In 1963, R. Thomas Jaeger joined an existing firm of residential and commercial architects. He soon changed their direction with his award-winning design of a church building that led to similar projects and a gradual specialization. In 1977 Robert M. Nickola joined the firm, and the current partnership was established in 1984, at which point religious architecture became the firm’s primary focus. Since 1992, we have devoted our practice solely to religious projects and clients. Today the firm is comprised of sixteen people, including bright, talented and devoted architects and architectural interns who bring a new energy of ideas to the continuing tradition.

Jaeger, Nickola & Associates serves the communities of Catholic, Protestant and Jewish faiths in the design of church and educational buildings, and has a 40 year history as architects for over 250 religious buildings in five states. This includes master plan, construction feasibility studies, and worship, education and administration buildings of all scales. It has encompassed new construction, remodeling, renovations and adaptive uses.

Our work has received awards for excellence of architecture and planning from The American Institute of Architects, The National Endowment for the Arts, The American Society for Church Architecture, The Guild for Religious Architecture, The Fourth International Congress on Religion, Architecture, Art, and the Environment, The Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art, and Architecture, The Illinois Landscape Contractor’s Association, The American Association of Nurserymen Inc., The Associated Landscape Contractors of America, and The British Association of Landscape Industries.

Both Tom Jaeger and Bob Nickola agree that personal spiritual experiences and the architectural challenges of working with churches have led to this singular commitment to religious architecture. We feel that this devotion of all our collective energies and focus on the common concerns and needs of these unique projects has afforded us the opportunity to develop specialized skills and strategies to best serve our clients in their most important work.