Simon Jacobsen is a founding partner of the internationally acclaimed architectural firm Jacobsen Architecture LLC , with his father Hugh Newell Jacobsen, F.A.I.A. (1929-2021). Jacobsen Architecture is known for its respect for “distilling vernacular building types into designs that feel grounded in history yet are fervently forward-thinking”, said Architectural Digest in 2018.
The younger Jacobsen was commissioned by two former government intelligence agents to sort out two badly “co-joined” apartments into one 3,000 square foot condo. The space features floor to ceiling glass exterior walls, affording 270-degree views of the Potomac River from the Washington Monument to Mt. Vernon. The full gut renovation, in a 1970’s era modern brutalist building, was no small feat.
“Like a lady,” Hugh Newell Jacobsen once said, “the best house is polite to her neighbors and never shouts.”
In the end, the project, like the architect, celebrates the best of every detail, maintaining respect for the original and yet also being strikingly fresh and modern. Called the Spy House, the finished spaces are beautifully unified.
Influences and Light
Working alongside his father for many years, Jacobsen explains his firm’s design philosophy as “….our detailing is deliberately sparse and linear in order to enhance the spaces within and without…the site is the dominant factor. The quality of light upon that unique area of the earth is always unique and determines the path the architecture will take.”
As a graduate of the Chicago School of Architecture – UIC, Jacobsen references the “many deconstructionists and theorists of the Chicago School – as well as Richard Meier” as major influences. When asked where in Washington DC – other than his own home – he would prefer to live, he names Evermay – a historic Federal style house in one of DC’s oldest historic areas.
Photographer Jonathan Reece for Jacobsen Architecture
“We’ve done million-dollar kitchens, and we’ve done ten thousand-dollar kitchens. Our expertise is not building expensive kitchens but really good ones. Working with the Gaggenau team and products allows us to deliver on our commitment to building really good ones.”
Photography by Jonathan Reece & Maxwell MacKenzie for Jacobsen Architecture
Working throughout the United States, Caribbean, Europe and Asia, the primary focus of Jacobsen’s work is custom residential, commercial and institutional design, interiors, furniture and lighting design.
He has been widely published in print and on television including The Wall Street Journal, Casa VOGUE, HGTV's Extreme Homes, Architectural Digest, The Washington Post, Washingtonian Magazine and hundreds of internet publications and design blogs. Simon Jacobsen is a recipient of many prestigious awards in architecture and design from The American Institute of Architects and The Society of American Registered Architects, and he is also an inductee of Architectural Digest’s AD100.
Photographer Douglas Sterling