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.
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