Architect of Dreams

Mythic dragons soaring through the air, fierce Vikings around every corner, and a cup of mead to toast a battle well won — these are just a day at the office for Gabrielle Kemberling ’12.

Kemberling, who earned a bachelor’s in architecture with a minor in historic preservation at Jefferson (then Philadelphia University) recently completed eight years in an integral role designing and building How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk in Universal Orlando’s Epic Universe. The park, the first major theme park to open in Orlando, Florida, in over 25 years, debuted in May 2025.

Growing up in rural Northumberland in central Pennsylvania, Kemberling knew from a young age that architecture was in her future. “I played with a lot of Legos, building houses,” she says. “My parents were looking into building a house so there were a lot of home-planning books around that I would pick up and study and try to do my own designs.”

When it came time to choose a college, Kemberling saw Jefferson as a perfect next step, allowing her to move easily from her small-town environment to a school close to the city but with a smaller, community-oriented campus. “I liked the setting,” she shares. “It felt very park-like, and the smaller class sizes were also very attractive over a lot of the bigger schools that I had toured. And fun fact: my parents lived in Independence Plaza before it became part of the campus housing when they were in Philly for my dad’s med school. It was a full-circle, small-world coincidence.”

For Kemberling, creative artistry and technical expertise go hand-in-hand. “I’ve always been on the creative side of things,” she says. “I call myself a serial hobbyist and enjoy having a creative outlet, but I’m also very technically based and logical, and like the math and science of how things work and come together. Architecture is the best of both worlds.”

Jefferson’s well-balanced architecture curriculum focused on both conceptual and technical design and provided students with early opportunities to hone their presentation skills in front of fellow students as well as professors. “That allowed me to become more confident as a person and built me into a better professional,” she says.

Kemberling fully embraced her Jefferson experience, taking advantage of academic, social, and cultural opportunities. “On top of my education, the thing I valued most was the people I shared it with,” she shares.

In addition to studying abroad in Rome, she participated in several extracurricular activities, including the chamber ensemble and tango club. “I was also part of a group that brought the first American Cancer Society Relay for Life to the East Falls Campus,” she shares.

During summer breaks, she interned with Anthony Visco Jr. Architects in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, returning to work full-time following graduation. There, she learned design basics and was exposed to different building typologies and scales of projects, offering her the opportunity to manage projects on her own. She shares, “That’s contributed a lot to how I handle the complex projects that I work on now.”

Kemberling spent eight years working on Universal Orlando Resort’s newest theme park, Epic Universe, specifically on one of the theme park’s five new lands, How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk. She started on its master planning before advancing into the concept phase of the design process and through its final construction.

“It was an exciting collaboration and not something that everybody gets to do every day,” she says. “This was definitely one of those once-in-a-lifetime projects.”

Kemberling is proud of the magical result. At 14 acres, How to Train Your Dragon is the second-largest land in the park and features the most attractions. “There’s a lot of interaction and movement throughout, so even if you’re not riding something, you’re still participating,” she shares. “There is the coaster going; the round rides are spinning; the boat ride is in the middle of the lagoon; and dragons are happening at the center of it all. The village feels like it’s alive.”