Studio528inc

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Studio528inc Capitola based architecture firm incorporating art in the process for an artfully crafted home

09/02/2026

I still use the pencil to make decisions.
I sketched the architecture by hand, the used AI to explore two very different directions.

Same massing. Same proportions. Same house.

Just a much faster way to ask, what if?

AI isn’t replacing the design process for me.
It’s making iteration almost frictionless.

Which one would you choose? 1 or 2?

09/01/2026

The pencil still makes all of the decisions.

I sketched the architecture by hand, then used AI to explore two very different exterior directions.

Same massing. Same proportions. Same house.

Just a much faster way to ask, what if?

AI isn’t replacing the design process for me.
It’s making iteration almost frictionless.

Which one would you choose? 1 or 2?

08/31/2026

This project didn’t begin with us. It began with a stop-work notice.

By the time the owners contacted Studio528, construction had stalled, the permit had become a major hurdle, and they were carrying both rent and a mortgage while waiting for a way forward.

Time mattered.

We stepped in to redesign the project while working with as much of the existing structure as possible. The final design included a new exterior façade, rebuilt decks, a small addition, a reorganized kitchen, and completely reimagined outdoor entertaining spaces.

We then navigated the County permit process, resolved the stop-work notice, and connected the owners with one of our trusted contractors. Once construction resumed, quite a bit of the previous work had to be corrected—but the project was finally moving forward with a clear design, an approved path, and the right team in place.

The result is more than a dramatic before and after. It’s a home that works better, opens naturally to the outdoors, and finally became what its owners had hoped it could be.

Architecture isn’t always about starting from a blank page. Sometimes it’s about stepping into a difficult situation, finding the path forward, and bringing a project home.

Architecture: Studio 528 Art & Architecture
Construction: MG Custom Builders

Santa Cruz, California

08/17/2026

Before automotive design became an industry, there was Harley Earl.

LaSalle was introduced as Cadillac’s companion marque, but its importance went far beyond filling a spot in GM’s lineup.

The success of Earl’s early LaSalle designs helped convince General Motors that styling deserved its own place at the table—that proportion, line, surface and presence mattered alongside engineering.

By 1933, that thinking was becoming part of the language of the automobile.

That’s what I love about this car.

The hood ornament.
The grille.
The headlights.
The long, formal lines.

Everything feels considered.

As an architect, that idea resonates with me: function may establish the requirements, but design determines how we experience the result.

1933 LaSalle
Watercolor

Car #3 for Monterey Car Week.

ClassicCars AutomotiveDesign AutomotiveArt Watercolor Architecture Design

08/14/2026

Some homes begin with a floor plan.

This one began with a feeling.

A home that feels composed, but never overly formal.
Timeless symmetry, and home that lets you take a deep breath.

Before it was built, I painted it.

Watercolor has always been part of how I think through architecture. It forces me to slow down and look at proportion, shadow, material, depth—and most importantly, atmosphere.

Then comes the best part:

Watching something that once existed only on paper become a real place.

From Watercolor to Home.
Menlo Park, California

08/14/2026

The machine became the ornament.

There’s something about design from this era that has always fascinated me.

The wheel. The vents. The chrome. The repetition of mechanical parts. The sheer size of these cars.

Nothing feels hidden.

Instead, the engineering becomes part of the visual language.

I think that’s one of the things I respond to in both automobiles and architecture—the best details don’t feel applied afterward. They seem to grow naturally from how something is made, how it works, and what it needs to do.

That’s what I wanted to paint here.

Not really the whole car.

Just that moment where engineering starts to become art.

1931 Duesenberg Model J
Watercolor

Monterey Car Week.

08/12/2026

In 1956, Ferrari built the 290 MM for the Mille Miglia—a thousand-mile race through Italy.

What fascinates me about race cars, especially from this era, and double for Ferrari, is that they don’t feel as though they were simply styled. Their shape feels like the consequence of what they were being asked to do.

Move air.
Shed heat.
Go fast.
Survive.

And somehow, out of those constraints, came something beautiful.

It was happening throughout the design world at the time. Architects and industrial designers were questioning ornament, experimenting with new materials, and searching for forms that expressed movement, structure and purpose. Peak mid-century design.

The 290 MM belongs to that world.

Maybe that’s why I’ve always loved drawing cars.

As an architect, I’m interested in many of the same things: proportion, line, material, shadow—and the way an object changes as you move around it.

But perhaps most of all, I’m interested in the idea that good design isn’t really about the object itself.

It’s about the experience it creates.

The Ferrari 290 MM wasn’t designed to sit beneath museum lights.

It was designed to tear across Italy.

1956 Ferrari 290 MM
Watercolor

A little automotive art for Monterey Car Week.

Watercolor Architecture Design

02/19/2026

Every great hotel leaves you with a feeling. Sometimes that feeling can be carried home.

I love exploring how places can be remembered through a sketch.

Can you imagine walking into your room and there is a sketch as a “thank you”? If you own a hotel, destination, restaurant, coffee shop….

01/11/2026

Inspired by the Monterey Bay and Elkhorn Slough, I’m starting a new series of watercolor paintings mounted on wood panels

Art & Architecture. It’s in the name because it’s who I am. And what I do. CAD? Yes, it’s a tool. AI? Yes, it’s a tool. ...
12/19/2025

Art & Architecture. It’s in the name because it’s who I am. And what I do.

CAD? Yes, it’s a tool. AI? Yes, it’s a tool. The God created mind and soul? That’s a different category all together

I’m an artist, but you won’t find me in a gallery or at a weekend “art&wine”. But drawing, draftsmanship and painting is in me and part of who I am.

I’m an architect. Don’t ask me to add numbers in my head. But….ask me to tell your story through your home? Now we’re talking.

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Capitola, CA
95010

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