Who I am

Born on a little island containing enough pride to match a continent reinforces the belief that you can do anything you put your mind to. For me this was becoming an architect after finding out my grandfather had built his house atop a mountain at the cost of his own blood, sweat and tears. Before the norms of my island had an opportunity to cast in stone my character we moved to Fort Buchanan, a military base that exposing me to the existence of life beyond water formed walls. Here I discovered innumerable narratives, my imagination was set free, and boundaries where tested beyond elasticity, then redrawn.

Some years later, descending as a 10 year old above Albuquerque, New Mexico a flurry of emotions transformed to shock, I had been transported from a paradise of water, sand and coconut trees to a place void of everything but sand painted in shades of tan. It will get better; thoughts of optimism bubbled then popped much like our excitement for snow. We gave it its fifteen minutes of fame prior disparaging its existence from inside our new box. Still, I would stare outside and dream of worlds undiscovered on every snow flake. This time moving stretched our family ties and limited a joy compared to that which we had amassed in Puerto Rico. Here we found places of solitary confinement within our minds, while our lives bumped against color coded communities.

Two years later we moved to San Antonio, the place I have now called home for the longest strech of time. It is a place where our evolution as individuals would see growth limited only by will. Equipped with parted hair and pants with significant distance between them and my ankles, I arrived, wearing strapped glasses too big for my face and content failing to match the cover. A passionate conversationalist, depending on perspective, I began with a struggle to write a new book of my life; the overarching theme, dreamer turned wizard. I grew up watching everything Merlin and wanting to be Michael Angelo, nun-chucks not brushes.

Soon after the constraints of public K-12 education where removed, I discovered peeling back layers of protection that I had cast aside the values of questioning and dreaming unwittingly but architecture added back context to dreams and ideas anchored by life experiences. Challenged by standard norms and criteria in architecture school, I could follow sheep and risk losing the fundamental elements of my ideas, or risk failing in the pursuit of a better solution. Challenging convention requires the redefinition of failure from a circumstance to be avoided to a required variable for true measure of success.

Through adulthood drawing turned to utility, a problem solving tool and I found excitement in the opportunity to view spoken and written language as frequencies of conveyance for my dreams and their rules subject to interpretation in the scales of time.

My grandfather dreamed of a home above the clouds and he built it with his own hands, everyday encouraging us to turn our dreams into action. Now I find myself at a place where dreams extend to the clouds with diverse responses to what architecture is and could be, and the role technology can play in shaping our environments at individual, regional, and global scales. This website is an illustration of my experiences and dreams, past, present, and future solidifying into action as I build above the clouds one space at a time.

I hope you enjoy it.

Education

Masters of Architecture
UTSA 2012

B.S. Architecture
UTSA 2007

AIA Professional Practice Leadership Program 2014

Professional Background

Registered Architect - Texas
Registered Accessibility Specialist (RAS)

2015-Present
Alamo Architects

2011-2015,
Designer & Project Manager
GNA Architecture

2007-2011, Designer
B&A Architects, Inc.

2006-2007,
Draftsman & Graphics Manager
Davis+Rexrode Architects

In thirteen years of professional architectural experience I've had the opportunity to contribute in a wide range of projects including K-12, religious, government, commercial, and multi-family. Throughout these projects my capacities extend to all phases as a designer, project manager, and / or documents production team member.