John Theodore Jacobsen | |
|---|---|
.png) Jacobsen in 1926 | |
| Born | February 20, 1903 Seattle, Washington, United States |
| Died | March 6, 1998 (aged 95) Honolulu, Hawaii, United States |
| Resting place | Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Seattle |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Era | 1926–1970s |
| Style | Northwest Regional style |
John Theodore Jacobsen (February 20, 1903 – March 6, 1998) was an American architect active in the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii. Born in Seattle, Jacobsen studied architecture at the University of Washington and the University of Pennsylvania during the early 1920s. He traveled to the Soviet Union in 1926, where he designed several schools, before embarking on travels in Europe, South America, and Africa. He studied fresco painting in France before returning to the United States, where he worked for a period at architectural firms in New York City and at Colonial Williamsburg. Returning to Seattle in 1932, he designed bas-relief murals before becoming an instructor at the University of Washington and beginning private practice.
In 1938, he traveled across Scandinavia on an American Institute of Architects scholarship, where he studied modern housing developments. He worked on a number of housing projects on his return, including the Yesler Terrace housing project. After a period of work alongside Victor N. J. Jones in the late 1940s, he moved to Hawaii, where he designed many of Honolulu's early high-rises as the resident architect of John Graham & Company. He returned to private practice in the 1960s and 1970s, where he designed the Maui retirement residence of Charles Lindbergh and facilities at Sea Life Park Hawaii. He took an interest in architectural conservation in Hawaii, traveling across the islands to document historic sites for the National Register of Historic Places.