He was born in San José, Costa Rica (1959). He moved to the United States in 1974. He graduated from the University of Houston School of Architecture in 1981, receiving awards for best thesis project and best portfolio. He opened his own office in Houston in 1983. He was a visiting professor at Rice University (1987, 1994), Texas A&M University (1987, 1989), the Southern California Institute of Architecture (1990, 1991), and UCLA. (1990), University of Texas at Arlington (1990-1996), University of Houston (1991, 1994), Williams College (1994), University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain (1995, 2002, 2011), Harvard University Graduate School of Design (1996, 1997), Tulane University (1996), University of Texas at Austin (1997, 2004), University of California, Berkeley (1999), University of Oregon (2000). Professor, juror, and visiting critic at universities and cultural institutions in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Japan. Full professor at the Rice University Graduate School of Architecture since 2000. Jury member for the Pritzker Architecture Prize (2001-2011).