Jacob Alspector, RA                                                           CV
Biography


As principal of the firm, Jacob provides overall design and management leadership and is personally involved with every project from beginning to end. His forty-five years of diverse professional experience has matured into a focus on educational and cultural institution projects including a special expertise on libraries.

He has planned, programmed, and designed numerous library projects including more recently, the on-going multi-phase master plan and renovations to NYU’s Bobst Library, the competition winning Utah Valley University Digital Learning Center completed in 2008, and the master plan and concept design for Rutgers/Newark’s Dana Library. His recent educational designs in NYC include Grace Church School’s multi-phase new high school and its K-8 underground gym; the new science center, signage/wayfinding and master plans for The Town School; and the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis’ new facility.

Until 2002, Jacob, as Associate Partner at Gwathmey Siegel, developed a national reputation for design excellence in library planning and architecture, evidenced by his work on the competition and award winning Mid-Manhattan and Science, Industry & Business libraries for NYPL; the main public library expansions and renovations for the cities of Akron, Ohio and Ft. Wayne, Indiana; and his academic libraries for the CUNY Graduate Center, Bryant University in Rhode Island, Ferris State University in Michigan, and the Westover School in Connecticut.

His additional expertise at Gwathmey Siegel encompassed facilities programming, master planning and design for all types of educational and cultural facilities. He was responsible for the master planning and implementation of the renovations and expansions of NYC’s Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of the Moving Image. His educational design experience includes a variety of campus master plans, athletic, academic and multi-use facilities for Dartmouth College, Hostos Community College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Additional experience includes headquarters, showrooms, and office facilities for Triangle Pacific, Knoll International, and IBM, and HUD Public Housing Projects for Columbus, Indiana and on Roosevelt Island, NYC.

Prior to this twenty-five year association with Gwathmey Siegel, Mr. Alspector was a Project Architect for The Ehrenkrantz Group in New York, where he was responsible for various buildings including the Canaday Hall Dormitory in Harvard Yard, the American Stock Exchange expansion/renovation, and the Solar Energy Demonstration Project for the DoD and Congregation Bais Torah in Suffern, NY. He apprenticed with the seminal adaptive re-use preservationist Giorgio Cavaglieri, FAIA, designing the South Street Seaport Museum/Renovation, with the energy-in-buildings pioneer Richard G. Stein.

He is a frequent panelist, lecturer and presenter at various professional and industry events including the American Library Association, the AIA and the Architectural League. He is also an Associate Professor at CCNY and held the Fitz-Gibbon Visiting Professor Chair at Carnegie Mellon. A product of the NYC public schools he attended Brooklyn Tech, Cooper Union, where he studied with Peter Eisenman, Ricardo Scofidio, John Hejduk, Richard Meier and Charles Gwathmey and the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies where he studied with Colin Rowe. He served as a Trustee of Cooper, received their President’s Citation, served as president of their alumni association, and is a member of their Alumni Hall of Fame.