Alumni Profiles

David D. Ortega, who is from Globe, Arizona and has lived and worked in Scottsdale since 1978, became the first architect and Latino mayor in the country when he was elected the 12th mayor of Scottsdale.  He credits his background in architecture with informing his views as a civic leader.

Gustavo Antonio Noriega, who grew up in Sinaloa, Mexico, East Los Angeles and Tucson, graduated from UArizona at the height of the pandemic and following a sudden switch to online courses. In this interview, he offers advice to those just starting out in the architecture program, as well as those looking for their first jobs as they prepare for graduation.

Assistant Research Scientist Adriana Zuniga came to CAPLA from Mexico in 2008 to pursue her MS Architecture degree. Since then, she has also earned a PhD in Arid Lands Resources Sciences and has taught and conducted research on human-landscape connections at CAPLA since 2015.

Lawrence G. Paull '64 B.Arch, who passed away in 2019, created award-winning sets for such films as Blade Runner, Back to the Future, City Slickers and Romancing the Stone. His wife Marcy Bolotin has endowed a CAPLA scholarship in his name.

Dyron Murphy, who is from Window Rock on the Navajo Nation, learned many things as a Bachelor of Architecture student—time management, design skills, flexibility—but what he didn’t anticipate was how close his cohort would become and has since remained.

Rich Michal came to CAPLA to study architecture after earning a bachelor's degree in construction engineering and management from Purdue University and an MBA from Indiana University. Seeking to learn more about sustainable design—and designing and constructing one of the nation’s most energy-efficient on-grid homes in the country as his master’s thesis—he pursued the B.Arch and M.Arch concurrently.

Roy Noggle graduated from the University of Arizona’s Bachelor of Architecture program in 1967, where he was a member of the well-known “Safeway Class,” so named because the original architecture studio was held in an old Safeway grocery store on North Park Avenue.

Despite the challenges presented by job hunting during a global pandemic, Lena Porell '20 MS Urban Planning recently moved across the country to Providence, Rhode Island to start her career as a staff planner.

With her MLA, Kendra Hyson has followed a path to leadership not just in landscape architecture but also in the movement for social equity in built environment design—as both a founder of The Urban Studio and in her current role as a landscape architect and planner for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.

Forty years after his graduation from the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture’s undergraduate architecture program, Mitchell Freedman AIA ’80 B.Arch remains in touch with the two faculty members who most influenced him and his work.

For Gabby Abou-Zeid, who graduated with her Bachelor's in Sustainable Build Environments in 2019, her path exploring transportation and urban planning has been anything but linear.

Eric Sterner ’15 B.Arch, founding principal of Last Architects, says, "My creativity is inspired by intangible moments and patterns—all rooted in observance. I believe these uncategorical and unplanned moments create points to reflect upon and later understand."