Designing success: How one architect instructor is inspiring the next generation

Reuben

Reuben Jacobs, NOMA

By Brittany Parris

Reuben Jacobs is running late again.

With a bag of takeout in one hand and his phone in the other, he ascends the steps to the second floor of the Information and Technology Building before rushing to Room 202.

“Late again, professor Jacobs!” someone yells behind his back, followed by a few laughs, including his own.

Another student dribbling a comically small basketball passes it to Jacobs, who fakes a slam dunk.

“I was the original Steph Curry,” he boasts before passing the ball back.

Pleasantries out of the way, Jacobs sets about getting the projector going.

The bulb’s dim light slowly projects the El Camino College Architecture Club logo.

It is here that Jacobs starts with making a difference.

After five years teaching computer-aided drafting at ECC, he aims to give his students a university-based education as the club adviser, professor, etc., all while balancing his architecture projects.

Jacobs, 59, discovered his passion for architecture at a young age after witnessing his father pursue it as a career.