At Sebastian Mariscal's age, many young architects and designers are still struggling to find their sea legs. They're chasing small remodeling jobs, hoping to build a track record of success that will bring larger commissions in the future. But while they're treading water in their fledgling practices, Mariscal is sailing full speed ahead.

A designer, builder, and developer of boutique projects and custom homes in San Diego, the 37-year-old Mariscal oversees a thriving firm with a growing body of impressive work. Instantly recognizable, his buildings stress function and simplicity while exuding an understated luxury in their stainless steel, ipe, and limestone sheathing. For his efforts, he's amassed a string of local AIA citations and garnered a 2003 Home of the Year Award from Architecture magazine.

Mariscal's success has spawned a comfortable—if hectic—life. He, his wife, Maricarmen, and their two young children live in a hillside house overlooking the Pacific Ocean in tony La Jolla, Calif. He zips around town in a Mini Cooper or on a Vespa scooter, and the commute to his office in Sorrento Valley is a mere 12-minute drive on I–5. These days, he juggles his time visiting clients in Mexico, managing his local projects and 12-person firm, and teaching a master's in development class at Woodbury University's satellite campus. Gregarious and well-mannered, Mariscal's restless ambition brims right below the surface. Despite his already notable accomplishments, he is driven to constantly reinvent himself and his work. “He has a tremendous energy and is just fearless,” says Mariscal's friend and mentor, Jonathan Segal, FAIA. It's a boldness that traces back to his early years south of the border.

Born in Mexico City, Mariscal was introduced to the design profession by his father, Raúl Octavio Mariscal, a local architect and developer of affordable housing. In 1985, while his teenage chums played soccer and fretted about their social lives, he was in his father's office perfecting his AutoCAD skills and learning about the manipulation of space and light. “I always wanted to be an architect when I was a kid,” he says. “I was very involved in [my father's] architecture and went to his jobsites on the weekends.”

The younger Mariscal moonlighted for his father through high school and during his first semester at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, but he was anxious to forge his own path in design/build. So in 1988, at the precocious age of 18, he launched his own firm while still in architecture school. Not surprisingly, work came slowly for the new practice. But a successful ranch remodel for a neighbor launched a string of other residential and commercial projects, including several office buildings and a television transfer station. “I had a firm of six to eight people, and I was very busy and productive,” Mariscal says. However, with professional success came frustration with the pace of his studies and the school's concentration on theoretical projects that would never get built, he says. So he quit school to concentrate on his practice full time. “My passion was to design and to build,” he explains.

By 1995, with an impressive 17 buildings under his belt but hungering for a broader world view, Mariscal shuttered his practice and moved to Barcelona, Spain. He found work with Spanish modernist Tonet Sunyer and studied theory and construction at the School of Architecture of Barcelona. “I felt I needed to be exposed to new experiences and learning in Europe,” he says. “I was starting to feel too comfortable, I guess. I was 25 years old, so the timing was perfect.” After two years, he packed up again and headed west to California, where he landed a job with Segal's eponymous San Diego firm.

Mariscal couldn't have picked a better mentor than Segal, whom many consider the most important architect/developer in the city. From Segal, he learned the essential elements of developing—finding a partner, acquiring land, securing financing, and dealing with the powerful non-profit Centre City Development Corp., which has a say in all construction projects downtown. While working with Segal, Mariscal completed his first San Diego project—State and Date, two single-family houses that would also serve as his residence. He picked up its 1,550-square-foot corner lot for $200,000, and with little to spend on hard costs, he wrapped the 2,750-square-foot live/work units in stainless steel and redwood, establishing his trademark palette of lush materials. Because he had little time or money to spare for the project, he devised a resourceful system to speed construction. He rented an adjacent lot and then ordered precut lumber to prefabricate the walls while foundation work was under way on the building site. “We built the two units from start to finish in four months,” which saved money on interest payments and labor, Mariscal says.

State and Date paved the way for his biggest development yet: The Billboard Lofts, a 24-unit rental building Mariscal's wife manages. “My leap from State and Date to Billboard was not that big, because I had already done big projects in Mexico,” he says. “Plus, I always like to challenge myself on the next project.” Still, it was a significant financial venture that involved three additional partners. (The 6,900-square-foot lot alone cost $620,000.) Moreover, changing FAR rules made it difficult to build on the site, forcing Mariscal—who originally planned to build six townhouses—to revise his plans four times before the project was finally approved. The resulting building consists of two volumes swathed in corrugated ZINCALUME and stained cedar. The two-level lofts have 17-foot ceilings, cork floors, and sliding glass doors; monthly rents start at $1,200 and run as high as $2,200.

Mariscal's buildings celebrate California's free spirit and embrace its enviably temperate climate. Using large folding and sliding doors, they blur the boundaries between interior and exterior, creating spaces that reduce the need for artificial light. (On the two-unit 2inns project, for example, the houses have three movable exterior walls comprising 25 glass panels that fold and store out of view.) His buildings hold a clean line, exalting the box but varying its forms, juxtapositions, and relationships. Stick-framed buildings should have a dry skin, Mariscal believes, so he avoids stucco and opts for lightweight materials installed as ventilated façades for natural cooling. Cladding is often carried through on the interior; drywall is kept to a minimum. Materiality is important, so Mariscal limits his palette to just a few materials and uses them throughout the project. “Architecture is about the space,” he says. “The more materials you use, the less aware people are of the space.”

Mariscal's recent development projects include two Cor-Ten steel- and engineered stone-clad homes in downtown San Diego and six row houses in La Jolla. But these days, with the market slowed, he has no developments under way. Despite the dimming prospects, Mariscal remains drawn to development. It gives him the freedom to design what he wants, he says, and building those designs himself helps assure their rigorous execution. “It's good having the building experience because you design differently,” he explains. “It helps you design a project that's based in reality.”

Fortunately, Mariscal's firm also works for clients and has a long list of projects in the pipeline, including several custom homes, an eight-room hotel, a spiritual center, and an eyewear boutique. One project, Wabi House, is in the final stages of completion and is clad in burnt-cedar siding—an idea he picked up in Japan. Because the firm acts as contractor on every project, it builds just one job at a time.

Mariscal's studio has grown to eight to keep pace with the volume of work. (He also employs a full-time construction crew of four and adds to it as needed.) Mariscal develops early design schemes in collaboration with one of the designers and then turns over the project to that individual. “The same person who designs the building is getting the permits and is at the site every day until the job is done,” he says. “This way, they know how important it is to do good drawings, to get everything resolved in the office.” The company has done well, he says, because of its bright, passionate, and talented team.

Although, Mariscal has a contractor's license, he is not yet a licensed architect, nor has he completed an architectural degree. But his building experience and on-the-job training are a reasonable and time-honored substitute for the missing credentials, he believes. “Many amazing architects—Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Tadao Ando—didn't go to school,” he says. “My approach was just different [from the traditional path]. You learn at the jobsite, you learn at the office dealing with projects, and you learn what the consequences of your design are.” Still, his extensive work experience and academic studies make him eligible for the Architect Registration Examination. In fact, he and several of his employees will begin the testing process early this year.

Meanwhile, Mariscal remains optimistic about his city's return to prosperity and its untapped potential as a vital, pedestrian-friendly environment. “The 20th century had so many problems with sustainability because we were so centered on the car,” he says. When “you have people walking outside and houses connected to the exterior, I think people become more human. That's the social part of architecture that's important.”

financial times

Strong design and felicitous floor plans are essential to a successful development project, but adequate financing is the fuel that makes the engine go. For newbie architect/developers, the first venture is the big leap of faith. “Once you learn the process, it's easy,” Sebastian Mariscal insists, “but the first one is always the most difficult, because you don't have any history.”

For his fledgling project, a two-unit development, Mariscal started small and partnered with an investor, David Baun. The project “was going to be my house and [Baun's] house, so there wasn't much risk to the bank,” Mariscal says. Still, he adds, “it was important to get it correct, on time, and on budget.” Now, Mariscal has developed an efficient system that works well for him: he works with the same banks, and partners with Baun on almost every project (although he brings in other investors when needed).

“As soon as we open escrow on a property, we need to work on the financing,” Mariscal explains. “I always prefer to buy the land with a construction loan—we save money by having just one loan.” That way, he and his team can simultaneously work on drawings, the pro forma, and a cost breakdown all at once, making the process more efficient.

“We like to start the entitlement process while we're in escrow,” he continues. That time, he adds, “can be very beneficial for completing all the preliminary studies, entitlements, and financing.”