Lifetime Achievement Award

The Lifetime Achievement Award honors individuals who have shown a extraordinary dedication to civic service. Through their commitment to improving livability for all, these individuals have made significant improvements to communities and improved the quality of life for all citizens.

Jaquelin T. Robertson, FAIA is a world renowned architect and urban designer.

As Dean of the University of Virginia School of Architecture from 1980 to 1988, Jaque hosted influential forums bringing together many of the country’s highest-profile architects and planners and inspiring hundreds of budding architecture students. The school’s Jaquelin T. Robertson Visiting Professorship in Architecture allows students to be instructed by the most talented architectural educators from around the country.

With his good friend Mayor Joseph Riley of Charleston, South Carolina, Jaque cofounded the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, a leadership forum for mayors to see urban design as an issue needing their focus. The Mayors’ Institute, now in its 27th successful year, is a nationally recognized gathering for Mayors to discuss best practices for improving the quality of life in their cities through excellence in design and planning.

In 1988, Jaque co-founded the architecture firm Cooper, Robertson & Partners with his Yale School of Architecture classmate, Alexander Cooper. Jaque and his firm have played key roles in award-winning works, including Battery Park in New York City, the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, Virginia, and the master plan for the planned community of Celebration, Florida.

An innovative American architect and urban designer, Jaque understands the interconnected nature of planning and architecture and the impact it has on the human experience. By reviving traditional styles of architecture and modernizing them with touches specific to each building’s environment, he masterfully uses the built environment as a vehicle for change and revitalization.