Series · Custom Homes · Observatory Park
MJS Design Build,
in parallel.
Eight years and ten custom homes in one Denver neighborhood, told from the newest house back to the first. A builder and a photographer, each refining a craft alongside the other.
Architectural Storytelling · TJ Romero
MJS Design Build, in parallel
2018 to 2026
Builder series. Digital photographs, twilight, aerial and film.
Observatory Park, Denver, Colorado.
Ten homes · Told newest to oldest
A body of work made around a single park in south Denver, where one builder has spent the better part of a decade replacing older houses with custom homes. The styles change from house to house: shingle, farmhouse, Cape Cod, Santa Barbara limestone, French country, modern European, English Tudor.
Read in reverse, the series becomes a record of two crafts maturing side by side. The houses grow more confident, the photographs grow quieter, and the conversation between them grows easier with every project.
Two crafts, growing up together
I first photographed for MJS while I was still shooting for a larger company. When I went out on my own, I wrote to them and promised something more personal. A week later I was standing in their first house with my own camera.
Since then they have built, and I have photographed, ten homes within a few blocks of the Chamberlin Observatory. Every one taught me something about light, about patience and about what a builder actually needs from a photograph. Looking back across the set, I can see their houses getting bolder and my pictures getting calmer. I think that is what growing up together looks like.
The chapters below run backward, from this fall to the first house in 2018.
CHAPTERI
2026. English Tudor revival.
An Observatory Park custom home, South Fillmore Street. English Tudor revival, 2026.
The newest house in the series, photographed in September 2026 before the light fixtures had arrived, so every room had to be lit by the sky. That kind of constraint used to worry me. Now it feels like an invitation to slow down and let the windows do the work.
We opened the set with the observatory itself. Every one of these homes shares that park, and it felt right to begin there.
CHAPTERII
2025. Modern European, stucco and stone.
An Observatory Park custom home, South Columbine Street. Modern European, stucco and stone, 2025.
MJS called this one their ultimate showcase home: about 7,800 square feet with an organic, earthy palette, light white oak, detailed trim and wallpaper, and warm honey cabinetry. We gave it two days in November 2025, twilight first and interiors the next morning, so each room could be photographed in its best hour.
Afterward, a design firm reached out wanting to photograph the house for their own portfolio. When the builder and the designer both want the same pictures, you know the house and the photographs are speaking the same language.
CHAPTERIII
2025. French country cottage.
An Observatory Park custom home, South St Paul Street. French country cottage, 2025.
Already sold when we photographed it, and unstaged. Twilight on a Thursday in September 2025, interiors on Friday. With no furniture to lean on, the architecture had to carry every frame: arched openings, beamed ceilings and the way afternoon light walks across white oak.
CHAPTERIV
2024. Santa Barbara, in limestone.
An Observatory Park custom home, South Clayton Street. Santa Barbara, in limestone, 2024.
A limestone house reminiscent of Santa Barbara, with eleven-foot ceilings, a handcrafted ten-foot arched front door and a three-story window that follows the stair. We came back across several mornings and evenings in July 2024: sunrise and twilight for the exteriors, staged interiors, and a vertical film for social.
By now the work had grown well past stills. Floor plans, virtual staging, film and a property website all came out of the same visits, built to work together.
CHAPTERV
2023. Cape Cod, on a corner lot.
An Observatory Park custom home, South Clayton Street. Cape Cod, on a corner lot, 2023.
Over 7,400 square feet with vaulted ceilings, cast limestone fireplaces and lighting by Kelly Wearstler and Ralph Lauren. Three shoot days in October 2023, a twilight set and a drone flythrough.
The color took four rounds of editing to get exactly right, chasing a faint warmth out of the whites until the marble read as marble. It was worth it. A competing agent saw the listing and asked who had taken the photographs.
CHAPTERVI
2022. Modern farmhouse with a deep porch.
An Observatory Park custom home, South Columbine Street. Modern farmhouse with a deep porch, 2022.
Six bedrooms and about 7,800 square feet, photographed in August 2022 and paired with a branded virtual tour. Two years later, when I could not make a shoot, the builder pointed my stand-in to this house and the Cape Cod on Clayton as the standard to match. That is the highest compliment a photographer can get.
CHAPTERVII
2022. Two homes on South Adams.
An Observatory Park custom home, South Adams Street. Two homes on South Adams, 2022.
A pair of neighbors photographed two months apart in the fall of 2022, the second with a set of night frames added at the builder’s request. After the first edits, we went back and made the kitchen warmer and softer. Small adjustments like that are where a shared eye starts to form.
CHAPTERVIII
2021. Shingle style with arched porches.
An Observatory Park custom home, South Milwaukee Street. Shingle style with arched porches, 2021.
About 4,500 square feet, photographed in a single afternoon in September 2021 and delivered as more than 140 finished images. A big gym, an upstairs hall lit by three chandeliers, and a built-in refrigerator and freezer that I remember calling very classy. The builder said the color and brightness were perfect.
CHAPTERIX
2020. A spring evening on South Columbine.
An Observatory Park custom home, South Columbine Street. A spring evening on South Columbine, 2020.
May 2020, the first spring of the pandemic. Twilight on a Thursday, daylight and drone the next morning, while the builders finished touch-ups around us. The builder sent reference images to show the mood they wanted, and we chased it together. A reshoot followed to get it exactly right.
CHAPTERX
2018. Where it began, South Fillmore.
An Observatory Park custom home, South Fillmore Street. Where it began, South Fillmore, 2018.
In September 2018 I wrote to the builder after years of working together through a larger company, offering something more personal. I told them to think of me as a personal chef. A week later I photographed the first house. The reply when the photos came back was a single word with four exclamation points: stunning.
What eight years teaches
The early sets were about proving the work. The recent ones are about trust: two visits instead of one, twilight as a given, a builder who sends notes on mood instead of shot lists. That kind of trust only comes from repetition, and from both sides caring about the same details.
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