ABOUT

I am an energetic, creative and inquisitive person who strives for excellence in my endeavors. Constantly challenging myself to expand, to evolve and to learn new things I will reinvent myself if my old habits no longer serve me. After 25 years of working as an architect in the private sector in California, in 2016 I realized a personal ambition to contribute towards development in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Fulfilling a 2-year contract as a United Nations Volunteer in Malawi exposed me to a culture that MUST innovate to survive. Poverty and inequality remain stubbornly high in Malawi so a sustainable approach to life is born out of necessity, not choice. With rationed electrification, a limited fresh water supply, seasonal food insecurity, an under-funded educational system and an extremely high pupil to classroom ratio, the challenges for development remain infinite. This experience has inspired me to return to California to strive for a non-negotiable ecological approach to our lifestyle and to our growth in the developed world.

During my final 8 years at EHDD Architecture in San Francisco I specialized in designing and managing institutional aquarium projects within the United States, serving clients such as The Monterey Bay Aquarium, Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Toledo Aquarium, Ohio and the Aquarium of the Bay in San Francisco. EHDD is often retained by multidisciplinary institutions, to help facilitate ambitious program intentions which, when realized, become unique and specialized building environments, for both their animals and their visitors. Strongly motivated to create delightful experiences for the building users and to place architecture appropriately on the terrain, I mentor our design and engineering teams to ambitiously strive for innovative solutions on the projects we are tasked. I was honored to have served at EHDD for 18 years.

I appreciate an appropriate blend of historical fabric with contemporary interventions. My tendency is to ponder a solution that is borne out of consideration of the site and a sensitivity to the ancestral character of the context. I uphold the process of Sacred Reciprocity: if something has been taken away, give something back in return.

A FEW OF MY PERSONAL HEROES:

Greta Thunberg, Julia Butterfly Hill, and Woman Stands Shining, Pat McCabe