Jacob Owen FRIAI MRIA CEng FIEI FRZSI (28 July 1778 – 29 October 1870) was a Welsh-born Irish architect and civil engineer of the nineteenth century.

Architectural historian Frederick O'Dwyer suggests that through Bush's military connections, Owen made the next important move in his career to the Royal Engineers department in the Board of Ordnance where, in 1805, he was appointed to the role of full clerk of works.

The school buildings, which were described as ‘chaste and elegant’ shortly after completion in 1828,[6] were destroyed during the Second World War, along with the neighbouring St Paul’s Church.

Burgoyne expressed his view that Owen's 'abilities and integrity' made him an ideal candidate for the role of principal engineer and architect in the Board of Public Works, based in Dublin.

Owen's younger brother, John, also made the move to Dublin in the 1830s, becoming clerk of works and architect in the Royal Engineers in the Ordnance Civil Branch.

This can be seen in his design for St Patrick's Church, Dalkey (1839-1843) and his work for the National Education Commission on Tyrone House (1835) and the Model Infant School (1842).

O’Dwyer has argued that the Great Famine and subsequent reorganization of public works finally led Treasury to put an end to Owen's free enterprise.

[citation needed] As the work of the board increased, Owen expanded his role as administrator, and drew on the talents of non-board architects.

The result of his efforts can be seen in Augustus Pugin's design of St Patrick's College, Maynooth, and in his collaboration with Decimus Burton at Phoenix Park.

One of his greatest impressions on the history of nineteenth Irish architecture can be seen in his supervision of the design of Queen's College at Belfast, Cork and Galway undertaken by Charles Lanyon, Thomas Deane, and John Benjamin Keane respectively.

'[30] The architect Robert Young's assessment of him as 'vulgar and unmannerly' contrasted diametrically with the writer Thomas Jackson's description of 'the generous and eloquent Owen.

'[31][7] Desmond McCabe has argued that Owen's 'robust and controlling temperament in the conduct of public office' has often distracted historians' attention from assessment of his work.

[32] Nevertheless, as historian John Graby has suggested, Owen's public character was in part responsible for his ability to strongly advocate for the professionalisation of architecture in Ireland.

Failing to make the Tripos lists upon graduating from Cambridge University, Joseph Butterworth Owen recalled 'disappointing the high expectations of his family.

'[38] Owen was raised in the Anglican faith, his father having acted for a time as churchwarden at St Chad's Church, Shrewsbury, and later in life he became a committed Wesleyan Methodist.

[7] In 1864, he founded the Irish Civil Service Building Society with his son James Higgins Owen, and continued to play an active role in the RIAI.

Upon his death, the RIAI stated that he 'brought a practical and vigorous intellect to bear upon the amazing professional events of the earlier half of this century; and in his public career in this country commanded respect by his administrative ability and unbending honesty of character.

'[52] Reuber has elaborated stating that 'Owen's plan was inspired by the ideas of Francis White and John Nugent, two doctors who held the posts of inspectors of lunacy in Ireland.

Kenny, superintendent of a temporary branch of the Richmond Asylum at Islandbridge in Dublin, who noted that the designs were 'still open to modification in their detail' which allowed for alterations to therapeutic work rooms.

'[53] The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage's appraisal notes that the complex represents 'an important component of the mid nineteenth-century built heritage of south County Dublin with the architectural value of the composition, one following the cellular model, confirmed by such attributes as the near-symmetrical footprint centred on a Tudor Revival-detailed frontispiece; the construction in a rough cut deep blue limestone offset by silver-grey granite dressings not only demonstrating good quality workmanship, but also producing a sober two-tone palette; the diminishing in scale of the multipartite openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression with the private apartments set aside for the governor defined by a polygonal oriel window; and the miniature gablets embellishing a high pitched multi-gabled roofline.

'[54] Kathryn Burtinshaw and John Burt noted that the building's design centred on the moral condition of the patients: 'Patients worked at their trades, read books and were provided with various activities.

His mark on the building was to update and enlarge the state rooms, which included altering the Presence Chamber designed by the former surveyor general Arthur Jones-Nevill.

[55] Owen also contributed to the Castle with his design of the coach-house, completed in 1834; the Cavalry Guard House (1837); modernisation of the Treasury building (1837-1838); the Constabulary Barracks (1838); and an extension to the Chief Secretary's Office (1840-1841).

Two years later, at the northern edge of the central axis, Owen designed a Greek revival façade which occupies the rear part of the solicitors’ hall and coffee room.

Owen’s design was described in newspaper reporting upon its completion in 1860 as ‘a continuation of the range extending in the westerly direction from the pile known as the Benchers Building in suite with the insolvency and bankruptcy courts at the eastern side of the coffee room and Solicitors’ Chambers,’ and ‘a most useful and creditable work in a solid, graceful and unpretentious style, presenting an appearance both chaste and imposing, and harmonising perfectly with the older portions of the rear extension.’[58] In 1836, parliament passed legislation centralising policing in Ireland.

Architectural historian Christine Casey notes that these are ‘simply expressed, parapeted with sash windows, round-headed doors and shallow projections to the centre and ends.

Originally rendered, they have recently been stripped back to the limestone rubble, which undermines the elegant planar manipulation of Owen's façades.’[57]: 300 Photography from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century show the front façade facing onto the parade grounds dressed as Casey describes but also reveals the rear of the building were undressed as they remain today.

[57]: 300 Owen’s eye for symmetry in the redesign of Dublin’s public architecture is nowhere better demonstrated than in his transformation of the townhouse and grounds of Marcus Beresford, 1st Earl of Tyrone’s former estate.

The symmetry of this mirrored design was completed with the addition, in 1838, of a third building, the Infant Model School, placed to the rear of the block, between the two Marlborough Street townhouses.

[57]: 155  The NIAH’s appraisal of the Infant Model School notes that it is ‘contextualised by its neighbouring related buildings and provid[es] an aesthetically pleasing backdrop.’[63] Described by architectural historian Jeremy Williams as 'a restrained Italianate palazzo,'[64] Owen's design for Talbot House was one of his few privately commissioned works.