Profile: Alicia Moniz, Owner of Sacramento's Moniz Architecture
November 24, 2006

Architect's Work is Less Pretty Picture, More Defining a Vision

Sacramento Business Journal

The scoop on: Alicia Moniz

Who is she?

Owner, Moniz Architecture

The Essentials:

Age: 48
Native of Sacramento, lives there with husband, Dean Moniz, an artist, and their two daughters, Isabel, 12, and Camille, 8
Education: B.S., architecture, California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo

Her Favorite Things:

Movie: "Ray"
Book: "How to See" by George Nelson
Restaurant: Spataro Ristorante
Vacation spot: California coast
Music: Classical, jazz, country, rock
Quote: "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." Eleanor Roosevelt
Heroes: Georgia O'Keefe, Frank Gehry, Gae Aulenti
Pet peeve: Failure to communicate

When you're a young architect," Alicia Moniz said, "you fantasize about designing important buildings that people admire, and I've been able to do some projects like that."

She started having those fantasies when she was very young, she recalls, and although she describes herself as "very practical," the fact that two of her heroes are Frank Gehry, an American architect noted for his unusual buildings, and Gae Aulenti, an Italian architect known also as an installation artist, lighting and interior designer and provoking theoretician, suggests there's still a fantasy or two inside her looking for an outlet.

Moniz's architectural design skills have been called upon for a variety of projects at Sacramento International Airport, including the facility's administration center, and for a number of other public entity projects including the Yuba City Fire Department Administration Building, the Elk Grove Community Service District maintenance building and the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department South Area station in Elk Grove.

What drew you into architecture?

From about the age of 12, I decided I wanted to be an architect. It combined my interests at the time, which were math and art. I was always entertained by math, and I liked to draw, and I thought architecture would allow me to put those interests together. I recall a career-day presentation that made me aware of what architecture was.

I went to Mercy High School in Carmichael, which doesn't exist anymore, and it didn't have any preparation programs for architecture, so I took community college evening classes in engineering, physics and drafting. And fortunately I was accepted by the only school I applied to, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which has a fine architecture program.

After graduating, I worked for some of the larger architectural firms here in town for about seven years, working on buildings, public projects, seismic upgrades, medical buildings, the spectrum that a large firm would expose you to.

I've been practicing architecture for 20 years, and I've had my own business for 13 years. I've had partners in the past, but they've left to pursue their own interests, and now I'm happy to be on my own.

Is being a woman architect an issue these days?

Twenty years ago when I started, gender was more of a central issue. Now I see increasingly more women involved in architecture, construction and engineering. But there still are not a lot of women who own their own firms.

Is there a particular aspect of architecture that you focus on?

Not really. I spend a lot of time studying design, what's going on, design trends, by reading and traveling. I have a design-oriented architecture practice at a time when our culture seems very focused on design. You see retailers like Target and IKEA that are differentiating their products with good design, and they are hiring celebrity designers.

People seem to want to go to nice shopping centers, they want to be in attractive restaurants, they want to be in attractive and comfortable workplaces. Design is very important to people now, and I offer services that will empower people to create a type of environment that they feel will be attractive to their customers and employees.

But design now is not just creating a pretty picture and building something. Architecture has become a very multifaceted practice. What I focus on is empowering people to create their vision of a project. People have ideas of what they want built, and they come to me to define that vision, to create a map for them to realize that vision.

How do you go about doing that?

Over my 20 years of practicing in Sacramento I have developed a very good network of civil engineers, electrical engineers, structural engineers and other specialists, such as those expert in hazardous materials, energy efficiency, a variety of expertise. The architect's job is to be the maestro that orchestrates that team for the client.

The route of getting a project built has become much more regulated over the past 20 years, so the job of the architect now also involves, in addition to assembling a large team of consultants, community outreach, incorporating energy-efficient design, incorporating technology, a variety of responsibilities. That includes getting clients through all the regulatory issues they'll be faced with.

There are more regulations now than there used to be. I think that reflects the fact that people expect more from proposed projects.

-- Interview by Bob Schmidt