Peter Jacobs (landscape architect)

In 1990, as a member of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Research Council (CEARC), he co-edited and was one of the chief architects of a research report on Sustainable Development and Environmental Assessment : Perspectives on Planning for a Common Future. Internationally, he has served as a consultant for programs sponsored by UNESCO, MAB, UNU, and IUCN.

Jacobs was one of the early participants in a variety of environmental evaluation formats related to urban development and the North, both as a chair and a member of numerous public commissions. He chaired the public consultation process on the future of Lancaster Sound in the Canadian arctic (1980) and has Chaired the Kativik Environmental Quality Commission in Nunavik (since 1981). He also co-Chaired the public hearings related to the environmental impacts of the Great Whale Hydoelectric Project flowing into James Bay, Quebec (1992–1994).

His research and community activities have focused on the sustainable and equitable development and conservation of the landscape in association with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), with the Kativik Environmental Quality Commission as Chair of the commission (KEQC) since 1979, and as Chair of the Public Advisory Council for the Canadian State of the Environment Report (1991).

Peter Jacobs is Fellow and past president of the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA) (1978–1980), Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), and served as the Canadian delegate to the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) (1986–1995). In 2016, he was named Chair of the Montreal Heritage Council and member of the Order of Canada .

Jacobs' commitment to the community is marked by his desire to integrate professional practice with academic research in the service of community growth and development. As chair of the Environmental Planning Commission from 1978 to 1990, he helped formulate nature conservation programs and action plans for numerous countries. His environmental activities have focused on nature conservancy, the preservation of urban open space, and the development of policy, programs, and plans in support of equitable and sustainable development.

He has served as vice-president of the Solomon Schecter Academy (1973–1976), advisor to the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, member of the intercultural advisory committee of the City of Montreal, and president of the Jewish Public Library of Montreal(1996–2000) He has also served as Chair of the community planning and allocations committee and as a Director of the Federation of Jewish Community Agencies, the United Israel Agencies of Canada and the Canadian Jewish National Fund and is an Officer of the Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue, Westmount, Quebec.

Following his studies, Jacobs pursued both an academic and professional career. After first practicing architecture, he concentrated on landscape planning and urban design. In 1971 he was promoted to associate professor and in 1979 to full professor in the School of Landscape Architecture, Universite de Montreal. He was the school's first director (1978) and the first associate dean of research of the Faculte de l’Amenagement (1977–1984). He was named Emeritus professor in 2016.

Jacobs graduated from Antioch College with a bachelor's degree (1961) in engineering and fine arts. He continued his studies at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he obtained a Masters of Architecture degree (1964) followed by a Master of Landscape Architecture degree (1968). He then pursued a program of special studies in human ecology at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia.

Peter Daniel Alexander Jacobs CM RCA (born 3 December 1939) is a Canadian landscape architect specializing in the conservation and development of rural and northern landscapes and in urban landscape design. He is Emeritus professor of the School of Planning and Landscape Architecture of the Universite de Montreal, Emeritus Chair of the Commission on Environmental Planning of the International Union for the conservation of nature (IUCN), Past President of the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA), Chair of the Kativik Environmental Quality Commission (from 1979) and a Member of the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts.

Jacobs was born in Montreal on 3 December 1939. His parents were both natives of New York City: Jacob Joseph Jacobs graduated from New York University as a chemical engineer and Francis Alexander graduated from Barnard College in ancient languages. His interest in nature and the landscape was nurtured during summer family trips to the ocean and others in the northern boreal forest. His commitment to the urban landscape was derived from his experience of the cultural diversity and convivial social energy of Montreal. He is married to Ellen Vineberg Jacobs, distinguished professor emerita of Concordia University in Montreal.