He said, ‘Like a lady, the best house is polite to her neighbors and never shouts.’ Try that today. But it’s kind of what this thing does. It sits in the background and is quiet.
“We get visitors from all over—a busload on a wine tour, or colleagues of his that have made the trek.
“[He and I] formed a company together in 2009. It’s one of the nicest things anybody’s ever done for me, because he didn’t need to. He wasn’t my best friend, and I wasn’t his, but we had each other’s backs.
“We like to say our clients look really good in our houses. When we design them, we’re imagining cocktail hour, when the long shadows start and somebody opens a bottle of wine. The mission is always chasing that 45-degree roof with no trim, no molding. I’m still chasing that aesthetic. And I don’t dare wander off, because the world is watching. But we can’t just recreate Hugh’s fingerprint. We’ve got to bring it into the 22nd century.
“I’m still working on his legacy, and mine, and the legacy of this company. It’s like holding onto the ears of a wolf. No matter how unpleasant it is, you don’t dare let go.”
2024/2025
Simon Jacobsen
and Jacobsen Architecture has been inducted into
Forbes Magazine’s “Forbes 200-America’s Top Residential Architecture Firms.”
From the Editor
Founded by the celebrated architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen in 1960, Jacobsen Architecture is the successor firm led by the son, Simon Jacobsen, and headquartered in the heart of Virginia's horse country, but its influence extends far and wide. There aren't many firms on this list that count the U.S. Capitol or a Parisian hotel or the Smithsonian among its notable works, mixed in with the needs of discerning residential clients or the vanguard of American universities. Can there be a unified philosophy for this sort of firm, working at so many different scales and for different ends? Jacobsen's team thinks so—and it has to do with architecture being the measure of its parts. The Bray House, Jacobsen's Featured Project, is a notable example of pavilion-like forms assembled in an unforgettable conversation between an old and new.
4/20/24
Simon Jacobsen will be speaking at The National Building Museum’s “The Big Draw” lecture series.
Time: 2:00pm
Main auditorium.
FREE Admission.
National Building Museum
401 F Street NW
Washington, DC 20001
info@nbm.org
202.272.2448
10/2/23
Richmond, Virginia.
Jacobsen will be speaking and signing his new book at The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University. Reception to follow.
Time: 12:30 PM. For more information, contact the museum at https://icavcu.org/.
07/2023
Jacobsen to be on Awards Jury.
Simon Jacobsen will be a judge in the Architecture Category for the annual Home & Design Awards. The winners of both Grand and Merit awards will be showcased in the 2024 Idea Book, which stays on newsstands for a full year, and announced at a festive celebration in Fall 2023. Deadline for entries is June 1, 2023.
Lecture and book signing with Simon Jacobsen
Join Simon Jacobsen, founding partner of Jacobsen Architecture, LLC, for a look at the last years and legacy of his father Hugh Newell Jacobsen, FAIA (1929–2021), their collaboration over the past 20 years, and his eventual succession as Principal and owner of the firm.
Jacobsen’s new 224-page book, American Modern Home, will be on hand for purchasing before the talk and signing afterward. The book, an expression of eloquent design featuring interiors, exteriors, and gardens, examines twelve of the firm’s recent houses around the United States.
02/16/2023
“Hugh Newell Jacobsen and The Reluctant Path Forward.”
District Architecture Center
421 7th Street NW
Washington, DC 20004
6:00PM-8:00PM
Price: $25 for Non-Members
$15 for Members
$10 for Students
Registration required-CLICK HERE
For more info
please CLICK HERE
11/20/22
Book signing event at the Jacobsen designed Boxwood Winery.
Join the firm in celebrating the new book and have any number of fine varieties of Boxwood’s inventory of award winning estate grown wines. Simon Jacobsen has just completed “American Modern Home” published by Rizzoli and will be selling signed copies of the new book.
Sunday Nov. 20th
Boxwood Winery
Middleburg, Virginia.
12:00pm-2:30pm
RSVP
11/12/22
Book signing and talk.
Peter Miller Books
Post Alley, 304 Alaskan Way South, Seattle.
Time: TBA
Join Simon Jacobsen in Seattle at Peter Miller Books for the debut of his new book “American Modern Home.” Mr. Jacobsen will be signing books and giving a brief talk about the collaborative work with his father, the late Hugh Newell Jacobsen. For further information call Peter Miller Books at (206) 441-4114 or write Books@jacobsenarchitecture.com.
10-26-22
Simon Jacobsen’s “American Modern Home” ranks #1 on Amazon.com in the Residential Architecture category.
10/25/2022
Simon Jacobsen’s new book on the firm’s recent work “American Modern Home” lands in stores October 25th.
Readers who wish to purchase a personalized or signed copy may now do so through the Jacobsen Architecture website by clicking here…
9/2022
Simon Jacobsen designs a mirrored pavilion for his father’s final resting place.
One hour West of Washington, D.C. in the enclave of Delaplane, Virginia, lay the final resting place of Hugh Newell Jacobsen, Architect. The mirrored pavilion was designed and constructed using many of Hugh Jacobsen’s unique details and methods. Clad in single pieces of Low-E Starphire mirrors, it is traditionally framed, like many of his houses, in 2x4 and 2x6 framing and plywood sheathing. Inside, Hugh’s ashes sit contained on a stainless steel and bluestone plinth.
The proportions of the little pavilion are those of significance to the Great Man himself: It is 6’-0” wide (His height), it is 3’-11” deep (his birthday) and it faces Michigan and Washington at each gable.
The mirrored mausoleum resides on the estate of his son and business partner.
12/2022
At long last Hugh Jacobsen’s memorial is being planned. The venue will be at The National Building Museum in Washington. With the recurring nemesis of COVID, plans were made and then hastily cancelled.
Date: TBA
Where: National Building Museum
2022
May 12, 6:00PM
Taste for Design, Spyhouse, Secret Ingredients
Gaggenau dinner and discussion
Métier Restaurant
1015 7th St NW, Washington, DC
Simon Jacobsen will be on the panel discussion sponsored by Gaggenau, Home & Design and Michelin and will be discussing his recent project Spy House, the clever use of Gaggenau appliances and his upcoming book. The event will be at the Michelin starred Métier Restaurant and Chef Eric Ziebold and Joan Dempsey will also be present.
Release date: September 20, 2022.
“American Modern Home” by Simon Jacobsen.
12 recent houses by the internationally acclaimed architecture and interior design firm Jacobsen Architecture. Guided by Hugh Newell Jacobsen and his son, Simon, the firm distills vernacular building types into designs that feel grounded in history yet are fervently forward-thinking.
Fall 21/Spring 21
$75
11 x 11
224 pages
Hardcover with jacket
225 photographs
Pre-order yours at Amazon by clicking here…
December 2021
Gaggenau Appliances
…to spotlight the Spy House kitchen in new ad campaign. Demonstrations, interviews with owners and architects.
March 6th, 2021
Simon Jacobsen was interviewed by Thom Filicia (Style Network and HGTV’s “Queer Eye for The Straight Guy” and Bravo’s “Get A Room with Carson & Thom”) on his Instagram show “House Calls with Thom Filicia” Much was discussed from process of designing and his current projects. Click on the image to start.
Simon Jacobsen was interviewed by Thom Filicia (Style Network and HGTV’s “Queer Eye for The Straight Guy” and Bravo’s “Get A Room with Carson & Thom”) on his Instagram show “House Calls with Thom Filicia” Much was discussed from process of designing and his current projects. You can view the show here: House Calls.
2020
“Jacobsen Architecture Named Best Beach House Architect in Washington, DC” by Home Builders Digest.
2020
Award
“Architecture Award” for Bray House by The American Institute of Architects-Washington Chapter.
2020
Award
Jacobsen Architecture wins Best of Houzz Design 2020.
SPEAKING EVENT:
Simon Jacobsen will be discussing the firm’s latest work and pending book at the Academy Art Museum in Easton, Maryland.
Mr. Jacobsen will be showing stunning new images of the firm’s latest works and discussing their pending book “13 Houses” to be published by Rizzoli.
Date: November 16, 2019.
Time: 4PM
Tickets: $24 members, $29 for non-members.
Click HERE for tickets!
.
Simon Jacobsen will be a juror for the AIA Chicago’s Design Excellence Awards program July 25th, 2019.
Part II of Andrea Koppel’s interview with Simon Jacobsen about how to break into the business of architecture.
Jacobsen Architecture, LLC wishes to welcome Anna Karewicz, RA LEED AP to the firm as Project Architect.
Hugh and Simon Jacobsen are delighted to be held in such high regard by Architectural Digest in their 2019 listing of The “AD100”. Jacobsen Architecture is one of the longest running recipients of this prestigious award.
Andrea Koppel spoke to Simon Jacobsen on her podcast Time4coffee. The podcast is aimed at younger people who are seeking tips and guidance on launching a career and the two discussed the life in architecture and what Jacobsen does day to day running an international practice. Other topics include Hugh Newell Jacobsen, design and challenges in a high octane creative environment. The enlightening and entertaining interview can be found below…
SPEAKING EVENT:
Simon Jacobsen will be speaking
in St. Michaels, Maryland.
—
DATE AND TIME
Sat, January 19, 2019
5:00 PM – 6:30 PM .
—
St. Michaels Inn
1228 South Talbot Street
Saint Michaels, MD.
—
1.5 AIA L.U. credits will be issued for architects.
—
The Talbot Spy: A Project Fund of the Mid-Shore Community Foundation .
Tickets can be purchased below…
JACOBSEN ARCHITECTURE WINS 2018 American Institute of Architects-Washington Chapter Merit Award in Interior Architecture for “Spy House.”
James Garner's house by Hugh Jacobsen is for sale...Click here.
January 25, 2018
Simon Jacobsen will be speaking to students and faculty at The Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore.
Time 12:15pm
Jacobsen Book IV in development...
The firm is wrapping up and shooting the remaining projects that will be the fourth book on the firm's latest work entitled "Jacobsen Architecture, 2007-2018".
The monograph will consist of 15 projects from Florida, Maine, Martha's Vineyard, Washington, Virginia, New York, Colorado, Nantucket, Vermont and Pennsylvania.
A quote from Hugh Jacobsen in the Times Record:
"Architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen once wrote, “Picasso said that no one has to explain a daffodil. Good design is understandable in everybody. You never have to ask why.”
Appointments: Greg Thomas, AIA Senior Project Architect
and
Lindsay Clark, Interior Design Coordinator.
The Washington Post writes a nice story about Hugh Newell Jacobsen returning to the first house he ever designed.
3-16-17
Simon Jacobsen will be speaking at the Architectural Digest Design Show.
Pier 94, 55th Street and 12th Avenue, New York City.Time and specific location : TBA
Architectural Digest publishes a small country cottage by Simon Jacobsen.
From Architectural Digest August 5, 2016
“Minimalism in architecture is a movement. Maximalism is a lifestyle of living in an unimprovable space that can’t be altered structurally so one must overwhelm the senses with objects, pillows, and color. True minimalism uses the refinement of materials and the poetry of intersecting planes with the relationship of objects and their proximity to each other. Maximalism is hedonistic and bohemian in its message. If you can’t hide it, paint it red.” —Simon Townsend Jacobsen of Jacobsen Architecture
http://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/designers-debate-maximalist-minimalist-homes
The Hugh Newell Jacobsen Dream House 2.0 is ready and taking orders.
Contact The Herring Bay Holding Company to place your order.
Website:
Email:
Out in April 2016:
Jacobsen Architecture will be featured in H&D's book "100 Top Designers".
The Wall Street Journal writes about a Simon Jacobsen project in Maine that renovates and encapsulates one of America's oldest houses.
"Rediscovering the Campus-Style Family Home
"For Bray House, managing design partner Simon Jacobsen envisioned a series of minimalist white pavilions that he felt would fit into the architecture of New England. Set back slightly behind the original house, he said, the single-level structures would also ensure that Bray House, believed to have been built in 1662, would remain “the belle of the ball..."
JA wins Best of Houzz" award for 2016.
32 Million subscribers voted us as their favorite design firm.
Architectural Digest's 2016 AD100 selection of The Jacobsens can be seen here...