My Design Autobiography & Background

Like the best designs, my outlook on work is simple: my goal is to help clients realize their vision with creative design concepts that seamlessly coordinate with their budget and schedule – and taste.

I like to see the big picture, but I am a firm believer that the details are what set a successful design apart. To me, the greatest challenge lies in working within established budgets to create a customized, personalized space that looks far more expensive than the final price tag.

I have arrived at my respect for simplicity after a lifelong love affair with the visual arts, and the creativity inherent in all distinctive spaces. When I was a kid growing up in Puerto Rico, I spent hours on end with paper and colored pencils (early influences included The Flintstone’s stone home and The Jetson’s futuristic domicile).

I soon graduated into rearranging our family furniture and helping the neighbors install wallpaper in their houses. I used to hang around the construction sites of new houses in my neighborhood, where I would collect scraps of material for inclusion in my various desktop projects.

Eventually, I formalized all of this activity by attending architecture school in Puerto Rico and the Pratt Institute in New York, where I graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1981. I have since continued my education at CUNY New York Technological College, where I earned a degree in Hospitality Management, including a competitive scholarship for study abroad in London.

Since then, I have worked as a Designer, Architect, and Project Manager on a number of corporate projects nationwide. My experience with New York City and national corporate firms introduced me to my first residential clients; eventually, I decided to devote myself to residential clients full time.

My love for space extends to the City of New York; I find its diverse cultural foundation to be a constant wellspring of new ideas. Most of these ideas find their ultimate fulfillment in my interior design work; I channel the remainder into my pursuit of painting. I have been fortunate to exhibit and sell my work through a number of New York galleries. I have also worked with the Izquierdo Studio, creating props and costumes for Broadway shows, Hollywood productions, window displays, and theme parties for clients like Bette Midler and Victoria’s Secret.

The ways people put a design to use is a subject of endless fascination for me, and I love helping people to develop new ways of seeing their surroundings …  conceptualize new approaches to laying them out … and realize all the possibilities for all the spaces they inhabit.