Inside a Top 200 Architect’s Mind: How Design Shapes the Way We Live | Jay Reinert

Curator of interiors, furnishings and lifestyles.

“Hosted by Tiffany Woolie, an interior designer, and a style enthusiast, along with her serial entrepreneur husband Scott.”

Eye-design lab is your ultimate design podcast where we explore the rich and vibrant world of design and its constant evolution in style and trends. Today on the eye-design lab, Meet J. Reinhardt, founder of J. Reinhardt architecture, and one of Forbes' top 200 residential architects, who blends craftsmanship, creativity and precision to design spaces that don't just look incredible, but truly shape how we live. Welcome to the eye-design lab podcast. Today we are joined with J. Reinhardt, who has an architecture firm, a founder, and actually a very serious designer as well.

So we look forward to diving into this conversation. Welcome to Rainy South Florida. Yes, thank you. Thank you for having me. And tell us, tell the audience a little bit about your background. Introduce.

How far would you like to? Well, we're going to go back a little bit further, but just tell us a little introduction.

I grew up in a family that was very supportive and I had a grandfather who was a boat builder and an carpenter who also worked for Curtis Publishing in Philadelphia. They closed the doors and gave him an opportunity to go do other things. And then found my way in college or in high school that I wanted to be an architect, and was supported incredibly well by two perfect two teachers at that time. Your parents or teachers in high school, two shop teachers, which is like something we don't even see much of these days.

I mean, it gives me goosebumps to think about how they changed my life path. And then went to UNC Charlotte, then in C. State, came out in 1990, where there was no work for architects.

“And why was that? I think that was the dot com bus at the time.”

Okay.

It was a real shame because I had spent some time with RTKL and Baltimore and want to traveling fellowship summer internship with them.

And so the summer before that, I had traveled the west coast on their dime and generosity. I mean, studying every theme park Aquarium in Zoom in the wild, from the Mexican border to Vancouver. That's crazy. So, you know, when I graduated, they just left like 300 people go. So, that opportunity kind of fell.

Another transition into what led you to. And that led me in the rely on my building. Yeah. So, you said your grandfather was a boat builder when you say boat builder like he built racing dings. So, small set of. Okay.

And my uncle won the world's in a. So, so did that experience of seeing what your grandfather was doing kind of set your goals or your. He would, you know, I was encouraged to go to the basement with him and then work. You know, I mean, not work. I mean, it wasn't, it was more an encouragement thing than like being forced to.

Well, and I feel like like your story, which I mean, we're going to dive through. But I feel like you really had a hands on a approach versus technical approach. Yes, I mean, I'm in the very beginning. I was surprised when I got the architecture school. Right.

I had a, I was coming from craft and architecture at the time was celebrating philosophy and design thinking, right, which was a surprise to me. You know, I didn't have the vocabulary that like, you know, and I won't call it intelligence, but certainly the grades that some of this other students had. But I made my way and then, you know, it's worked out okay for me.

It made a difference that I actually did really, really well through school coming from hands on approach versus. That academic. But you also have a construction background. Yes.

“So where did the construction background come into play?”

So when I came at a school in 1990, and there was no work. You went to work. I bought a pickup truck. I lived in my parents basement and started building decks and anything I can do to. To, you know, so what point of line.

And at what point does it sort of change to architecture? So somewhere around 2000.

So I was always doing architecture along with building.

Okay. I had connections with architects. So I was doing design build. I was building things I designed. Okay.

And it was a lot like being a sculptor. So it wasn't very financially productive. Right. When you want to take advantage of every opportunity you discover along the way in a building project. After a while, you've been there too long.

So 2004, five. Crazy enough. Was the time where I decided it was time to stop being distracted by. Construction and start moving towards the. But you're unique in the fact that from what we experienced.

We work with a quite a number of architects. It's the one thing.

“I think Tiffany Moreso says it all the time.”

That it's the half piece of most of these architects. Don't fully understand the construction or what's involved in it. And it's not part of architectural education. Right. So, you know, like I was saying, architecture is more of a philosophical kind of.

Mm-hmm. You know, endeavor or business endeavor, right? Or science, you know. Like a business. Or half part.

It's not something that most architects. Right. Or very interested. I shouldn't say not very interested in they don't have the opportunity to do it to get hands on. And, you know, in college when I was going through school, my internship, my TAs positions.

We're always running the shops.

You know. So helping others do and figure out how to build furniture. I helped with a furniture design studio. And I'm a person. And we did a lot.

A lot of laminated furniture. Yeah. This crazy fuck stuff. Yeah. Yeah.

So yeah. But most architects do not do the few aspects. We run into it all the time. I mean, I just had a conversation with an architect this past week. And I was asking my question.

He said, well, have the GC figure it out. Yeah. And it's that is what I sell against. Right. Right.

One of the first things in our conversations with prospective clients is that, you know, we're going to stay involved from the beginning to the end. Right. You know, we think things through. So we're not giving them.

We're not giving them a suggestion. We're giving them an instruction. And if something happens and they need to change that or an issue that arises, we want to know about it. Well, I look at it from the consumer of the client. It's beneficial to have someone like yourself who understands and has done the construction side.

And as an architect at the end of the day for the homeowner, you know, remodeling or rebuild, you're saving them. I would believe money in the process. I think that we're certainly cleaning up the process. Right. I mean, there are some great builders out there.

And I always say, you know, I don't want to limit anybody's input and creativity as far as our projects go.

“But you need to bring it to us and have a conversation with us.”

Yeah. You can't make a decision at seven o'clock in the morning. You know, to move a closet from that wall, that will cause you found a pipe in the wall that you don't want to move. Right. You know, I mean, that's not the way we make decisions.

We need to inform us and we need to have a conversation with the client. And, you know, in that conversation with the client, we discuss why that decision was made to begin with. And then give the builder, you know, instruction on what to do. But yeah, it's a different process when you have a background. I think in construction, I'm not the only one.

There are architects out there. But it's, so I don't want to badmouth the profession. There's certainly people who have expertise and circuits. Correct. Correct. But for residential projects, especially in like the Philadelphia Subberm area, right, where we have a lot of buildings already.

And the idea is how do we make them become better and become part of the, you know, the client's lot. And represent who they are and their lifestyle and things. You've got to be able to modify things, you know, which means you've got to have an understanding of how they were put together. The first place, right?

“It's a little different if you're doing a new home, right?”

I mean, that was one of the questions I was going to ask you is that, like, as you, you know, transition from being in construction and kind of doing both. And you, you know, opened your firm and went into, is it mainly residential?

Right.

“And, or it's meaningful to the community that we're in.”

Okay.

We are just did a garden center and expansion of a hardware store, which is now an ace, but, you know, it was a hardware store.

And they bought a lot next door to them and wanted to extend that into the indoor garden center. But it happens to be in the center of our town. So, you know, so that was a project I took on so that it didn't end up looking like the back of our home. Right, right. And the middle of our town.

So, how do we get involved in, you know, so it turned a little more into a park atmosphere, where we tried to activate. We tried to activate the sidewalk. You know, so we do anything that's fun. That's okay. That's okay.

I don't think. I'll just on a birdhouse. If you're interested in building through a process that gets the birdhouse that you want, you know, then I don't care what we're designing. Right. You know, and that, that's something else besides the building end.

We expect our clients be highly involved in the process. Well, it is a collaboration in your bringing your expertise to the table. And what I try to explain is that I'm going to help them understand their options. I know, I like to do that too. Through alternatives.

Everything I do is alternatives. I'm not the one to, like, this is where it's got to be. And this is, I practice the same way. Yeah. I, my goal, my best clients seem to be very creative people who are a little afraid to take on the project.

They trust themselves almost yet, you know, they have great ideas. Great taste, but don't have, like, all the technical. Yeah.

I mean, there's a lot of star-protect firms that, you know, basically just they want a program, you know, at a brief.

And then go away and we'll show you where your house is going to look like in six months, you know. And that's not us. So I mean, we're, if you're not going to be involved and think about things deeply and care, then you're better off going to somebody else. Right.

“So do you primarily do a lot of renovations in your in an area where there is such an established town?”

And yes, that's a plus and a minus. Oh, I think it's so wonderful because we live here and there is so many new communities where they're just. Starting from scratch and you know, there's the cookie cutter world where we also have projects that are architectural little gems that we're trying to preserve and bring to the next generation. And they are historical properties. So we have to deal with historical society.

Are you dealing with that, too? Yes. And a lot of people don't want to take them on.

So I always applaud people.

Yeah. Do the goal whether it's zoning or whether it's historic or what, you know, is understanding where the regulations are coming from and what they're trying to accomplish. And, you know, and then do the best you can creatively. Right. To address those.

Right. And then when you present them, you can explain to them that we can't do this because of that, but we would like to do this. You know, and I do some contemporary work as well as, you know, kind of restoration. Right. Not to the point of, like, the department of interior restoration stuff, but.

“And it really is important, I think, in a, as the wheat, my office isn't hadn't filled New Jersey, which was founded, you know, before 1700.”

It's a pretty, it's a really, it's a story actually Elizabeth had and came over as like a 16 year old. And found it hadn't filled, you know. And I'm like a 16 year old woman by herself, you know, which is a girl. Right. You had 16 year old.

Yeah. I mean, it just blows my mind. That is made to really think about how, and it's a, it was a quaker community. And, um, made it. The area had to be settled and lived in where they would lose the rights to the property.

And, um, so hadn't had his daughter come over on a boat and settle. Hadn't filled, which just blows my, it just blows my mind. Um, so we have a lot of. I would say influence right from her. Yeah, so the community community is a lot of four square.

Um, we have some colonial.

And then we have a lot of, uh, you know, development done in like the 20s. And those buildings typically are small in scale. The houses are smaller in scale than people typically want today. Okay. So, you know, there's an lockdown problem, like in every community.

Yeah. And the neighborhoods are changing in character. And they really are established beautiful neighborhoods, you know. And so there's a big uproar about, are we wrecking, you know, the feel of a community. And so I've kind of developed a thought about how to deal with that, you know.

And my thinking is if, if it's. It's well built was well designed, wreck, you know, represents a. Um, historical time in architecture like Victorian or four square. You know, um, and adds to the character and context of the community. Then we ought to protect.

“How far back was it, was it started that she started?”

So I'm not great with dates, but 16 late 1600s. I believe that's the first 16. Yeah. There was some major events that happened and hadn't filled the through the revolution. Right, you know.

And so there's some history there, you know. That should what we call history. My daughter's an Edinburgh. And that's where the real has been. Yeah.

Yeah. You know.

And so when we talk about history, it's kind of amazing.

I think when comparison to what's in Europe, we want to preserve that here. I mean, in every little four court, little space we can. Yeah. And so, you know, the Department of Interior says we have to protect. You know, or if like we have a Stork District, right?

Nope. Anything in the Stork District, you can do anything you want to. It except change the the the exterior. Yeah. The street facing public facing facades, right?

Yeah.

“I think that's like way under what we should be doing.”

You know, I mean, buildings, the floor plans of buildings. Explained this, what society was like at the top of the floor. It was like, right? It isn't just like the use of a kitchen was so different. Exactly.

When you walk into a house and there's a parlor on the right.

Yeah. Beautiful. We're dad came home sat down, had his branding this cigar. Yeah. You know, and the kitchens in the back with one little teeny window.

Yeah. It tells you about the dynamics of the house. Yeah. You know. And as we race that by just blowing things out and making.

Yeah. It's just killing. So I do think there's some properties that should be protected much high more than we protect them. And maybe should even be museums. Right.

And. And somebody will choose to live there. You know, I mean, they might need to wear a bonnet and stuff. But, you know. And then most of the houses 90% of the houses are.

That are adding to the context. You know, and the way that the. The original property that the neighborhood feels. Those we ought to be evolving slowly to support contemporary lifestyle. Right.

And respecting, you know, the community. And it's feel, you know. And I think they even should be giving like a statement for that. Yeah. If you don't knock this house down and said you work with it.

If you do support years of an 100,000, 100,000, 100,000 dollars is spend or something. You know, that. I wanted to put your money where your mouth is. I got that. I think this is valuable.

That figure out a way to encourage it. Encouraging instead of making rules. I think you. Is working with somebody for sure. And then there's houses that should be knocked down.

Right. I mean, there are houses that don't add to the community. You know, weren't well maintained, weren't well designed or built. And those houses I believe we should be building homes of our time. The same is say the Victorians that we're trying to save were homes.

You know, about 18. Yeah. Is it a large percentage of homes that you're doing that fall into that category? That you're having to deal with. So the houses that I do mostly renovation work.

Right. And then I do. You run into a lot of it being where you're located. Yes. And new homes are typically done by flippers.

Right. Developers. Yeah. So they're buying properties and knock them down. Right.

So when we get to do a home. You know, from a new home.

“We decide that and determine that knocking it down is the best thing to do.”

You know, then we want to, I want to do a project that is significant.

Right.

“I mean, it's going to be contemporary probably or, but it still should.”

It should still address and work and respect the context that it feels. Right.

But I always left because, you know, in 1885 when the first Victorian started to get built in

Waker community of hadn't built. And it's a queen Anne. You know, people were saying, I mean, how can they begin to think to build the houses? A lot of houses are beautiful as heaven. Right.

You know, I mean, like, and so new styles of architecture and traditional towns have been resisted forever. Yeah. But they're the ones that start to like be appreciated and say over time. So first, you know, design homes that meet a family's lifestyle. Yes.

For today. Right.

Is what we should be doing in that case.

So here it's a hard thing. I mean, you guys have been mostly new homes. That's a whole different. It is.

“And that's why, you know, just even in what we do together differently, but in the same type of background.”

I feel like it's actually more exciting to work on houses that are existing that you have the challenges. And that you are trying to, you know, make more beautiful. But maintain that original look and feel and you know, not necessarily blow them out or anything like that. But I feel like, yeah, I enjoy that challenge more than I do just the throwing up square boxes, not a lot of character. They all kind of look the same on the street.

You know, I definitely prefer those beautiful time capsules. You know, and really enjoy working on that too. Yeah. I mean, I agree.

I mean, I enjoy each type.

In its own way. Yeah. You know, the renovation work, when you have some limits, it does kind of make the design process a little different. Then if, you know, you just do whatever you want, it's really, it's taste, right?

You know, I mean, the clients are bringing to the project. Yeah. The success. Yeah. Yeah.

We don't get anybody who wants a Victorian home designed and we end of giving them contemporary house. Correct. That just doesn't happen. And as like, even in the architecture field, like one thing, I keep hearing a lot about. It's like, oh, they just don't build things like this anymore.

Like, where is the character and where is the craftsmanship? I've been, why do you think we are cleaning things up? Obviously, we live in a more fast-paced environment and things take people want things quicker. And all that beauty and layers take a lot of time. But what's your thought process behind all that?

Like, why are we not taking as much time? I think for all the reasons that you just said is one of them. You know, they're the part of it.

“I think that flexibility is really important in new construction stations.”

Yes. And I mean, that is a sustainable thing. And they're trying to appeal to multiple and even as life changes. Right? Like, we do a lot of age and in place.

And, you know, I mean, a 1920s cottage doesn't. You know, adapt well to age and in place, right? And so, I mean, the newer stuff, I think, if we can keep it flexible enough. The, you know, a bedroom can become an office, right? Then that's probably a benefit.

But it's also, the days in my, in our world, the days of the gymnasium with a kitchen in the corner called an open plan are over. Yeah. Which I, I do appreciate that. That's sort of what I'm even talking about like the ornamentals and just all the like.

We'll talk about craftsmen. So there's craftsmanship in lack of ornament too. There is. And okay. From the builder end, you know, another piece of trim to cover a gap is easier

than spending the time from the, you know, rough ends to make sure that the tiles going to lay out properly. Right? No gap. Right. And so it's, it's a much more invested builder who is trying to meet close tolerances.

But that's it.

I mean, the, I think it's expensive.

Yeah. That's true. And I'm not sure. I mean, like I'm sure down here. I mean, we're certainly going to, to wood in our, you know, natural wood again.

Yes. You know, giving an earthy field to building organic. Organic and chic. So is it harder to put a bunch of one by one by 16 foot long together with the half inch gap between them. You know, then it was to put crown molding up.

I'm not sure. But why are we being more streamlined? It's probably because it was just simple. I mean, I think we are definitely. Some more, right?

I mean, especially after COVID. Yeah. Yeah. It's true. This was 10 years ago when I was coming, I probably have a suit on.

Right. I like that. Right.

“We are, I think we're, I think some of it's societal.”

And, you know, when I write around a nice, if I see a new home. That is trying to appear. Old hole. But that's a replica.

Well, I think it goes back to something that we talked about when we first sat down.

Shop. Yeah. In high school. Shop was something like big huge. Right.

I don't think any schools have shop anymore. No, they don't have shop. But what does everyone have a cell phone? Yes. So they're not learning, people aren't learning the skills and the crafts.

No. They were years ago. Now they're learning how to search, you know, and social media. Yes. So the skills.

And their expectations are different with social media. Right. I mean, that's, I would say 10 years ago. Most of our projects were drywall and trim. Right.

And like, special was, you know, a wall that was painted out a different color to try to pop the wall. Right. Now the finishes budget is equaling the, you know, rough construction budget. So true. And you're right.

Most people don't. I mean, I don't think there's a lot of people don't have that kind of money. I don't think they realize or even understand that. Well, I mean, why construction costs have gone to where they've gone.

“I think a lot has to do with people's expectations.”

And I think that there's a lot of people who are below what they're saying. Who aren't hiring interiors and architects because they think that all they can afford is drywall. Yeah. And I, you know, I believe that architecture is the space. It's not the things.

The things just surround the space. And so drywall's fine. I mean, we can create great space, you know, with that doesn't have to have a bunch of stuff. Right. Right.

But I will. The, the wrap-up thing is one of my pet peeves. Okay. I'm an old car guy. Yeah.

I took my son to a Porsche swap meet and there were four 350, sixes lined up and there were speedsters. Right. Like what James Dean died in. Like that car. Yeah.

And three of them weren't like worn and rusted and, you know, and one was beautiful. Right. And I asked him. So which, which car would you pick? You know, of course he wants the gorgeous, the one perfect, right?

I'm like, you just gave away a million dollars.

I mean, that was a replica car that made the car as next to it. Look like they were trash. Right. And those cars were worth a million bucks. Is that crazy?

Right. What a good analogy. So what I learned, you know, through that is the craft person in me can respect the effort and talent that it went in to making that replica. And it should have had a different area in the show.

Right. Right. Yep. It shouldn't be put next to something authentic. Correct.

And so if that was in an area where we knew they were all, you know, a replica is then you could really dig in and say, man, the craftsmanship in this is really incredible, right? Right. But you take it over there and really what it made, it made all of these valuable relics. You can just put them on a dumpster and take, you know, put them in a restaurant and take them away.

So how does I feel are like that, too?

“I think it's really important not to be putting replica's next to authentic pieces.”

It actually makes good sense. I mean, you see a lot of that in Palm Beach.

I mean, you appreciate the different, like kind of like how you said of your town.

You appreciate the eras, you know, different historical timeframes where they really highlighted architectural details in different ways.

“And I think it's important that, you know, we established a difference between like developer now and architectural now.”

Right. There's a difference, you know, like soon we say a simple McDonald start to get those finishes then they're done. It's a sort of a, it's, you know, which with all the wood cladding and I know. So then you know what's done and you should be looking for the next thing. Next thing.

Right. That's got. And so that the, the, the, the replica of the, the new, uh, intervention, if it's a existing neighborhood, we'll call it intervention, right? I mean, we're putting something new in a neighborhood.

It's still got to respect the, the area that it is, right?

I mean, and that's really important, I think. Well, and you, as you do travel and you go through different areas to you, you can appreciate where people had that artistic, you know, intention, consistency versus some areas where how did that get allowed to be like. Right. Right.

That makes those places. Yeah. You know, but like if you go to a place like Princeton or Charleston, right? Right. And you look at their ability to incorporate contemporary architecture into a historic context and make the whole place richer.

Right.

“That's, I think, where we should be trying to get, right?”

Mm-hmm.

And that takes some mistakes, right?

Yeah. So, you know, and those mistakes just could be knocked down anyway. Yeah. Right. So, it's the, you know, I mean, I think that's my feeling, um, and understanding what it is.

I mean, it is like, it's like, it's likeology. You know, this from being an achievement of fermentators. I mean, you're trying to make a person feel a certain way about life and themselves. Yeah, evoke emotion. Yeah.

You know, some people are really touchy-feely about detail. Some people, what is much sun is they can get because the vitamin D is just fantastic. So, what is your process? Like, dependent, I mean, do that doesn't. Obviously, it's going to vary if it's a new project or renovation.

What is your process when a new client comes to you? We start out in pre-design regardless. Then pre-design for us is gathering all the information we need to get started, having fun, right? Okay. So, if it's a renovation, then we're doing the as-built drawing.

You know, we're surveying the house, doing the as-built drawings, reviewing the zoning and external rules, and sitting with the client in generating a program and design brief.

“How important is it in that process when you're starting out to simultaneously be thinking and doing the interior design?”

Because most people look at it as I'm going to hire an architect and build the house, and then the house is going to be built here. So, what most people... Yeah, that's the typical process. Right.

And so, I don't know, I can explain that perfect in our next phase, which is schematic design. Yeah, right. Which is where we're having fun, right? I mean, so... Were you laying things out?

Yeah. So, the pre-design is like we have the game plan. We have, we know the playing field. Yeah, we have a little bit of, you know, we have a rulebook. Yeah.

And then we start to have fun when we move into schematic design. So, just the understanding of how important it was to have a builder within me as an architect. Which is a big plus, whoever's hiring you. I began to understand the importance of having an interiorist person involved. Right.

And so, I brought an interiorist person into work. And so, typically, the process is, you know, the architect designed something. And then that brick is handed to the interiorist person. And the interiorist person takes a different brick and puts it on top of it. And that's...

And sometimes they want to modify the block brick, blah, blah. But, you know, so it's not a continuous process. Right? It's more kind of staged. My goal was to have an interiorist person involved in architecture.

Right? And by the time we get over here, this much should be architecture and that much should be in tears. Right? So, it's one process that tapers through. And that way, I feel like all of the deep thinking that we did in the beginning is transferred straight through.

And we're not challenging all the decisions we made in the architectural design process. Right? I mean, that's the biggest thing. And it's really the impact that has on the client that drove me to do that. I mean, because we make them make tough decisions, and they're making the decisions.

Yeah. And so, if they've got to go make that decision again in six months, it's just not fair. I know. And I feel like furniture layouts are such a significant part of the architectural... Yeah, we don't want to do exterior like outside living spaces.

Yeah. Typically, we're starting with the furniture layout. Yeah. And then we'll figure out the building around it. Right?

I mean, again.

So, you're interior designing first.

Space planning definitely. Yeah. Right? And then Emily, my interior is person. I mean, we don't procure.

You know, so we don't want to go to that level. Right. But we do have design decks and things to share what our inspiration was, where we're hoping that to go, you know, and things like that to help.

“You know, I think it's a big mistake that a lot of clients and a lot of people who are starting and building a significant house.”

Doing a big remodel or building a house. Don't think about that and nothing about it. Really, really important. You know, when I got involved with Tiffany a few years ago with the interior design, because she's been doing this for 25 years. A friend of mine.

When we start when I started joined her and working with her, he said to me, he's excited. I'm investing in houses and the guy was putting the money up and I got two different companies that I'm given in the money. He's like, I'm going to stop doing that. But I want to talk to Tiffany. Why are you going to stop?

He goes, well, it's been profitable. But he goes, it's been so frustrating. It's what it's frustrating. He's like, well, we did a house, but then I funded it. The house went up, but then it wasn't selling.

So I moved into the house. He goes, I was in a transition. And I thought, that's interesting. That would be a requirement, just like a text building to be a requirement. He moved in because he was part of the burn and maintaining that house.

Well, it was up to sale. And he says to me, he's like, I, what a wide opening experience. He's like, I still don't understand what you're saying. He's like, I moved into the house. And the first thing that I realized is the kitchen didn't have a garbage pill.

Like, in any cabinet, he goes, I'm used to having a garbage pill next to the sink. The water convenient. There was no garbage pill. He goes, in the master bathroom, I go in the shower. There's no place to put my shampoo.

Right. And he's like, I had to buy this rack that I had to hang from the shower head.

And he goes, we're talking about a $3 million house that had no place to put shampoo.

And he's like, on top of it, I could have fit eight people in this shower. He goes, but the master closet on the other side of the wall. He says, I couldn't even put all my clothes in.

“How was the husband and wife going to buy this house?”

The closet, the master closet was so small. He says, the shower should have been the master closet. He goes, but the architect, who did this, didn't look at this and design it from the perspective of a buy-a. Unfortunately, you know, development types of projects. I know. And I like how you used that development.

Right. That's a photo, no, they have a recipe. Right. And as long as that recipe all lent, it doesn't matter if the eggs and milk go in first. Right.

You know, that doesn't matter to them. As long as everything is in there that they can check off the real estate listing. You know, how many houses do you drive by the nobody's in? Correct. People will buy just about anything.

Yeah. You know, and be proud of it.

So that's why I'm always cautious.

It's true. And the other thing I like to bring up to clients all the time. Pretty much no matter what I've worked on in my life. It's in the half percent of the way the world lives. Right.

I mean, we better be damn grateful. Yeah. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try to make it better. Right.

“But when I hear a comment, like, can you believe I have to live like this?”

I believe, sorry, I'm just, I don't think we'll work well together. You know, that just blows my mind when somebody, you know,

It's, you know, but it, you know, was made done in the 90s. We get a lot of that, you know. And it's just, it doesn't work for them now. And it means to be updated. But if you tell me that like you're, that that's a hardship.

Yeah. I, I don't think you're going to appreciate anything we do. Yeah. It's a good, I know. That's a good thought of that.

Yeah. That, that, that, that people who expect, um, there's limits to everything we can do. Right. Yeah.

I mean, and so with that, because client managing client expectations. It's huge, yeah.

Is the thing that, that's the second hardest thing that I never thought I was going to have to do.

The first is social media. Well, it doesn't matter what profession you're in these days.

“You've got to, you have to know social media.”

Yeah. And then client, you know, client expectations is tough. Which obviously you're doing very good job of since you just had a huge recognition with Forbes. Congratulations on that. Well, top architects in the country.

We were named top 200 residential architects. Yeah. Amazing. And then top 400 best in state. So that they broke up into states.

And how did that feel when you were told that? Oh, yeah. There was a, it's a, um, the whole process was, like, Did you know that you were up for this? So, process.

So, like, in March of 2020, five, we received an email that basically said, you know,

Congratulations, you've been, you know, selected to submit for. And, you know, Nancy or office manager came to me with it and said, "Do you think this is real?" And I'm like, probably not. And, you know, I stayed in, I like to work late.

And, um, so I started looking it up, you know. And I realized this is real, you know. And I'm thinking, "What project am I going to submit?" Yeah. So, as I said, did you have to submit?

So, it asked for one to three projects. And I had some questions because we didn't have a bunch of new houses. And it was the same like it was asked for new houses. So, I contacted the editor who had his cell phone number on the, yeah, it was crazy.

“And I'm saying, you know, are you looking for new homes?”

Are you looking for renovations? And he said, you know, it's interesting. We thought we were going to have more new homes. But we see a lot of renovation work on architects. That's right. Now, so we're probably going to have to figure out how to do that evaluation.

And, um, so I'm like, and then he said, so, um, the house had to be completed after, in 2019 or after. And he said, so when was hydro house completed, which was, like, our best, like, most academic. Okay. Project, you know.

So, the fact he knew the name of it. Oh, he was sitting at his computer and he ruled the name and came up with his phone. Probably. But, um, so I'm like, that one we're definitely, I'm definitely going to submit. But, you know, and so after that conversation, I'm like, I'm only going to submit one.

Because I'm going to put the work, I could ruin it with the others. That's fine. You know what I mean? Yeah. So, um, they did, they evaluated, the, how the criteria of decisions came out after we found out.

They evaluated, like, 18,000 architects websites. Unbelievable. And pick 750 to submit to get to the 200. And they had real criteria that they were grading things by, which was really interesting. And I'm just like, the fact that they were able to find a small firm in hadn't built New Jersey.

You know, we're not Lohoya. Right. Right. Um, it just blows my mind that they were, that the process that they came up with was able to kind of bring us to the top. Yeah.

So, finally, feeling some recognition for something that I've paid, my family is paid a big price for over the years was really rewarding.

And it was a surprise. Ah. Matter of fact, I found out when a friend of mine's firm got listed in North Carolina. And put it out on Instagram. And I'm like, damn, you know, I guess I'm not going to make it.

You know, then you go through the whole imposter syndrome thing that all architects and designers have where you're walking around.

“Well, why would you think you'd get in there anyway?”

Right. And so then I opened up the app and I went to look for the list and, and herstein is the name. And so I'm Jay and Kay, right? Yeah. So, as I'm flipping through the list, I come across my name.

I see you found it. That's how I found out. They don't want to release the list because you're ruining it.

I mean, they've spent a lot of money putting the list together.

“And, you know, if it gets leaked, then they don't have a list, right?”

Right. And so that's how I found it. Yeah. I like jumped out of my chair, ran in and told my wife, jumped in the car and drove to my dad's house and told my dad that. That's amazing.

I don't love it. Ah. Yeah. It was definitely a career highlight. Yeah.

And I didn't understand why. And then when the criteria, the evaluation criteria came out, which I think anybody created in a website should probably go look for that. Because they list what they, how they, you know, credited things. You know, one is that, you know, you value your work enough to have professional photography taken. Right.

Right.

And I think that's actually, you know,

And so they were looking for people who were very serious. That's something we lack on. We just haven't had the time on so many projects to. It's, um, had real house. I was blessed with the famous architectural photographer out of Philadelphia.

He used to work with them. Um, Robert Venturi, saw us. He was an employee in house photographer. And he reached out to me. And I was posting on Instagram.

And, um, he said, yeah, I'd love to photograph this project for you. And I'm like, Matt, I know who you are. And I don't think I can afford you. Yeah. And he, um, he's like, well, maybe you can.

And, you know, he sent me a proposal. It's that and I was like. And so he shot our work.

“And, you know, there's, once it's well done photography, I think.”

You know, that's all that really, I mean, having his name credited on my work. Probably helped. I mean, I think. I'm sure.

You know, um, so that's part of that commitment to your profession and your work. That Forbes was looking for. You know, they were looking for people who were trying to create place. Right. So they wanted a new jersey architect who was trying to design for new jersey.

Mm-hmm. Not designing California or Florida. Which I love. I really do. And I have such appreciation for her.

And then, you know, the other agenda they had when they did it was to. Be able to give clients looking for architects. You know, anywhere in the country, you know, so they could have found 200 great architects. And, you know, LA. Right.

Right. So it's just a wonderful experience. So how has that changed the way you've approached future projects? Because as it or now. It has changed how I approach my.

Like things like my office and my profession and myself. I've had more so than the work.

I mean, the work has always kind of been with the work.

Um, it's, it's given me the confidence to speak out about it. Good for you. You know, like the talk in hadn't fielded. Like now we did an exhibit on our walk and hadn't fielded for about architecture. You know, and I feel like now.

Um, it's not me sharing my opinion about how contemporary well done contemporary architecture and historic town can better the, you know, the visual richness of a community. You know, now like if I would have said that three years ago. It's Jay's opinion. You know what I mean?

Now with some backing behind my opinion, I feel more comfortable speaking out about how I feel about architecture. And it's impact on people's lives and especially community. Yes. I mean, that's something that's going to stand the test of time. And I do feel like even in this field.

Like you do have to educate people along the way of the importance of the architecture. As well, you know, as we said before, just the drywall can do anything. But I mean, it really does have value. Mm-hmm. And sometimes people don't understand that it's kind of our job to share it and form along the way.

Definitely is, you know, and like, and it doesn't have to be expensive either. I use an example all the time. So with two by four costs like six bucks an hour somewhere around there, right?

“I always want to say $1.95 because that's what it was when I was building, right?”

But now it's probably six bucks, right? And where you put that two by four, you know, can make that two by four works worth $6,000. You know, and it's drywall and two by four services. You know what I mean? Like that's creating space.

And if you put that two by four in a design that takes advantage of it, it's worth more than its weight. Yeah. If you nail it across the front door, it's not worth anything. Right? It's the value of the whole house, right?

Yeah.

“I mean, the only thing that affects the value of that two by four is good design.”

If, you know, and so it doesn't just have to be on expensive projects, good design works. So how do you balance creativity and a profitable business? I have a business manager.

I've never been a good business man.

So you're putting more emphasis into creativity and creativity has takes time. And time is money at the expense of my family. And my wife has paid a dear poll. So you spend a lot of money at three o'clock to get the her job and, you know, carry the mortgage and the health care. Why I was building, you know, and that wasn't told, you know, I mean, she's still doing that.

Right? So this isn't like something where Forbes came along and now all of a sudden we're rolling in dough. Yeah. That's just not the case. Yeah.

So from a business end, I've always held to, like thinking design is most important.

“And I guess I was probably willing to live in a trower if that's what we've took, you know, my wife wasn't.”

So that's why she. And so, you know, design, science, you know, still it's staying up with building science is difficult. And business practice, you know, and the business practice for me is the one that I care least about. And the bank account, I mean, I would tell anybody as advice, maybe the best thing I did is a business person who was higher. A business manager.

I don't know if it's manager. I mean, she is on top of me and make sure that, you know, everything is comfortable. Yeah. And, you know, and the account, the, the bank account had for the first time is like amazing, right?

I mean, and it's because there's some focus on it, right?

You know, we sit down every Monday and we just got to be a great reward on top of it all too. You know, that you can be creative and do what you do best and let somebody else. It's the thing that changed my life, you know, instead of feeling like underperforming and all the things that you know, I mean, now I have a draft person who's a technical person as well, the unmarked act, but 20 years experience as an actual construction. And an interior person to contribute into the design work and you know, she doesn't just do interiors like when we're talking about architecture.

Like when we were looking at my stuff, you know, Emily's, you know, review exterior finishes with Emily, you know, like we want to make sure that everything is working together. Okay, so when you're, when you design. Do you use CAD yourself or you hand sketch or depending on what's like Tiffany's everything still by hand. So she's sketchy droids, it's got a little bit. I still like the canary yellow.

Yeah, I don't like the white, you know. And I sketch a lot. And then move into, and it depends if Steve's busy doing construction documents, you know, the project that we need to get out.

“So the office is like one person each, right? So when that person's busy, you don't have somebody else doing it, right?”

Yeah, that's still one of these back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, I like to sketch, and then if I've somebody like even then only available for next interior. I'll hand or a sketch and and she'll develop the exterior and then the review, but I also don't hire anybody like that's not in the office. And you can't come by all the way.

And also just how you're on the fly with things in the office. Yeah, and then I do. Or the client walks in or one of the contractors, the subcontractors work. You can all work together. Yes, but from a business perspective, right?

Yeah, if I'm expecting that I'm going to have a hundred hours in schematic design, right? And somebody's working from home and they put eight hours and going in the wrong direction. Yeah. That's disaster. Yeah.

That's where the path wanted to go. That's where the profitability. I mean, I don't know. I'm a control. Well, I would like to be able.

I'd like to be able. I'd like to be able. I would like to be able. I'd like to be able by a desk and or have somebody go, you know, Jay, can you take a look at this?

But I think more than anything, it's just keeping the project on time.

So the client's happy. So you meet in deadlines and so forth. Yes. I have everyone in houses. Yeah.

It's a big help. It's a big help. We've sat in, you know, we've recently been hiring people, hired two people and interviewing people. We've got people saying to us, like you work from home. I could do anything you want from home.

Well, without looking for someone from home. Oh, no, but you have to understand. I can really do a lot from home. That's what that's tell us. Yeah.

No, I just, and it's not that they're not going to work hard in the night. Oh, yeah. It's, it's just not part, I mean, and that might have to change someday. Right. I mean, I'm not.

The collaboration of the team and everyone being in the same office. That's where design is so fluid, you know, tail.

“But also, I think it creates the, a funness, you know.”

Oh, I want to, I want to live in the studio that I was in in college. Yeah. That's the environment that I, so what would, what advice would you give to an individual? Now, who's, let's say they're graduating from high school, getting into college, thinking about a career.

What should they be thinking about? As far as architecture goes. Yeah. That's a hard question because architecture is changed so quickly over the last 10 years. Right.

When I came out of school, we were still hand-roin. I'd hoped that I could get through my career before having to learn auto-cat. Right. Right. Well, that didn't.

Right. I still don't, I do do sketch up. Right. So it's 3D and sketch up. But I don't do rev it and things.

Yeah. So, and I'm hoping that I can get through the end of my career, which I, that's when I die. I'm not going to stop working. Yeah. Same thing.

You know, this is my life. Yeah. This is what I like. Right. So, and I'm not a fisherman.

We're a golfer. So, yeah, that's, that's, what I would recommend. Practical. The beauty of an architectural education is, it's well-roundedness and problem-solving. Right.

It's about, I mean, architecture is a problem-solving activity. Right.

“And so, with those skills, you should be able to put that problem-solving into any kind of situation.”

Right. Right. And so, architects are very valuable outside of architecture.

And it's amazing how many architecture students don't go into architecture.

I mean, you know, as far as respected profession, you know. Why do you think that is? It's a money thing. Yeah. I mean, it's a respected profession in a cocktail party.

You know, in the bank account, not so much. But I feel like the development part of it probably had some say in that. Because I feel like a lot of architects who have gone on and become, you know, financially. They've taken on that dual role developer architect. Yeah.

I mean, I think, you know, every architect has to make a decision on what they, you know, I was driven by design and some are driven by business. Correct. And, you know, I say a lot because, you know, in New Jersey or South Jersey, filled out the area. Pizza is a big thing, right?

Pizza. Yeah, right. So a lot of times, I say, you know, if I wanted to develop a business to sell drawings like slices of pizza. Yeah. I would have opened a pizza point.

Yeah. I could have eaten my, you know, anything that was I couldn't sell. Yeah. You can't eat drawings.

“So, so with that said, would you expand your business?”

Do you look to grow it in any way? I would, you know, market that's better than now. Yeah. Right. I would love to have a young architect who was ambitious to learn and mentor and mentor.

I mean, I, that is a lot, I enjoy that a lot. I enjoy having interns because it makes me speak out loud what I'm thinking. So my design process becomes evident to me because I have to explain it to somebody. Whereas if I don't have to explain to the somebody, it just stays inside of you. You like having interns.

I love, I work better with people than I do. Yeah. Oh, my God. It's interesting because this morning before 715 or 730, we had two twins at the school. We had to go see their college, their college advice is the high school.

And basically the conversation was about the courses that taking because they are sophomores.

And the school is very focused on academics and college and what colleges you're thinking about. And one of our daughters is very interested in architecture. She really loves it. And she wants to continue her architectural classes. And I found it interesting.

The counselor said in senior year, you know, internship. And I was like, great. Because I, when I went to college, I took an internship. And it was the greatest thing that I ever did. And, you know, I said to them, do they, the school picks what the interns are.

What would internships? And I said, well, she, my only wants to be an architect. Will it be an architectural company? She's well, maybe not necessarily. So that makes those sense.

Yeah. I said, because I think an internship in an architect firm would be great for her.

It's not always easy to find.

Well, I said, I asked her. I said, if we can help get an architect home, that will take her on with the school. You know, and then she was talking about her, there are her electives. You know, the nutness is certainly most important classes.

“And I said to my daughter, I said, you should take a multimedia.”

That's my background. I said, take a class about, you know, film. So you learn about a camera and an, an aperture and, and f stops and lighting. Yes. Because when it comes to sketch up and rev it, if you have those lighting skills.

You're going to be so bad. Yeah. So impressive. Yeah. I mean, I think anything where you're working through a process in learning how to

learn is that no matter what AI does in the future and all that kind of, you're always going to be valuable if you know how to think. Totally. Well, that's what AI is really trying to take away from us. It's our ability to think.

Yeah.

Are you concerned about AI for architectural?

I'm concerned about AI for affecting the industry. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's a whole conversation. Yeah.

And podcast it itself. But so. But you think it's going to affect the architectural community. I think that there's a chair. That yeah.

I think it definitely will. I mean, is it now? I mean. I think it's just tools. Yeah.

I think AI is just a tool. As a way I'm looking at it. Yeah. I think. But it could affect the business of architecture.

Right.

But people are going to be satisfied with good enough or you know, when we take a client

through a design process, our goal is to make them understand exactly why the building is the way it is. Right. Like if you've got kids in the house for two more years and you know, you come in every day and trip over their shoes.

You know, and we're going to take on a project. You know, and that makes you angry. You know, and we're going to take on a project. And it's going to cost you $50,000 more for us to move those shoes. If you're okay with tripping over them, then as long as you know, you're going to trip over.

I'm okay with that decision. You know, but when you walk in and kick them to the side, I don't want you to say that damn architect, why didn't you think about this? Right. I want you to think that damn architect told me this was going to happen.

But it's worth the 50 grand for another two years. Right. I mean, I really like to have clients informed about how they're spending their money. You know, it's not a car. You can't get in and drive down the street takes too slow.

I can't see out the back window.

“You know, it's the only way to do it for me is to generate alternatives.”

That's great. Then we can con. We can have a conversation like, okay, over the kitchens far away from the garage in this one. But it's got great light and great view of the pool. And, you know, and over here, it's closer to the to the garage where we can have a

Mudroom maybe that's better. And, you know, maybe even a utility room and, you know, getting the groceries, which everybody seems to be afraid of. That washing window is something. So when was the last time you washed your windows?

Yeah. Yeah. We have those same conversations. Yeah. So you mentioned your daughter lives in Edinburgh.

Yes. So son is a California, Florida poly up in Lakeland. Studying electrical engineering and my daughter is in Edinburgh. So I guess you visit her. I visit her.

She is she went. She went. Did undergraduate and go away. I owned. Unbelievable.

So she was in go away for like six years. She did her under. Oh, my goodness. And then she went to the University of Edinburgh to do her PhD. And she's defending her.

“I think they called a Viva there on the 20th.”

So she's not coming home. Not coming home. So you've been there. Oh, I tried to get two times a year. Okay.

So has going there and seeing. She's that affected your impact on my design. I bet. Yes. And what can it not?

One thing that I really appreciate.

Right.

So if they have history that's history.

Oh, yeah. Absolutely. And so to them, it's not so precious necessarily because they've got everything. So if it's they're more like a fire department. Right.

If you've got equipment on a truck and it's not serviceable or usable. It's got to go off the truck. Right. The last thing you want is something that so they're really fire departments are really good at throwing stuff away. If it's not.

Repairable or sustainable. Right. So what I noticed in Edinburgh is that like. It seems to me and this is just me, you know, I haven't read anything about this. But it seems to me that if it doesn't work, it goes.

Right. It either works. Or it doesn't work. Yeah. I don't try to make it.

“And I think they feel the same way about energy.”

Right. Like we were traveling north of Edinburgh on the North Sea.

And we stopped at this castle that was falling apart way out on in on the water. You know, and I'm like marveling at this, you know, from architectural wonder. Yeah. Like, and just the beauty of the whole thing, right? And then I look down and I notice there's a photovoltaic cell.

What? The solar cell, the solar panel down on the ground next to the castle with a light to shine on the castle for me. Right. Here we'd be like, you can't put that technology in front of like something to start. And then I look up and in the north of the sea everywhere, there's windmills.

Yeah. Right. You can't do that here because it's going to ruin the visual, you know, character. I'm staring at this thing that is absolutely phenomenal from many, many, many years ago. And the impact, then, you know, you look, then they have pocket-nuclear facilities.

You know, that are further up to coast. And a gas, you know, well, well, and then it's like, whatever.

And this could be my projection to the way things are.

I don't know this, but it seems to me like whatever works is what we're going to use. Right.

“You know, I mean, yes, we can make it beautiful.”

Yes, we can do those things. But we're not going to save something because we have some romantic vision of our past. Right. You know, but they do save stuff. There's, don't mean to say that.

It's not easy to build a contemporary building in Edinburgh. Yeah. But they're great contemporary buildings. And I mean, some of the, some of the additions and things they've done are just really sensitive and phenomenal. Like I stand there.

I mean, I'm a geek. Yeah. My daughter knows that she, like, schedules our trips and to go see. So you can, yeah. Where she can buy wool.

And I can see architecture. Oh, that's wonderful. Well, that's a great great, like trips are definitely, you know, inspirational. Mm-hmm. And they definitely enhance how you come back from them.

And you like are reinvigorated for many reasons. You just came back from London. Mm-hmm. You know, one of the things that I've, I've mentioned this a number of times to number of people is we went to see a friend. Was that being in a house 522 years old?

Right. And set off from that box. We're not that old. Mine boggling. That's twice as old as anything.

It's crazy. It's a times longer than the United States. Yes. But walking into the house and like Tiffany says a little time, there wasn't a straight wall. Nothing was straight.

Nothing. But what? Like, my, my, my hair's in my arms was standing on end. Just being in the house sitting there going, yeah, going, houses like 522 years old, and it was like the coolest little house.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. There are, there are, how are they still standing? Yes. Like, what?

There. Yeah. It's funny. They're detailing was a little better than ours. Yeah.

And I'll French. She had renovated the master bathroom. So the master bathroom had a more modern. It was a little like on par with the house like that though, like she did it right. Yeah.

“And I, again, I think that that's appropriate in the, you know, because it offset.”

It's not trying to, if you went in and tried to mimic what had been there. Mm-hmm. It would, it would take away, like, you know, if you went in and you said, okay. So some of this trim is, you know, 500 years old. That huge question, like, what's new and what's old, right?

It's better to distinguish between the two and allow what is really special to stay.

But it's also interesting how the architecture in, you know, areas who've been inhabited forever by, you know,

European types, right? Right. It's, it's what worked. Mm-hmm. I mean, it's not like, they didn't have the luxury of saying I want to, you know, there's a window tax,

and, you know, back in the day. And so like, you got tax on how many windows that. Yeah. Right.

“Well, now you see a lot of glass in a, in a, in a, in a crazy cloudy area, right?”

Mm-hmm. And, you know, I think maybe it's a reaction to being told that, you know, if you had more windows, you would have paid more money. Well, it's just, you know, flying back in the, the two of us talking about the house and just on trip and so forth.

And then coming back to the office here. And we look at, like, you know, how many projects we get? The house is 30 years old, okay. The client wants to knock the house down.

And how many people are just buying houses, knocking them down, putting new.

Because it's 30 years old, it's 40 years old. You know, why did this house list, not just that house, the whole area, all the houses in that area, all 400, 500 years old. And they all, and they don't look like they're 4,500 years old. No.

But that's the groups kind of. Yeah. That's still different. Yeah. Yep.

No. They, I think they just feel differently about where they live, how they live. Yeah.

“You know, it's, you know, it's a cultural thing.”

Yeah, you know. But all of the cool things we see there, usually it's like, you know, you're walking through a little alley with these great, like, laid stones, you know, that they have a pattern to control the water runoff, you know. And, you know, and you know, and they're stepped so it ripples. So it doesn't get a good blow.

So intentional.

Everything is intentional.

I know. Intentials, the, you know, appropriate and intentional. Yeah. That's how I judge design work. And I love that.

Well, the, a little, I thought was very cool looking. And I, and I had the question, like, what is that? In each corner of the house positioned really well. Was like a wine, a wine bag, a big wine bag. Those are the water.

And so the gutter from the house came down into the wine barrel. And at the bottom of the barrel, there was a ticket. And, but it, it was, the way it was built and set up. It looked like it was part of the house and looked very cool. And it's like, what is that for?

What is that for? What is that? So we don't have, we don't really have public water. You know, that's how I water my plants. Right.

This is what you mean. How do you water your plants? She's like, that's, that's, collects the water. And that's, I take my, my garden bucket and I fill it up. And I water my flowers.

Yeah.

“That's how I, that's how I, it seems like there's some simple ways of life.”

Yes. You know, that they have that we are trying to convince our society to, to, to invest and then do. And, I mean, it's common sense stuff. Yeah.

You know, I mean, sustainability isn't issue that we, you know, environmental change. You can, we can talk about who's responsible for it. And all that kind of stuff, right? Right.

But we can't change. We can't question whether it's changing. Yeah. I mean, if it's not changing, that, that's just ridiculous. That's the most constant thing is changing.

We're going to be doing things to try to address that. Yeah. And make sure. And they're great at it. I mean, that's, those buildings have, have, have been able to withstand a whole bunch of change changes.

And that's why there's still there. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and it's, um. It's a great profession to be a part of.

It's a great thing to be able to appreciate where the growth of architecture has, translated all over the world, right? Yeah. I mean, it's, um. And to have our own part of it here.

Yeah. I mean, architecture is that. I mean, it is, it's, it's, it's so much. That, like, no one person can kind of. But everybody specializes in, in a part of it.

Yeah. Right. I mean, there are architects who study societies and design towns and try to figure that kind of out. Of course, if they go to Europe, then they realize that we regularly, everything here that we can't, that looks great and is fun there. Like that little alley that you know through that has this little, little pop at the end.

Yeah. You know, and here if we try to do that, you can't do that. Yeah. You can't do that. You know, it's up, you know, the walkway.

Well, it's a walkway. It's got to be, you know, 40 feet wide. Well, there's even the food that we eat here. We didn't, we didn't go, but I could, some friend, two friends kept to tell me. You've got to go to McDonald's and when you're in England, I don't even want to make McDonald's.

Yeah.

They're like, if you go to McDonald's, the burger tastes like you did.

I can the 1960s and 70s. It is totally different than what it is here in America. Yeah. And I'm like, really. That's funny.

They're like, yeah. It's because it's the United States. They've put all these different things and they've changed the way in which, what's going into our food. To put things a little bit in perspective, though.

“I think, you know, when I'm over there talking to people, they're amazed by what we do.”

Of course. Without it now.

So a little bit of it is, you know, that distance and seeing things different and responded to that.

Yeah. And, you know, I'm glad we have that curiosity. Right. Isn't that the truth? We're grateful for it.

Yeah. If we didn't, I mean, it would be the same old, same old, same old, same old. Same old, same old. Well, Jay, thank you. Oh, you have an Instagram.

Do you have an Instagram? Are you on Instagram? Yes.

So what is your Instagram friend?

Anyone who's listening? Well, watching. Jay Reiner, architect. Yeah. And your website is the same.

“The letter Jay, you know, when you're named Jay.”

Right. Yeah. Which my brothers used to tell me, you know, mom and dad didn't love you. And I'll give you a name. They gave you a letter.

Because my real name is Jay. That's not John. I don't really want to say that. Yeah, that's funny. So the letter Jay.

Right. The letter architecture is at dot com is our. So the letter Jay. So we encourage people to follow along on your growth and the verbs and all that fabulous. Awesome.

Thank you. We're hoping for 2026 too. I want to hear this.

“I was going to say keep it going, right?”

Yeah. To re submit. Oh, yeah. New project. Yeah.

Sure. Yeah. So they too. Yeah. Thanks being with us today.

Thank you for joining us on this rainy South Florida day. Thanks, forever. Thank you for listening to the eye design lab podcast. Have a great day. Eye design labs podcast is an S.W.

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