During our stay at Villa d'Este in Lake Como in the early fall of 2025, we had the chance to take a tour of the lake in a Riva boat, a Vaporina to be exact. Sharing photos of this experience was important to both of us as we feel it is an important layer of Jesse’s love for design in all forms.

Cruising down the famous lake and seeing the shores that are graced by Roman and medieval walls, grand estates, and opulent gardens was a highly enjoyable activity for us, of course, but the Vaporina was quite the chariot. The wooden construction and form of the boat made the experience all the more enjoyable, characterizing our photos with the timeless style of the wooden boats that have become synonymous with Lake Como and the effortless style of the region.

More importantly than any of this, it is important to recognize that Riva boats have been a point of interest and inspiration for Jesse since he was young. They are historically luxurious and stylish, of course, but their form has always signified a feeling of timelessness that, in some way, shape, or form, influenced Jesse’s design process through its unique proportions and classic style. It was these crafts that originally drew his attention towards nautical architecture, a caveat of design that Jesse has a great passion for and explored before committing to architecture, specifically private residence design. And while the rest is history, I believe that this is an important layer of Jesse’s design inspiration to understand, as he considers these boats to be so timelessly stylish that he would buy one just to look at it, as he finds the form of them to be inspiring to his process.