J&J Museum

Firm History

JacobsWyper Architects is an award-winning architectural, planning and interior design firm founded in 1981 by Terry Jacobs and Jamie Wyper.

Based in Philadelphia, with offices in Raleigh, N.C and Austin, TX, our work has taken us both across the U.S. and the world; from Central America to Europe, Asia and Australia.

We’ve completed award-winning projects for clients across a wide span of sectors, from our addition to the Franklin Institute Science Museum, to our dormitory at Swarthmore College, and to the first LEED Gold certified building for the City of Philadelphia (a tactical training facility for the Police Department).

But maybe the achievement we’re most proud of is that we’re still working with some of the same clients today as when we started over three decades ago.

 

 

 

Wawa Team and Aerial
LEFT 1991 Wawa Inc. Design Team | RIGHT Wawa Campus in 2017

Our first project with Wawa was the design of its corporate computer facility in 1984. Recently, we completed a corporate expansion involving 200,000 SF of new and renovated office space as well as a new test kitchen and product development center.

We first partnered with McNeil manufacturing on a pancreas enzyme coating facility 38 years ago, and in 2014 we completed its Tylenol manufacturing facility outside of Philadelphia, a 360,000 SF state-of-the-art, fully compliant facility. In 2017 we completed the corporate museum for its parent company, Johnson and Johnson.

 

ICA
University of Pennsylvania, Institute of Contemporary Art, 1994

Our partnership with the University of Pennsylvania began with the Institute of Contemporary Art in 1994 and since then has expanded to include projects for a range of academic, student life and research facilities, including the Penn ARCH student center, the expanded Cyclotron Laboratory for the School of Medicine, and a surgical imaging suite for large animals for the School of Veterinary Medicine.

As proud as we are of the work we’ve done, and the relationships we’ve built, we’re not content to merely look back.

We’re moving forward into a new and exciting chapter for JacobsWyper, growing our team to take on an even greater range of projects in the future.

In 2014, SaylorGregg Architects joined JacobsWyper, bringing with them their decades of award-winning work for universities and museums, and empowering the JacobsWyper team to take on new and exciting higher education and cultural projects. 

In 2017 we added four new partners, who brought tremendous talent, depth of expertise, and diversity to JacobsWyper. 

SG and New Partners
LEFT Office of Dagit Saylor Architects | RIGHT JacobsWyper gains four new partners, Jamie Doran, Christine Hofnagel, Dave Searles, Magdalena Krapf

Continued growth brought two new offices in Raleigh, North Carolina and then Austin Texas. In 2021, with the office growing in Raleigh under the proven leadership of Christine Hofnagel and Jessica Cochran, Jessica was invited to join the partnership.  In 2022 the managing partner role transitioned from Jamie Wyper to co-managing partners, Jamie Doran and Jessica Cochran.

In 2023, as the ownership transitioned to majority women owned  JacobsWyper received national  Women's Business Enterprise Certification.  


We hope you’ll consider JacobsWyper as your creative partner in architecture, planning and interior design, not only for the next project, but for decades to come.

So take a moment to meet our team, look at some of our recent work and get to know our firm and the markets we serve . Then let’s talk about how we might collaborate on your next project. 

 

 

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