Canadian-born and educated Jamie Fobert has practiced architecture in England for 30 years, first under David Chipperfield and then, since 1995, as head of his own firm. During that time, he has quietly built a reputation for designing houses that make the most of difficult sites, often in London’s closely watched historic districts. (One award-winning house had to be built largely underground, yet is beautifully proportioned and suffused with natural light.) He has also designed ethereal spaces for Givenchy and Versace, among other fashion leaders.
A gallery in the newly renovated Tate St Ives, in Cornwall, which was built underground while still utilizing as much natural light as possible.
But Fobert’s reputation has soared in the last few months with the openings outside the capital of two museums, which British critics have called “magical,” “stunning” ( The Guardian ) and “brilliant” ( The Times ). Among the qualities that got Fobert to this point is patience, which, he says, “they don’t teach in architecture school,” but comes in handy: One of the museums took 14 years to realize. Fobert, who is 55 and works out of a studio in Shoreditch, says, “I wouldn’t wish any project to take that long, but the architecture benefitted from the years of attention.”
Among the qualities that got Fobert, 55, to this point in his career is patience, he says.
The first of the two museums to open was the renovated Tate St Ives, a branch of the Tate in a beach town in Cornwall, almost six hours by train from London. Beginning in the 19th century, artists began settling in St Ives, where they found the light inspiring. In the 20th century, what became known as the St Ives School included sculptors Barbara Hepworth and Naum Gabo. Fobert’s task was to enlarge an existing museum overlooking the ocean on a crowded main street. His solution was to build the required new gallery underground. “We created a huge volume,” he says, “but it’s completely hidden, and its rooftop is a public space. You can come and sit on a bench and look at the sea and eat a sandwich and not even realize you’re on the roof of a museum,” says Fobert, who lauds the Tate’s decision to approve—and fund—the costly excavation.
For Kettle’s Yard at Cambridge University, Fobert significantly expanded the spaces behind the stone facades of a row of Victorian houses.
His other new museum project, in Cambridge, was equally constrained. Kettle’s Yard began with a modern art collection that its visionary owner first showed in a group of 17th-century cottages. “The premise was the modern art didn’t need to be in pristine white boxes,” says Fobert. The museum, now owned by Cambridge University, was enlarged, successfully, in 1970. Fobert carried out a much more voluminous expansion, incorporating new galleries and education spaces behind the stone facades of a row of Victorian houses. He used a quiet palette of bronze and brick. One critic noted that, as at St Ives, Fobert had demonstrated “good judgment, sensitivity to the intimacy and informality of the earlier buildings, [and] skill at maneuvering around an exceptionally tricky site.”
A natural-light-infused stairwell in the expansion at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge.
Now Fobert is seeing his hard work pay off. In February he was chosen to renovate the 1896 building in central London that houses the National Portrait Gallery. In a closely watched competition, Fobert beat out worthy rivals like Rem Koolhaas and David Adjaye. How did he accomplish that? Fobert explains that the jurors, before making their decision, went to visit both of his new museums, in Cambridge and St Ives. “That was a big part of it,” he says, before adding, “It’s a big step up and one I’m incredibly happy about.”
