If one were to design a curriculum for aspiring high-end urban custom builders, it might look a lot like Jake Goldberg's life. His father, who had studied at the Illinois Institute of Technology in the 1950s under Mies van der Rohe, ran his architecture firm out of the family's stately brick Victorian in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood. His mother, an interior designer, also worked at home. By the time Goldberg was in high school, he was drafting in the home office off the big oak-paneled entry hall and doing carpentry on the houses his father bought and renovated. He studied economics and finance at the University of Illinois, but a construction career seems never to have been in doubt. “When everyone else was running around and confused about what they were going to do with their lives, he knew exactly what he was going to do,” says Jeff Berry, Goldberg's lifelong friend and company vice president. “Jake was born with a hammer in his crib.”
The fact that he was born in Chicago adds to Goldberg's pedigree. Home to Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies, and other giants of the profession, “Second City” is America's first city of architecture. It was the Chicago School architects of the late 19th century—Sullivan, Henry Hobson Richardson, John Wellborn Root, and others—who laid the groundwork for the European-bred modernism that would flourish here a half century later. Chicagoans can name not only their landmark buildings, but also who the architects were, and the city supports a community of residential modernist architects as vibrant as any in the country. “I remember being a kid and having my father point out architectural gems of the city,” Goldberg says. As a builder he has come to play an active role in preserving the legacy of Chicago's past masters and furthering the work of the contemporary architects who are their stylistic and spiritual descendants.
None of this happened overnight, of course. “I started Goldberg General Contracting in 1987,” says the builder, now 44. Then fresh out of college, he began with the kind of small projects he had done in his spare time since high school. Berry remembers those days with some amusement. “You always knew it was Jake coming,” he explains. “He had this Econoline van that was the nastiest thing you've ever seen. Jake, what color was that original van you had?” Goldberg answers with a trace of nostalgia: “Light blue, with an orange door.”
Before long, Berry was riding in the van as well, having joined his friend in the spec rehab of a three-flat apartment building. “Jake literally loaned me the tool belt,” Berry remembers. “We had no money,” Goldberg adds, “so we did everything ourselves: demo, plaster, siding, everything.” When the job was done Goldberg moved into the building, the company set up shop in the basement, and the partners moved on to other projects. The recession of 1990–1991 made further spec renovations unprofitable, so it was back to the kitchens, baths, and basement build-outs. “But there wasn't enough money to support two principals,” Goldberg says, so the pair split up amicably and Berry moved on to a project management job for a real estate developer.
Goldberg, too, had had aspirations as a developer. But even as a young man, his low-key confidence made him well-suited to custom building—and to building a business. As the projects he took on grew in size and complexity, he kept his company lean, handling all sales and project management himself. He knew from experience in the field that there were certain items over which he wanted to maintain control. Even today, he says, “We really feel we have to self-perform all our carpentry and metalwork, for quality and efficiency. We've tried subcontracting out the tilework from time to time, and you just can't.” Smooth, uniform grout joints, clean welds—“A viewer may not be savvy enough to see all these things, but it will really make a difference in the impact of the building,” he maintains. “That's the subtlety you're trying to convey when you're convincing a client to hire you.” If those sound like the words of a man who views building as more than a means to a financial end, Goldberg readily confirms it. Somewhere along the line, he says, “I realized I loved building. I lost interest in the development part and just focused on building.”