Insights

Award-Winning Architect Nic Jacobs joins WATG

By WATG
January 16, 2014

Global design firm WATG has announced that celebrated architect Nic Jacobs and his design team from his firm Jacobs Webber in London have joined the company to head WATG’s urban design studio in London. Jacobs comes to WATG with 25 years of experience and a track record of visionary design. During the ten years he led Jacobs Webber, he developed a series of remarkable commercial, mixed-use, and urban projects in Europe and the Middle East. Prior to that time, Jacobs was with Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM) in New York and London for 14 years, the last five as Design Director at SOM London.

Jacobs and his team, Richard Collings and Chia-Liang Huang, will form part of the growing Urban Architecture studio group in WATG’s London office, where they will help lead the company’s move into large-scale urban projects. WATG CEO Mike Seyle commented: “Nic’s amazing portfolio of built urban projects only touches on the breadth of his skill, artistry, and passion for great design. We look forward to combining forces with Nic and his team to design and deliver even more beautiful and spectacular properties for our clients.” And the feeling is mutual. “We’re looking forward to bringing our experience in designing mixed-use projects in the UK and abroad to the talented WATG team,” says Jacobs.

Jacobs’ designs have been called “unapologetically modern.” They are notable for their innovative deployment of glass, like the grand roof extending over the front courtyard of the Portico Madrid, for curvilinear forms both interior and exterior, like those of the Rocco Forte five-star hotel in Abu Dhabi, and for daring use of color, like the rainbow-graded array of vertical slats on the façade of the Viacom (MTV) HQ in London. Some of the other outstanding buildings designed by Jacobs and his team include the Atlantico Arena in Lisbon, the 50-storey residential Panpeninsula tower in London, the Philips headquarters offices in Amsterdam, and the Citibank offices in Manama, Bahrain.

Jacobs received his Diploma in Architecture and Urban Planning from the University of Buenos Aires and a Master’s in Architecture from Cornell University. His projects have earned numerous awards, including the Grand Order of Merit from the Republic of Portugal for the Atlantico Arena stadium, the MIPIM 2007 Award for the Best Office Building for Portico Madrid, and the Best Housing Project of the Year by the National Home Builder Design Awards for the New Providence Wharf in London.

About WATG

WATG is one of the world’s leading integrated design firms and ranked as 2nd in the world among hotel architectural firms. WATG’s interior design firm, Wimberly, was ranked 11th by Interior Design Magazine in their 2015 Hospitality Giants survey.

With over 70 years of design excellence, WATG and Wimberly, have become the world’s leading design consultants in the industry since starting in Hawaii in 1945. With offices in Irvine, Beverly Hills, Seattle, Chicago, New York, London, Miami, Istanbul, Dubai, Singapore, Shanghai and Honolulu, the multi-disciplinary design firm is best known for creating internationally acclaimed destinations in 160 countries across six continents. WATG offers integrated design solutions comprising strategy, planning, architecture, landscape, and interiors for urban, tourism and resort destinations. WATG’s projects are renowned not only for their design and sense of place but also for their bottom-line success.

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