Mercedes de la Garza has always taken to heart the advice given her by international architect Charles W. Moore, who told her early in her career, “Never be boring.” At the beginning of her professional career, de la Garza spent five years in Moore’s Studio before boarding a plane for a year of study in West Africa. She continues to work with the most talented practitioners as teachers, colleagues and partners; and she uses travel as a source of inspiration; expanding the palette of solutions, of what is possible. Based on the northern Nevada-California border, de la Garza’s Studio has built a diverse portfolio of work and been a part of award winning design teams in the U.S. and overseas (visit www.delagarzastudio.com).

DCD: What are you up to these days? What’s on the boards right now?

Md: Oh, we always have a fairly comprehensive practice with many intriguing projects humming along in our studios. Our work ranges from new construction, additions and renovations, to historic preservation and interiors. We run a full-service shop, from design to material selection on all our projects. We have work in San Francisco currently, a 15th floor apartment in an Eichler building … quite brilliant client; some residential and a mixed-use commercial in Reno … and another house down in the South; some historic preservation on a university campus and on a church from the boomtown era in Virginia City, NV; and, as always, we’re chasing work in alluring international places.

DCD: Are you talking about the booming overseas economies? Dubai? Shanghai?

Md: No, nothing of that scale … not that we’d be opposed to that. But for the international pursuits we’re more interested in smaller projects in the EU and South Africa right now. Locally, we make it a point to avoid less challenging projects. Our clientele are generally very sophisticated, with interesting projects, who have sought us out … people looking for something that makes them feel their money has been well spent. We don’t “cookie-cutter” our designs. It makes for long days and nights, but we like it that way.

DCD: Tell us a little about your background.

Md: I was quite fortunate early in my career to work in Charles W. Moore’s Studio. We worked out of his home compound and it was an amazing place to start a career in architecture. My colleagues there were all fabulously talented. We spent many hours sitting under that canopy of moose head totems, designing late into the night and hopping onto planes to deliver projects. Following that, I moved to West Africa to study indigenous architecture; and this experience obliquely adds to what I do now every day in the Studio. Following that, I pursued post graduate study in Frankfurt, Germany, with some of the world’s finest architects … (the late) Enrique Miralles, Peter Cook, Dagmar Richter … People always ask me how I ended up in Reno Nevada.

DCD: And your answer would be?

Md: I don’t really have an answer. My husband is a westerner and he dragged me here. I quickly found the people to be wonderful, the history rich, and the landscape spectacular. Besides, Reno is a cozy little community that has a great proximity to Tahoe, the Sierra, the Bay Area. It’s all easily accessible.

DCD: What do you think about the current trend towards “Green Architecture?”

Md: First, I’m not willing to label it as a trend. And quite frankly, any architect worth anything should always be designing with sustainability as part of every design consideration. I’m happy they now have a name for it and that people are now designing to a set of raised standards … It’s about time. We are a member of the USGBC (US Green Building Council) and subscribe to those ethics.

DCD: How would you best describe your work?

Md: I would say our work is quite broad. We don’t have a specific “style” per se. We adapt our work to the project at hand. We have developed a reputation for successfully executing a client’s ideas. Our best projects have come from clients who had ideas and impressions of what they were looking for and together we went through this process to discover how those ideas manifest themselves as structure, space and materials. Our Studio plays the part of the “Educated Pencil.” We’ve found this makes for happy clients … and keeps us from being “boring.”