T.J. Gottesdiener Leaves SOM for Georgetown Company
T.J. Gottesdiener, one of the foremost architects in the world, has left his perch at SOM, also known as Skidmore Owings & Merrill, to go to the The Georgetown Company, where he is serving as a senior advisor.
“I’ve known T.J. for a couple of decades now,” said Georgetown president and CEO Adam Flatto, “and T.J.’s always stood out for complexities of design and understanding the business aspects of what we do.”
Gottesdiener’s role, which started earlier in the year, will extend beyond that of just an architect but in the development part of the business.
“One of the things I’d say about myself is I have complimentary skill sets,” Gottesdiener said. “Now being on the business, financial side of things — the other side of the table prior to my role as architect — will allow me to utilize my knowledge and to offer advice, assistance, perspective on new and existing projects.”
Gottesdiener has already started working on a number of projects that Georgetown did not specify but are in New York and Los Angeles, as well as another large nationwide project for the real estate company that has a portfolio in excess of 25 million square feet and includes some already iconic New York buildings like the Frank Gehry-designed IAC Building.
“One of the things that excited me about coming here is the idea that Adam’s team has so many different types of projects — commercial, office, hospitality, multifamily, entertainment, mixed-use,” Gottesdiener told CO.
Gottesdiener is legend both nationally and internationally in the business for his work on One World Trade Center, the Deutsche Bank Center (originally dubbed the Time Warner Center), Guoco Tower in Singapore and many others. He joined SOM in 1980 and was made a partner in 1994 and served as managing partner. He was a consulting partner when he left.
“I love the idea of coming to this side of the table and creating buildings that have a big impact,” Gottesdiener said. “I’ve seen the variety and breadth of projects and the great attention to detail [at Georgetown.] The care and quality that Adam places on design is what’s important to me as an architect.”
Update: This story originally misstated T.J. Gottesdiener’s title when he left SOM.
