DIVERSITY

by Stephen A. Kliment, FAIA
Contributing Editor

Summary: Ralph T. Jackson, FAIA, is a partner with Shepley Bulfinch Richardson & Abbott, a Boston firm named for a descendant of Charles Bulfinch, architect of the Massachusetts State House, and the renowned Henry Hobson Richardson. Jackson, born in the South, moved north as a child, survived a bumpy period of schooling, and worked in a professional environment where his color was at first mistrusted. By virtue of an influential mentor-partner at Shepley Bulfinch and his own personality—which includes a singular talent for comprehending the client’s real motivation in building—Jackson worked his way to principal after 15 years in the firm that he joined 31 years ago.

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Jackson initially came to Shepley Bulfinch as a technician, used the leverage of effective mentoring and collaboration to gain full partnership, and become an effective voice to win and keep clients, getting his satisfaction responding to client values through design. From the first, Jackson cultivated an understanding of his clients’ goals, as well as the consultant “uniform.” He looks and talks as a consultant to the establishment: he wears the bow ties, the blazers, and the attitude. He is ingrained into the culture and legacy of his office and the preoccupations of his clients.

Early hurdles
Jackson was born in Richmond, Va., but grew up in Boston, where his parents found opportunity for improvement both in their standard of living and their son’s education. After first flunking out of a junior college, Jackson eventually worked his way through Boston Architectural College, an after-hours school with instructors drawn from Harvard, MIT, and local Boston firms. In 1972, when the movement to admit minority students was still embryonic, he was accepted at Harvard, Yale, and MIT. He chose Harvard, where Gerhard Kallmann, Michael McKinnell, and Werner Seligmann were all teaching studios.

Jackson decided that “star” studios would not give him what he was looking for. Instead, he found Harvard Professor Urs P. Gauchat, an Australian architect and later dean of architecture at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Through Gauchat’s studio focus on sketches, sketch problems, and exploring different forms, Jackson began what he saw as unique patterns of thinking based on expression of purpose. It confirmed how he thought about objects and form.

He came to Shepley Bulfinch “because I have what I considered a talent, and that was working on buildings for clients of a certain kind. I had none of the connections that go with being able to pursue a life in that world. So I needed an organizational setting that provided me with the access and then to create a role for myself in that context. And when I first came in [1975], I'm certain the assumption was that I would be a technical person.” That promised a limited future in the firm. What overturned that notion was the legendary Jean-Paul Carlhian, FAIA, giving Jackson a research project requiring an analytical approach, which he delivered. Jackson joined the firm, and Carlhian became his mentor.

View from the top
Having climbed the long ladder, Jackson at last found himself at the top—design principal in a prestigious Boston firm. Out of 22 principals, 7 are design. The others are managing principals. It took Jackson 15 years to go from staffer to associate to senior associate to principal. And he sees his election as driven by his professional achievements alone.

For a firm that lacks a distinctive formal style—and few firms that are run as a multi-principal practice nowadays have one—it is rare for projects to clearly bear one designer’s stamp. In Jackson’s case, African identity is undetectable to most eyes. Moreover, while Jackson’s clients like design awards, it’s not their primary concern. Instead, his office tower in the World Trade Center complex in Boston’s Seaport District reflects his passionate belief that buildings respond to context. Perhaps that building embodies elements of Jackson’s own journey: the tower blends in, it is made of traditional materials treated with a deep commitment to material quality, it has a sense of permanence. It also incorporates the client’s values. So does Bates Hall (the upgraded reading room at Boston Public Library), the library at Fordham University, the Worcester Courthouse, and the Georgetown Law Center. His design for the University of Denver Law School has made it into the country’s first LEED® Gold certified law school.

With his values crossing all color and racial lines, Jackson’s blackness shows in spatial character and his sympathy with the vision of the educational institutions for which he designs to prepare men and women for a diversified future.