by ArchitectureWeek

Architect and urban planner Jaquelin T. Robertson is the 2007 recipient of the Richard H. Driehaus Prize for Classical Architecture. This honor is given to individuals who incorporate the principles of traditional and classical architecture in modern urban developments.

Robertson is a partner in the firm Cooper, Robertson & Partners and founder the New York City Urban Design Group. Committed to introducing "human values into urban plans," he founded the Jeffersonian Restoration Advisory Board, taught architecture at the University of Virginia, and has served on development commissions in the United States and abroad.

"Architecture and urbanism," he says, should be "always together. It's not the individual buildings but the aggregation of buildings, the urban setting, that really defines great architectural cultures."

These principles are evident in many of his most prominent works. One example is the New Albany Country Club (1993) in Columbus, Ohio. Cooper, Robertson was asked to design two clubhouses for a residential development organized around a golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus. The golf clubhouse and a bath and tennis club, totaling 49,000 square feet (4,500-square-meters) would serve as the community's social and recreational center.

The golf clubhouse is a large, two-story, five-part Georgian-Palladian "country house" containing dining areas, a central living room, offices, and sports facilities. It is built of two shades of molded "Tidewater" brick with stone and wood trim. Curving arcaded wings screen the parking lots and encircle a lawn used for outdoor entertaining and putting areas.   >>>

Discuss this article in the Architecture Forum...

New Albany Country Club by Jaquelin Robertson, recipient of the 2007 Driehaus Prize for Classical Architecture. Photo: Robert Benson Extra Large Image Jaquelin Robertson, of Cooper, Robertson & Partners. Photo: Cooper, Robertson & Partners   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.