PROFILE
OSWALDO RIVERA-ORTIZ, ASSOC. AIA By Lisa Lamkin, FAIA Oswaldo Rivera-Ortiz, Assoc. AIA is combining the best of two callings – architecture and teaching. Born into a hardworking family in Puerto Rico, he earned his bachelor’s in environmental design at the University of Puerto Rico and his master’s in architecture at the University of Southern California. But he graduated into the Great Recession, and the twists of life led him into teaching. After a decade as a bilingual teacher and an architecture instructor at Richardson ISD, he is venturing into CityLab High School’s Urban Planning program, opening students’ eyes daily to the wonder of the life ahead of them. To paraphrase David Byrne, how did you get here? What kind of choices led you to where you are today? I studied architecture at La Universidad de Puerto Rico starting in 2002 and graduated in 2007. I got an amazing opportunity for a year studying abroad in Seville, Spain. Life opened a door to complete a master’s at the University of Southern California in LA, where I had the opportunity to do projects in China, as well as do my own study abroad program for a semester. I was offered admission in Barcelona, Spain, and Aalto’s University in Espoo, Finland. Since I’d been to Spain already, I picked Finland. Later that summer of 2008, I interned at Arquiprojecta, a firm in Lisboa, Portugal. After that, what brought you to Texas? In 2009, the economy was on the floor. I had a friend whose uncle knew someone in San Diego, so I moved close to the border in January of 2010 and volunteered for the city of San Diego for half a year, waiting for a job to come up. Nothing happened. I thought well, let me do something else to pay my loans. I like kids. I like teaching. So I looked into Teach for America. I did interviews and didn’t get anything in California; then I saw Texas had a similar alternative certification program called TTF. Is there a teacher who had the most impact on you? That shapes how you teach? Yes, definitely, one architecture teacher. His name is Elio Martinez Joffre, AIA. In Puerto Rico he was a studio professor. During my time he had the only community design studio on campus, called Taller Comunitario (Community Workshop). One of the projects that I really loved was an eco-resort in an area that was protected.
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Photo: Shirley Che
