Remembering Max Jacobson, architect, author, teacher

"Soon after, Max moved to Berkeley, the place he would come to call home, and in 1964 received his master's degree in chemical engineering. Full of creative energy, Max found himself restless working as a chemical engineer and began to look for other possibilities. He returned to UC Berkeley to study architecture and in 1973, he became the first student to be awarded a Ph.D, by the new College of Environmental Design."

"His doctoral thesis, under professor Christopher Alexander, explored methods for including a building's ultimate users in the design process. Impressed with this work, Alexander invited Max to join his Berkeley office, the Center for Environmental Structure. With Alexander and others, Max went on to co-author A Pattern Language, Towns, Buildings, Construction (Oxford University Press, 1977). A landmark text, the book became one of the most influential and widely read architecture books of the late 20th century."

"As the book was being completed, Max with then-partner Meg Courtney moved to a few acres of land in Lafayette, where they raised chickens, goats and vegetables. During this time, his daughter, Taylor, was born. At the Center of Environmental Structure, Max met Murray Silverstein, and in 1975 the two formed the Berkeley firm, Jacobson/Silverstein Architects, where with the addition of partners Barbara Winslow and Helen Degenhardt, Max remained active for over 40 years."

Max Jacobson was born May 29, 1941, in Houston and raised in Denver. He earned a science and engineering degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1963 and a master's in chemical engineering from UC Berkeley in 1964. He shifted careers to architecture and became the first Ph.D. recipient from UC Berkeley's College of Environmental Design in 1973, focusing on methods to include building users in the design process. He worked with Christopher Alexander at the Center for Environmental Structure and contributed to A Pattern Language. He co-founded Jacobson/Silverstein Architects in 1975 and remained active for over forty years.

Read at www.berkeleyside.org