Today we’d like to introduce you to Joshua Jakob.
Hi Joshua, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I bought a hobby kit called “Young Architect” in a Radio Shack when I was 12 years old. It had “at your pace” lessons in a booklet on how to draft to scale, how to understand proportion, how to model with cardstock and with plaster bricks. Combined with a love of Lego models, I decided I wanted to learn architecture. I applied to architecture schools in the New York area and decided to attend University at Buffalo to be ner my grandmother and because I became familiar with the school by representing the New York City region in wrestling for Empire State Games when I was 15
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The road has never been smooth both from my own decisions and the world around me. Architecture licensure has evolved to be less arduous, but when I began taking the test, the rules for when one could sit and the length of time in between examinations stretched out the time needed to pass the different parts of the exam. Two recessions in a 15 year period did not help and forced me to become better at business and leaning on my entrepreneurial skills to stay afloat. The hustle brough a lot of interesting projects through the door and allowed me to find my passion in multifamily architecture.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
In 2008, my firm cut back our hours so to make up for the lost time, I started freelancing for architecturally related projects which got me into 3d rendering and modeling of buildings and proposed spaces. New York provided projects like a proposed studio and event space, rooftop gardens, a mobile house that can be pulled around on a property, and documenting hundreds of apartments to rent in Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn. I think that as-built documentation of existing apartments gave me an edge in designing multifamily buildings other other firms. I’ve seen what works and what feels right in the built world of multifamily; now I have the opportunity to create new buildings and new spaces for people that evoke what home can be in an apartment setting.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I’d say I was outgoing but also introverted; I liked being on my own solving some made up problem. I grew up in a neighborhood with vacant lots that emptied over the years of their buildings either from fire or eminent domain when the city tried to do another highway along the shoreline and through our neighborhood but the project got cancelled and left us kids with a wooded land to build clubhouses and play manhunt.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.joshjakob.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jjakobdesign
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-jakob-ra/
