A man with glasses, beard, and mustache stands indoors. He wears a navy blazer, gray cardigan, blue shirt, striped tie, and a pocket square. He smiles with hands clasped. Bookshelves, a fireplace, and a table with books are visible in the background.

Gil Schafer III

FOUNDING PARTNER

“As residential architects, our highest achievement is to successfully create places our clients can call home. That word ‘home,’ to me, has everything to do with comfort, family, and friends — and memories, most of all. Growing up, I learned that if a house is going to feel like home, it has to create opportunities for memories, even in the smallest moments of life.”

Award-winning architect Gil Schafer, AIA , is recognized as one of the nation’s leading experts on contemporary classical architecture. He established G. P. Schafer Architect in 2002, and in 2025, the firm was renamed to become Schafer & Co.

The grandson and great, great grandson of architects, Gil grew up with a strong sense of how a well-built, thoughtfully-designed home can bring pleasure to daily life. Over the course of his childhood he was fortunate to be exposed to life in a variety of places, including the Midwest, the Northeast, Georgia, California and the Bahamas, each contributing to his sense of what makes places unique and how architectural traditions and lifestyle are influenced by context.

Following undergraduate studies in Growth & Structure of Cities at Haverford College and its sister institution Bryn Mawr, Gil graduated from Yale School of Architecture with a Masters Degree. While at Yale, Gil studied under several noted practitioners including Thomas Beeby, Robert Venturi, Josef Kleihues, Frank Gehry, and Benard Tschumi and was the recipient of the H. I. Feldman Prize, Yale’s highest honor for studio work, in his final semester. Upon graduation, he worked at several highly respected (classical architecture) firms and spent (nearly) a decade at Ferguson & Shamamian Architects, working on major projects there.

In addition to his architectural practice, Gil regularly lectures around the country on the relevance and livability of traditional residential architecture today and is the author of three best-selling books: The Great American House, A Place to Call Home, and Home At Last. Gil is a longstanding member of Architectural Digest’s AD100 list, a winner of Veranda’s “Art of Design Award,” and a recipient of the Arthur Ross Award for Architecture. His work and the firm’s projects have been widely published both here in the U. S. and abroad in both magazines and newspapers, including Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, House Beautiful, Veranda, Town & Country, Vogue, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, among many others. Under Gil’s leadership, the firm’s work has also appeared in over 30 books on design.

Gil serves on several non-profit boards and advisory councils, including the Yale School of Architecture’s Dean’s Council, the Dutchess Land Conservancy, and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello. Gil served as the President and then Chairman of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, the nation’s leading resource for the classical tradition in architecture and its allied arts, for nearly a decade. Gil currently maintains architectural licenses in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Texas, Massachusetts, Virginia, Tennessee, Rhode Island, Vermont, Georgia, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Arkansas and is certified by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB).

He and his family divide their time between New York City, and the coast of Maine.

A man in a blue plaid suit and patterned tie smiles while leaning forward on a white table. He stands in front of a mantel with a mirror, framed art, and a large potted plant. The setting appears to be a formal office or living space.

Louis Taylor

PARTNER, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

“It’s incredibly fulfilling to see the kind of beautiful, detailed work our team creates. That moment when you see a home completed — there’s nothing like it.”

FIRM PARTNER AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Louis Taylor graduated from the University of Delaware with dual degrees in Business Administration Management, and Finance and received his Master’s of Business Administration from the Rutgers University Business School. Before joining G. P. Schafer Architect in 2010, he worked at a major public accounting firm. It was GPSA’s artistic environment that first drew him to the firm. “Architects and design-focused people are truly passionate about their work, making our office an inspiring place to be on a daily basis.” He was named a partner of the firm in January 2017.

Involved in nearly every aspect of the business, Lou oversees the company’s finances and handles general planning and strategy, contracts, human resources, and facilities management. He lives in New Jersey with his family, where he coaches youth sports teams and enjoys golfing on weekends.