Sofia Castillo was born in Guatemala City. She studied at Universidad Francisco Marroquín (UFM) (B Arch 2006), in Guatemala City and Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) (M Arch 2008) in Los Angeles, CA. Currently she is a leading partner or Sher+Castillo and is involved in different academic institutions.

 

She began her professional career in Guatemala City under Adolfo Lau. After completing her B Arch, she relocated to Los Angeles, California, to explore formal and technical innovation in architecture. While there she worked as a designer at (M)Arch and in 2007 joined Frank Gehry’s Gehry Technologies (GT). She collaborated on projects worldwide with GT, initially based in Los Angeles, briefly relocating to Mexico City in 2009 and in 2011 moved to their Asia Headquarter in Hong Kong. In 2014 she joined Laing O’Rourke’s (LOR) Hong Kong team as a Senior Digital Engineer and in 2015 relocated to Brisbane, Australia to lead LOR’s Digital Engineering (DE) regional team.

 

Sofia has been part of UFM faculty, as professor’s assistant, visiting lecturer and now as a professor, since 2004. Similarly, in 2008 through 2010, she supported several courses in the graduate program. In 2013 she joined the faculty of the Madrid based Centro de Estudios Superiores Online de Madrid Manuel Ayau.

 

In 2015 Sofia was awarded the Aurecon Award for Achievement in Design by the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) Queensland’s annual Crystal Vision Awards. Her work has been included in several periodicals in Guatemala and the United States of America.

 

 

Growing up in Phoenix, Arizona, Zach Sher left to pursue his undergraduate degree of Environmental Design (B. ENVD) at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  After graduating he worked as an intern for Denver based Fentress Architects.  He then relocated to Los Angeles to attend Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc).  It was here his partnership with Sofia began.  During his time at SCI-Arc he completed an internship with Gehry Technologies and served as Assistant to the Graduate Thesis Coordinator.

 

After completing his masters degree Zach rejoined Fentress Architects to work on their expansion of LAX's International Terminal.  Once completed, he worked as Senior Project Consultant for Gehry Technologies in Hong Kong.  While in Hong Kong he also worked on various projects in Asia for Nelson Chow Design + Architecture.   Zach later relocated to Brisbane, Australia to work with Arkhefield Architects.  After one year he returned to Phoenix and joined Marlene Imirzian Architects & Associates.

 

Zach currently is a founding partner of Sher + Castillo Architects and a professor of architectural design at Universidad Francisco Marroquín (UFM).