OUR STORY
ISLAND OF CAPRI, BAY OF NAPLES, ITALY, 1998

“I think Joy is the key word in our work, It must be felt.
If you don’t feel Joy in what you’re doing, then you’re not really alive. There are miserable moments you have to live through, but really,
Joy will prevail.”

(excerpt from a quote by the architect Louis Kahn included in our wedding ceremony)

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DECORDOVA MUSEUM, LINCOLN, 2020
PHOTO BRET BAHE

Our story began in 1994 when we started designing buildings together at a five-person architectural firm in Cambridge, MA. We took it as a sign that we were subsequently employed in the same two other offices, so we got married in1998. Our friends enjoy teasing us about the fact that while on our honeymoon in Prague, Vienna, Venice, Florence and Capri, we spent much of our time looking at and sketching buildings. We were then in separate offices for five years, but found we missed working together. We formed studio J2 in 2003 in order to be able to do so in our own way (Jennifer continued on elsewhere until she joined full time in 2009). Our love and enthusiasm for our work has always been an integral part of our relationship and it still brings us the same JOY.

ROOFTOPS IN PRAGUE (Jennifer)
PAZZI CHAPEL BY BRUNELLESCHI IN FLORENCE (Jennifer)
S. GIORGIO MAGGIORE BY PALLADIO IN VENICE (Jennifer)
BOBOLI GARDENS IN FLORENCE (John)
PRAGUE CASTLE (John)
VIA CASTIGLIONE, CAPRI (John)

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781.259.0700 / admin@studioj2.com

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SALK INSTITUTE IN LA JOLLA CALIFORNIA BY LOUIS KAHN

“There are many possibilities that are still in the air that we can make happen. The architect’s job, in my opinion, is to find ways that the availabilities that are not yet here can have spaces, and those that are here already can have better environments for their maturing into that which talks to you. The spaces that you make must be the seat of a certain offering of a person to the next person. It is not an operational thing; you can leave that to the builders and operators. Already they are building eighty-five percent of the architecture, so give them another five percent. Take only ten percent, or five percent, and be really an architect, not a professional. The professional will bury you. You become so comparable. You will be praised so equally to someone else that you will never recognize yourself. You will become good in business, you will play golf all day, and your buildings will be built anyway. But what the devil is that and what kind of living is that? What Joy is there if Joy is buried? I think Joy is the key word in our work. It must be felt. If you don’t feel Joy in what you’re doing, then you’re not really alive. There are miserable moments you have to live through, but really, Joy will prevail.”

– LOUIS I. KAHN, ARCHITECT 1901-1974