Jacob Reidel
Assistant Professor in Practice of Architecture
Harvard Graduate School of Design
Jacob Reidel, Assistant Professor in Practice of Architecture at GSD, is an architect, editor, and writer whose work examines architectural practice and seeks to redesign the way architecture is practiced today.
Throughout his career Jacob has tested the ways in which designers can shape space, experience, and community by embracing roles and responsibilities outside the traditionally-defined role of the architect. He was most recently a Senior Director at Saltmine, a technology startup creating a platform of programming, design, and space management tools that are transforming the way clients and designers leverage data and collaborate with one another. Previously, he was a Senior Director at WeWork where he was a leader of the multidisciplinary team responsible for Design, Build, and Operate services tailored to the company’s Enterprise clients. Jacob is a licensed architect in New York and an alum of Ennead Architects and REX.
Jacob is committed to print publication as an essential form of discourse and design. To put it more simply, he really loves books. He is co-founder and editor of CLOG, and in 2017 he completed the OfficeUS Manual, a critical, occasionally humorous, and sometimes stupefying guide to the architectural workplace over the last one hundred years. The Manual is the culmination of four years of research into professional practice that Jacob initiated as Assistant Curator for the US Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2014.
Jacob received his Masters in Architecture from Yale and holds a B.A. in Architectural Studies from Brown University. He has lectured widely, and taught studios and practice seminars at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Columbia University. Dedication to teaching and service has been a common thread across Jacob’s pursuits since his 2002-2004 tenure as a Teach for America Corps Member and public elementary school teacher in New York City’s South Bronx.