Derivi Castellanos Architects (DCA) is excited to welcome Jesus Valdez, AIA, as a Job Captain and newest member of the team! Jesus is a licensed architect in California and Arizona. His architectural career spans 17 years in Northern California, working on a variety of education, residential, new commercial and tenant improvement projects ranging from the state-of-the-art River Islands Elementary School in the San Joaquin Valley to a complete remodel of a 1930’s townhome in San Francisco’s Sunset District. Along with his passion for architecture, Jesus has a love for art, particularly mural painting. A sample of his work is shown in a community mural at San Joaquin Delta College that measures 30 feet wide by 18 feet tall. Two years of painting on weekends proved to be a rewarding and enjoyable experience for Jesus!
As a little kid, Jesus was always drawing whatever he saw or imagined, and later in an architecture class, he knew that he loved this profession. He is very detail oriented and his ability to think outside the box and imagine himself as the end user, future user and potential user has contributed to his innovative and functional designs. “The easiest building to design is a box, but architects don’t design boxes,” says Jesus. “Architecture is about serving the general public and communities through the design of the built environment.”
Jesus enjoys spending time with his family, which includes his wife, two sons and two daughters. His favorite pastime is traveling to beaches and old cities, where he can either contemplate nature’s power or be amazed by mankind’s achievements in historical buildings and churches built without today’s modern technology. Jesus is also fond of modernist architecture and admires the work of Peter Gluck, his favorite architect. Welcome, Jesus!
