Customer Reviews

Hugh Newell Jacobsen, Architect

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This book chronicles the work of Hugh Newell Jacobson until 1988. This brilliant American architect is in my opinion very underrated, as this seems to be the only book dedicated exclusively to his work.

The many plans and photographs clearly illustrate the key elements of his design philosophy. Among these are his use of simple, often symmetric plan forms, steep angled roofs and pergolas that are expressed as roof windows whenever they occur in the interior. His mastery of lighting design and the consistency of his detailing is evident in many photographs.

The book is well printed on high quality paper. Unfortunately some of the pictures seem to be scans of photographs from earlier publications, and when these occur as full page photos they are not sharp.

One wonders why this book has not been updated with this 2003 edition. Quite a number of the projects are indicated as due for completion in 1988, yet I have seen photographs of several of them in their completed state in other publications. It is furthermore a pity that the projects are not dated; one has to go to the Chronology at the back of the book to find the dates. It would also have been nice if the pictures at the Chronology where printed with the projects' main texts as some of these pictures are vital to the understanding of some of the projects.

These criticisms aside, this book is highly recommended, especially at the reduced price.

Disclaimer: I am the architect's oldest son, so a little biased.

That being said, I think Hugh Jacobsen is one of the great architects practicing today. All three of his books (the other two are "Recent Work 1988-1993" and the other is "Hugh Newell Jacobsen Architect" from 2007) are beautiful representations of his extensive canon. His whole professional life, my father has been dedicated to creating stunning spaces in which people celebrate every day life and he does so with elegance, intelligence, a strong sense of history, and great style. As his mentor Mies said, "God is in details," and the details in my father's work are, well, heavenly.