Don’t be surprised if in the not-too-distant future, the name “Jake Okrent” becomes synonymous with urban design. A senior, Jake has a 3.82 GPA, placing him among the top of graduating seniors. As a junior, he received the School of Architecture portfolio prize—the only time a non-senior or graduate architecture student was awarded the school’s top design honor. That’s just the beginning of Jake’s many accomplishments.
“I firmly believe that every experience you have as a designer molds your creative morality and spirit,” Jake says. “The arts have the opportunity to be in dialogue with each other, giving the resulting works newfound potential.” Throughout his time at Northeastern, Jake has proven just that—by using all his skills and interests to enrich the school and the community. He co-founded the award-winning student-run publication “Infra-structures” that provides emerging Northeastern architectural students with an outlet to explore their creativity beyond the studio. Jake considers “Infra-structures”, which received PEAK Award Funding and the AIA Haskell Award for Student Publications, to be his most significant achievement because it “gives my peers a chance to delve deep into their passions.”
Jake himself is also much lauded. He won the RISE Research Conference Focus Award: Data and Digital Storytelling, a series of architecture school studio awards, including “Best in Class for Urban Landscapes” and “Studio Schoolwide Portfolio Competition”, a Northeastern Scholarship for Artistic Accomplishment, and made the Dean’s List.
For two years, Jake has been a teaching assistant for several Northeastern professors and participated in two architectural co-ops—at GRADE Architecture + Interior Design in New York City and Utile Architecture + Urban Planning in Boston. At the latter, he helped design and document multi-family residential projects and new urban proposals, which required construction document development, 3D scene rendering, data illustration, and urban mapping.
Daniel Adams, director of the School of Architecture, and Sara Carr, undergraduate programs coordinator, say “This is an exceptional case of a student capitalizing on all the resources and paths of study that Northeastern offers, to excel, but more importantly identify a passion of study that they continue on into the future.”
After graduation, Jake plans to work in the architecture and urban design fields as he organizes his graduate education and licensure.
“This is an exceptional case of a student capitalizing on all the resources and paths of study that Northeastern offers, to excel, but more importantly identify a passion of study that they continue on into the future.”
Daniel Adams, director of the School of Architecture, and Sara Carr, undergraduate programs coordinator