Miguel Rivera, FAIA - AIA Pittsburgh

Name: Miguel A Rivera, FAIA
Firm: Miro Rivera Architects, in Austin, Texas
Family: married with 2 girls
Years in practice: 26
Education: Master in Architecture, Columbia University
Your first job: Luis Flores Architect in Puerto Rico
Project you’re proudest of: Lifeworks, Austin
Building you’d like to tear down: All Office Depots.
What’s the best part of your job? Making people lives better.
What would you change about your job? The way we get the jobs.
What have you always wanted to tell your clients? Trust your architect, make a difference.
What’s the next big architectural trend? Going away from trends.
Advice to young architects: Listen, travel, patience.
The one thing you wish they’d teach you in school: Psychology.
Code/zoning requirement I’d change if given the chance: The time it takes to have a variance; architects, urbanists, etc should be the deciding group not lawyers and politicians.
Favorite tool: Pencil.
Favorite building: Barcelona Pavilion by Mies van der Rohe.
Favorite outdoor space: Central Park, NY.
Favorite indoor space: Sant’lvo all Sapienza in Rome, by Francesco Borromini.
Favorite city: Venice.
If you could live anywhere in the world, where? Venice.
Someday I’d like to: go to India.
Architect you’d like to have a drink with: Richard Neutra.
Favorite architecture book: Richard Neutra Complete Works.
Best gift to give an architect: A book.
If you hadn’t become an architect, what would you have been? Baseball player.
Most embarrassing moment: Not being able to help my wife when she was in labor.
I want to be remembered for: being honest.
Building you’d like to renovate into something else? Any Candela building.
Something you’d like to learn how to build with your own hands: A sculpture.
What’s on your iPod/Pandora/Spotify? Jarabe de Palo.
Architectural quote to practice by: “An architect should be not only correct, but entertaining.”
-John Ruskin
The secret to my success: Asking and getting help from others; architecture can’t be done alone.
I belong to the AIA because: We need to work together for the benefit of the profession.