Irby Hightower, FAIA, is a Founding Principal. His early experience on the East Coast offered a first-hand introduction to the rehabilitation of historic structures as mixed-use, multifamily buildings using Historic Income Tax Credits. In 2005, he was instrumental in Alamo Architect’s first low-income, tax credit-funded multifamily housing development; his current focus is on mixed-use urban projects. Strongly informed by his decades of experience in urban design, Irby approaches multifamily development as an opportunity to create exceptional communities that also contribute a memorable and welcoming public realm to the surrounding city fabric. Putting these ideals into practice, he is currently leading a significant urban infill project for Pearl developer Oxbow, the luxury residential community Southtown Aldea.
Jim Bailey, AIA, is a Senior Principal at Alamo and recognized thought leader in the design of multifamily environments. Beyond his expertise in housing, his focus is on sustainable neighborhoods and multimodal transit. He has a long history of community engagement, facilitation, and consensus building. Jim served on San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg’s Housing Policy Task Force and developed the city’s $4 billion Housing Policy Framework. He was also on the Steering Committee for the Strategic Housing Implementation Plan and co-chaired San Antonio’s Removing Barriers to Affordable Housing Committee for many years. He is Board Chair of the non-profit ActivateSA, which he founded.
Beverly Baldwin, AIA, is a Principal with the firm. Beverly leads our multidisciplinary multifamily housing efforts, in both new construction development and adaptive reuse of historic buildings. Her decades-long focus on historic high-rise retrofits includes an impressive portfolio of significant structures, including San Antonio’s Tower Life Building and the iconic Blue Flame Apartments in El Paso. With over 20 years’ experience with the firm, Beverly leverages her leadership platform to advance the ideals of gender equity, mentorship, and cultural awareness within the firm and the community at large. She is a member of the Urban Land Institute, leading the newly formed Adaptive Reuse Local Member Council. She also co-chairs the AIA Historic Resources Committee.
Billy Lawrence, AIA. With a background in national retail design (The Shops at La Cantera), Billy brings unique insight not just into shopping centers but also into the public realm and placemaking for a range of business spaces. For example, groundbreaking work with the Humane Society of San Antonio brought “people spaces” into the animal rescue environment, creating a new model for rescue organizations. In notable adaptive reuse cases, he has created reimagined public realms for The Rim Commons Park and for Blue Star, a warehouse arts district in downtown San Antonio. Both projects injected an elevated sense of place and added new programmable and leasable space for the owners.
Victor Castillo, RID, IIDA. With over 30 years of professional experience, Victor brings an enthusiastic, open-minded approach to engaging clients in a proactive process to discover and confirm their organizational needs. The firm’s interiors portfolio showcases projects including healthcare facilities for UT San Antonio Health, both public and charter pre-K–12 educational facilities, college and university facility design, and large-scale institutional designs for universities and major corporate clients, including USAA. With Victor’s direction, the interiors team brings comprehensive professional services to the unique challenges of retrofits and adaptive reuse projects.
