María has extensive experience in a wide range of project types as a project architect and manager. At SGA, she oversees budgets and schedules, serves as a primary contact for clients, and supervises teams. Although María enjoys every stage of a project, she finds construction administration especially rewarding: That’s when the results of everyone’s hard work come to fruition, but there is still room to make important design decisions.
Before joining SGA, María worked as a project manager at Dore & Whittier in Newburyport. There she worked on public projects, including schools and libraries. Earlier she spent over six years at Sasaki Associates in Watertown and nearly seventeen years at Gund Partnership in Cambridge, amassing a design portfolio of private schools, colleges, and universities. Specific projects included libraries, museums, and dormitories,as well as academic, athletic, and art buildings. Throughout her career, she has prioritized sustainability, which she believes should be an essential feature of every project.
María earned a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University. Born in Wisconsin, she grew up primarily in Colombia, but lived for extended periods of time in North Carolina, The Philippines, Italy and Massachusetts. Thanks to her father’s job as an agronomer, her architecture studies, and family trips, Maria has traveled around the world.
In addition to visiting new places, museums and restaurants, María enjoys gardening, volunteering, and dancing for exercise and fun. After mastering Latin dance styles while growing up, she is now tackling Ballroom. María, who speaks both English and Spanish fluently, likes to spend time with her three kids, the eldest of whom is also an architect.