Stephen B. Jacobs, president and founder of Stephen B. Jacobs Group Architects, discusses trends, changes in architecture and gives advice to young architects
SBJ: I started the firm in 1967 by designing owner-occupied Brownstones, mostly on the West Side of Manhattan. All of this started with a Brownstone that I bought and renovated for his own family. Early on, I met developers who were starting to look at obsolete mercantile and industrial buildings. The 1960s and 1970s saw huge demographic changes. Industries were leaving metropolitan areas throughout the country, leaving empty buildings that could be bought for a small percentage of their replacement costs. This was the beginning of what today we call the Adaptive Reuse Industry, finding new uses for old buildings. I recognized the potential of using these buildings as a housing resource. My early projects have become textbook examples for Adaptive Reuse projects. For these efforts I was awarded the Andrew J. Thomas Pioneer in Housing award by the American Institute of Architects.
The firm has been credited with popularizing multi-level apartments as well as rooftop uses. All of this comes from working with 19th and early 20th century buildings, where generous vertical dimensions were much more abundant. My eureka moment came in the early 1970s when, standing on the roof of a full block-front loft building in the West Village measuring 200 by 100 feet deep, almost half an acre of empty space, I came to the realization that rooftops were the most underdeveloped real estate in the city. Since then, integrating rooftop uses into the program for virtually every project has become a hallmark iconic feature of the firm. Most importantly, they were responsible for creating the hotel rooftop craze because of the stunning success of the Hotel Gansevoort in the Meatpacking District, the building that changed the hospitality industry.