Jaquelin Taylor Robertson,

FAIA Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA) is a postnominal title or membership, designating an individual who has been named a fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Fellowship is bestowed by the institute on AIA-member ...

, F AICP, informally known as "Jaque," (March 20, 1933 – May 9, 2020) was an American

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and

urban designer Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

, working at Cooper Robertson. He was a representative of

New Urbanism New Urbanism is an urban design movement which promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighbourhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually i ...

and New Classical Architecture.

Early life and education

Robertson was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia on a classical family-owned estate. His family was aristocratic and lived in a Georgian-style house; he is a descendant of presidents

Zachary Taylor Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military leader who served as the 12th president of the United States from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to th ...

and

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...

. His father Walter worked for the U.S. State Department and was special envoy to China for several years. After graduating from

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1954 and spending a year at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

as a Rhodes Scholar, Robertson received a

Master of Architecture The “Master of Architecture”(M.Arch or MArch) or a “Bachelor of Architecture” is a professional degree in architecture, qualifying the graduate to move through the various stages of professional accreditation (internship, exams) that res ...

degree from

Yale School of Architecture The Yale School of Architecture (YSOA) is one of the constituent professional schools of Yale University, and is generally considered to be one of the best architecture schools in the United States. The School awards the degrees of Master of Arc ...

in 1961.

Career

Working in New York City Planning, he was the founder of the New York City Urban Design Group, the first Director of the Mayor's Office of Midtown Planning and Development, and a City Planning Commissioner. In 1975, he spent three years in

Tehran, Iran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most pop ...

, directing the planning and design of the country's new capitol center Shahestan Pahlavi in the Abbas Abad district of Tehran. From 1980 to 1988, Robertson was Dean of the University of Virginia School of Architecture where there is now an Endowed Professorship in his name entitled the "Jaquelin T. Robertson Visiting Professorship in Architecture." At UVA, Robertson often invited notable guest speakers and organized a famous symposium with 25 of the nation's leading architects, including

Robert A. M. Stern Robert Arthur Morton Stern, usually credited as Robert A. M. Stern (born May 23, 1939), is a New York City–based architect, educator, and author. He is the founding partner of the architecture firm, Robert A.M. Stern Architects, also known a ...

and

Léon Krier Léon Krier CVO (born 7 April 1946) is a Luxembourgish architect, architectural theorist, and urban planner, a prominent critic of modernist architecture and advocate of New Classical architecture and New Urbanism. Krier combines an internat ...

, that resulted in the publication of a book entitled ''The Charlottesville Tapes''. During this same period (1980 to 1987), he was partnered with Peter Eisenman in the firm Eisenman/Robertson Architects in New York City. In 1988, he stepped down from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

post and his partnership with Peter Eisenman to join his Yale School of Architecture classmate Alex Cooper in his firm in New York City, established now under a new name:

Cooper, Robertson & Partners Cooper Robertson is an international architecture and urban design firm, headquartered in New York City, founded by Alex Cooper and Jaquelin T. Robertson. History Cooper Robertson was founded in 1979 by Alex Cooper under the name Alexander C ...

. His notable work includes the New Albany Country Club in

New Albany, Ohio New Albany is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio, located northeast of the state capital of Columbus. Most of the city is located in Franklin County and a small portion extends into adjacent Licking County. New Albany had a population of 10,825 ...

outside Columbus, the Visitor Center at the

Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden is a , botanical garden in Henrico County, just outside of Richmond, Virginia. It features over a dozen themed gardens, a conservatory, library, and café. Regular daily admission is $17 for adults, $14 for seniors, $ ...

in Richmond, Virginia, the Henry Moore Sculpture Garden at the

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is an art museum in Kansas City, Missouri, known for its encyclopedic collection of art from nearly every continent and culture, and especially for its extensive collection of Asian art. In 2007, ''Time'' magaz ...

, the Master Plan for Celebration, Florida for the

Disney Development Company The Disney Development Company was a fully owned subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company, incorporated in Florida. Its primary role had been in the design and construction of certain resort and shopping areas within the Walt Disney World Resort, and t ...

as well as the Golf Clubhouse there, The Institute for the Arts & Humanities at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

, the Master Plan for the new community of

Val d'Europe Val d'Europe (; lit. ''Valley of Europe'') is the eastmost part of the new town of Marne-la-Vallée, located around to the east of Paris, France. The Walt Disney Company created the town near Disneyland Paris resort. The final area of the district ...

, outside

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, France, the

Sony Pictures Imageworks Sony Pictures Imageworks Inc. is a Canadian visual effects and computer animation studio headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, with an additional office on the Sony Pictures Studios lot in Culver City, California. SPI is a unit of Sony Pi ...

Headquarters Building in Culver City, California, and numerous private residences. Having designed many AIA (

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...

) award-winning houses, many of which are in

the Hamptons The Hamptons, part of the East End of Long Island, consist of the towns of Southampton and East Hampton, which together comprise the South Fork of Long Island, in Suffolk County, New York. The Hamptons are a popular seaside resort and one o ...

on the East End of Long Island and in the Caribbean, Robertson was named one of "the AD 100," Architectural Digest's list of the top 100 architects and interior designers whose work has been published by Architectural Digest over the years. Robertson was both a

Fellow of the American Institute of Architects Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA) is a postnominal title or membership, designating an individual who has been named a fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Fellowship is bestowed by the institute on AIA-member ...

and a Fellow of the

American Institute of Certified Planners The American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) is the American Planning Association's professional institute. AICP certifies professionals in the United States in the field of town planning and assists planners in the areas of ethics, profess ...

. Robertson died of Alzheimer's disease in

East Hampton, New York The Town of East Hampton is located in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, at the eastern end of the South Shore of Long Island. It is the easternmost town in the state of New York. At the time of the 2020 United States census, it had a tot ...

, in May 2020.

Career awards

Thomas Jefferson Medal in Architecture The Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture recognizes individuals for distinguished contributions to the field of architecture. The Medal in Architecture has been jointly awarded each year by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticell ...

(1998) * Seaside Institute Prize (2002) * Richard H. Driehaus Prize (2007) *Athena Medal from the

Congress for the New Urbanism New Urbanism is an urban design movement which promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighbourhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually inf ...

(2010)

Quotes

*''"The symbolic hard currency of architecture is classical,... It's gold in the bank. The other stuff is leveraged buy-outs and soybean futures."'' *“''We rchitectsdon’t seem to understand very well yet how our society works or what our people want or need, and we are continually caught up in a kind of Alice-in-Wonderland situation of either giving answers to questions no one is asking or ignoring completely some of the more pressing and obvious problems''.” *“''Architects must have in front of them some notion about the order of the whole, not just the parts''.”

References

External links

Cooper, Robertson & Partners website

"In Search of an American Urban Order" by Jaquelin T. Robertson

Architectural Digest: The AD 100: Jaquelin T. Robertson

Architectural Digest, August 2004: Reinterpreting the Classics

Architectural Digest, Feb 2005: A House to Hold the Land

Architectural Digest, April 2007: A Memorable Second Act in East Hampton

Architectural Digest, June 2003: Peaceable Kingdom

Architectural Digest: 100 Great Spaces - Part 3