A descendant of two Virginia-born presidents—James Madison and Zachary Taylor—Jaquelin T. Robertson was raised in a Georgian-style house near Richmond. There, he told the magazine Traditional Building in 2018, “You cared about houses, landscapes, gardens and fields, and you cared about public buildings, churches, courthouses, libraries and schools.”
Robertson continued to care about those things until his death on May 9. A renowned architect and planner, he started his career in New York City government, where his influence remains to this day: He helped create the system that encouraged developers to provide ground-floor amenities in exchange for the right to build additional square footage. Architect and author Robert A.M. Stern says that, as a result of Robertson’s work, it became “impossible to build a significant building in New York without serious consideration of its contributions to the city's urbanism.” His conclusion: “Jaque prevented New York from destroying itself.”
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