Pivoting: Chats About Careers in Architecture

Join us Tuesday, August 4 on Instagram Live for our first one-on-one conversation about education and architecture with Oswaldo Rivera-Ortiz, Assoc. AIA. Follow us on Instagram at @AIADallas to be notified when we go live!

About Pivoting: Chats About Architecture Careers

When considering an education or career in architecture, you traditionally think of the resulting career path as a linear one – working in a design firm and advancing with gained experience. There are, however, myriad opportunities for professionals with a degree in architecture who possess abilities to see the big picture, create options for complex opportunities within and beyond the built environment, and utilize creative problem-solving and design thinking skills that can translate well into other professions. On the first and third Tuesday of each month at noon, please join Zaida Basora, FAIA, AIA Dallas Executive Director for this “one-on-one” series of conversations with those who have made the leap to a successful alternative career path with their architecture background.

In partnership with the Architecture and Design Exchange

This Week's Guest: Oswaldo Rivera-Ortiz, Assoc. AIA

Oswaldo Rivera-Ortiz, Assoc. AIA will be leading the Urban Planning program at Dallas ISD’s CityLab High School in downtown Dallas beginning this fall of 2020. He spent the past ten years as an architecture teacher at Richardson High School, where he founded R STUDIO – Richardson ISD’s community-oriented design program. He exposes students to design/build projects, emphasizing the power of design to transform communities. In the last three years, Oswaldo and his students have won more than $30,000 in awards, designing outdoor learning spaces for elementary schools with A4LE (Association for Learning Environments), design/building Little Free Libraries for multiple Dallas communities with bcWorkshop, and design/building sitting areas for all RHS students with The Beck Group, Gensler, and Stantec.

R Studio visited over 20 schools of architecture in 9 states, engaged in 3 dual credit courses through El Centro College, visited over 30 professional offices, construction sites, and city centers, and hosted 3 student work expositions, 7 design-build projects and 9 final juries with professionals and professors, completing over 70 design projects.

Previously, Oswaldo taught 1st and 2nd grade bilingual classes at RISD’s Forest Lane Academy. He was named RISD Star Teacher of the Year in 2013, PTA Texas Teacher of the Year in 2014, and received the TI STEM Teacher Award in 2018.

Oswaldo grew up in Orocovis and San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he earned his Bachelor of Environmental Design at the University of Puerto Rico’s School of Architecture. He studied in Seville, Spain and Helsinki, Finland before completing his master’s degree in architecture at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He's a proud husband of a high school engineering teacher and a dad of 4 precious little ones.

Sponsorship opportunities are available! Contact Shirley Che, sche@aiadallas.org, for more information.