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JAD Design Services LLC Architect, Design, Drafting and Modeling

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Dinosaurs, Gothic architecture, and a museum that has learned how to evolve! 🦖One of our Connecticut stops was the Yale ...
10/12/2026

Dinosaurs, Gothic architecture, and a museum that has learned how to evolve! 🦖

One of our Connecticut stops was the Yale Peabody Museum in New Haven, where I found myself going back and forth between admiring the prehistoric skeletons and looking up at the architecture. Neither disappointed!

Originally opened in 1925, the museum’s beautiful Neo-Gothic building recently underwent a major renovation and expansion, reopening in 2024. What I particularly enjoyed was how the historic architecture remains such an important part of the experience, while new light-filled spaces, updated galleries, and contemporary exhibits bring the museum into another generation.

And the transformation goes well beyond aesthetics. With expanded exhibition space, improved accessibility, and admission now free to everyone, the Peabody has become a more welcoming place to explore and learn.

There’s something particularly fitting about that for a natural history museum. A place dedicated to understanding how life has changed over millions of years has its own story of preservation, adaptation, and evolution.

It’s a wonderful example of how historic places can continue to grow without losing the character that makes them special.

And naturally, we couldn’t leave without a few dinosaur encounters of our own! 😂

An icon of New York City, and apparently an important destination for coffee lovers, too! 😂☕️No matter how many times I’...
10/10/2026

An icon of New York City, and apparently an important destination for coffee lovers, too! 😂☕️

No matter how many times I’ve visited New York, I never get tired of looking up at the Empire State Building. Completed in 1931, it’s one of the great expressions of Art Deco architecture, from its dramatic setbacks and soaring spire to the incredible materials and geometric detailing of its lobby.

There’s something about the optimism of that era that I absolutely love. The idea that architecture could represent ambition, progress, and a bold vision of the future. Nearly a century later, the Empire State Building still captures that spirit and remains one of the most recognizable silhouettes in the world.

And while I was busy admiring the architecture, Ed was equally excited about another landmark inside the building: the Starbucks Reserve! Naturally, we couldn’t leave without making that stop. 😂

One building, two very happy visitors, and two slightly different architectural priorities!

Growing up in New York, I visited the city frequently, but usually by car. So, despite knowing the city for much of my l...
10/09/2026

Growing up in New York, I visited the city frequently, but usually by car. So, despite knowing the city for much of my life, I never really appreciated just how much of its history is embedded in the mass transit system.

Traveling through the city by train this week gave me an entirely different perspective.

From the grandeur of Grand Central Terminal to the century-old tilework and mosaics of the subway, you can see generations of design and infrastructure evolving alongside the city itself. Even the decorative beavers at Astor Place tell a story about the neighborhood’s history.

And that story continues through contemporary public art, modernization, and preservation. At 14th Street, Tom Otterness’s bronze sculptures bring a little humor and social commentary into the subway. At the World Trade Center, preserved doors still carry markings left by search-and-rescue teams following September 11, while the Oculus represents another generation’s response to transportation, architecture, and the city’s history.

None of this makes commuting glamorous, and it certainly doesn’t erase the challenges of navigating a century-old system. But it does reveal how much of New York’s evolution remains visible in places people depend on every day.

I find something fascinating about that. These spaces aren’t simply preserved pieces of history. They’re still being used, adapted, maintained, and experienced by new generations.

Sometimes seeing a familiar place differently reveals an entirely new story.

I promised more on Volcano Bay! 🌋🌴What surprised me most wasn’t the water slides. It was the storytelling woven into the...
10/08/2026

I promised more on Volcano Bay! 🌋🌴

What surprised me most wasn’t the water slides. It was the storytelling woven into the entire built environment.

Universal created the Waturi, a fictional seafaring people whose travels and mythology shaped the island. That story is reflected in everything from the architecture and landscape to the pathways, waterfalls, and attractions. Even the volcano has its own creation story!

As an architect, I find this kind of environmental storytelling fascinating. And while I don’t believe entertainment excuses misrepresenting real cultures, I do think thoughtful, culturally sensitive storytelling can introduce us to different traditions and inspire curiosity. It’s another form of edutainment, where learning happens through experience rather than explanation.

What struck me most was how immersive it all felt. At some point, I stopped thinking about everything outside the park and simply enjoyed being there. No agenda, no responsibilities, just the experience.

That’s the power of great design. Sometimes the most meaningful thing a place can do isn’t teach us something directly, but change how we feel while we’re there.

Water is Life. Life is Joy. And Volcano Bay really does bring that philosophy to life.

10/06/2026

New York for the day! 🚆🗽

Ed and I took the train into Manhattan for art, architecture, good coffee, and a little Disney. Apparently our vacation interests are VERY consistent. 😂

Of course, getting from one place to another takes a little longer when I keep stopping to look at buildings. There’s what we came to see, and then there’s everything that catches my attention along the way!

And dinner? ICHIRAN! It’s one of our favorites in Shinjuku, so we couldn’t resist getting our ramen fix in New York, too. 🍜

A day in Manhattan, a little taste of Tokyo, and a train back to Connecticut. Not a bad way to spend a Monday together. ❤️

Well, the pizza might have given us away. Hello, Connecticut! 🍕We traded the view above the clouds for a booth at Frank ...
10/04/2026

Well, the pizza might have given us away. Hello, Connecticut! 🍕

We traded the view above the clouds for a booth at Frank Pepe’s, a very large apizza, and a bottle of Foxon Park white birch b**r. An early flight, an adventure together, and now this? We’re not questioning our sudden run of good travel luck. 😂

Of course, my camera wandered from the pizza to the ceiling. The neon, the patterned panels, the big brick oven, and that beautiful pendant light all caught my attention. We came for dinner, but you know I wasn’t leaving without photographing a few details.

That’s part of what I love about traveling. The experience isn’t just what’s on the plate or what’s on the itinerary. It’s the room around you, the person across the table, and the little things you’ll remember together afterward. Sometimes a booth and a pizza are a pretty great place to start.

And judging by these photos, neither of us is in danger of taking ourselves too seriously.

There’s more exploring ahead. For now, we have some very important crust-related matters to attend to.

Who else considers the food stops an essential part of the itinerary? 👀

Somewhere above Philadelphia, the city was glowing through the clouds below, and for once the travel gods decided to coo...
10/03/2026

Somewhere above Philadelphia, the city was glowing through the clouds below, and for once the travel gods decided to cooperate. ✈️

Both of us are on the plane.
We left on time.
Actually, we left early.
Clearly something unusual is happening.

And now we are headed somewhere that feels a little different from our usual adventures. A little history, a little design, a little wandering, and hopefully a few unexpected discoveries along the way.

We are not giving away the destination quite yet.

Any guesses where we are headed? 👀

📍 Somewhere above Philadelphia
✈️ Adventure officially underway

TravelInspiration WindowSeat CityLights Philadelphia JADDesignServices TTH WhereAreWeGoing GuessTheDestination

09/28/2026

Universal absolutely knows how to find the 80s kids.

This year, the lagoon became Hawkins after dark with a Stranger Things show that hit every nostalgia button at once. Synths, neon, monsters, 80s pop culture, and that unmistakable Spielberg-era feeling that something very weird is happening just beyond the edge of suburbia.

What I loved most was seeing Universal use the lagoon itself as part of the storytelling. Projection, lighting, water, music and the surrounding park all became one enormous stage. It is exactly the kind of thing Universal does so well during HHN, taking a place you already know and completely changing its personality once night falls.

For those of us raised on the 80s, Stranger Things already feels strangely familiar. Put it in the middle of Universal Studios during Halloween Horror Nights and apparently my inner 10-year-old never stood a chance.

The timing feels almost too perfect. Autumn weather finally showed up in Phoenix just as I got home from Halloween Horro...
09/28/2026

The timing feels almost too perfect. Autumn weather finally showed up in Phoenix just as I got home from Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando, which means I can keep pretending spooky season exists in the desert for a little while longer.

One of my favorite things about HHN has always been watching Universal Studios transform as the sun goes down. During the day, everything is familiar. Hollywood facades, bright colors, palm trees, storefronts, Mel’s glowing neon. Then daylight starts disappearing and, almost imperceptibly at first, the entire environment changes.

The architecture hasn’t moved, but suddenly you’re experiencing it differently. Lighting shifts. Music and ambient sound begin filling spaces that felt completely ordinary an hour earlier. Fog starts collecting between buildings. Characters appear where tourists were standing moments before. Familiar streets become theatrical sets, and places designed to feel welcoming during the day become strange, unsettling and occasionally ridiculous at night.

That is what I love about themed design when it really works. HHN doesn’t simply decorate Universal for Halloween. It uses lighting, sound, atmosphere, performers, graphics and the existing built environment together to transform the way you perceive the place. The physical setting is still there, but the story has changed.

Every evening, Universal Orlando goes from normal to paranormal. And getting to watch that transformation happen is almost as much fun for me as what comes afterward.

There are places I photograph because they’re beautiful, and then there are places that eventually make me put the camer...
09/27/2026

There are places I photograph because they’re beautiful, and then there are places that eventually make me put the camera down and actually study what’s happening.

Balboa Park’s Botanical Building did that to me.

From a distance, it reads almost like this enormous delicate object sitting in the landscape. Inside, it becomes something completely different. The structure, the lath, the plants, the water and the California sun all start working together. Light isn’t simply entering the building. It is being filtered, patterned and constantly changed by everything it passes through.

I kept looking up.

Eventually I pulled out the sketchbook, because drawing forces me to see things differently. You start noticing where the arches actually begin, how one volume overlaps another, where the structure disappears behind vegetation, and how much of the experience comes from shadow rather than form.

My sketch certainly isn’t precious. That’s not really the point. It’s a record of spending enough time with a place to understand it a little better.

And this is exactly the kind of architecture I love. A building that is memorable on its own, but becomes even better when landscape, climate and human experience are allowed to become part of the architecture.

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