BIO

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Joseph is an architect, writer, professor, artist and community-civic activist; he is the founding partner of Martinez + Cutri Urban Studio Corporation. Since its inception in 1980, the firm has planned and/or designed more than 200 projects with a construction value in excess of $3.0 Billion Dollars US. Over the past 45 years, as a practicing architect and planner, Joseph has special expertise in educational facilities planning and architectural design, public assembly venues, hotel and resorts master planning and design, urban-mixed-use residential, and civic, public sector facilities. Visit the firm’s web site: www.martinezcutri.com.

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Likewise, since 1966, he has been at the forefront of El Movimiento. He was co-founder of the student organization Maya/Mecha in 1967 at UC San Diego, and a co-founder of the Third World College; in 1969 he was UC San Diego/Mecha’s representative to the Crusade for Justice Conference in Denver, Colorado. Further, he was the co-founder of the UC San Diego Chicano Alumni Association. In 1985 he was named UC San Diego’s Alumni of the Year, and two years later its Alumni of the Century. In 1975, Joseph was the first Chicano in the 20th Century to obtain a Master of Architecture degree from Harvard University. Similarly, he was the first-in-family to attend college – in 1971 he obtained his BA degree in Visual Arts from UC San Diego. Joseph was born in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico.  Some of his Civic and Community Activism would include: Co-founder of the Latinx PAC, Bahia del Sur, co-founder of the voter registration group, ONE VOTE!, and co-founder of The Mariachi Scholarship Foundation, Sweetwater Union HS District. Further, he was a co-founding Board member of the NTC Foundation; a Board member of the Qualcomm Stadium Authority; Gubernatorial Appointee, State of California, REGC Commission; YMCA Board of Directors, San Diego; and San Diego Hospice Board of Directors.

 

His professional participation and engagements would include: National Program Chair AIA Committee on Education, National School Board Association Conference on "Sustainable Schools: Sustainable Communities"; presenter, Council of Educational Facility Planners International, "School Design in Minority Communities: A Case Study" and “Aesthetics and Culture along the USA-Mexico Border”; and, "The work of M+C", University of New Mexico;  also, founding Dean, The New School of Architecture, San Diego; Senior Visiting Lecturer, UC Berkeley; Lecturer on Urban Design, Urban Studies Program, UC San Diego; and, Lecturer on Urban Planning, School of Public Administration, San Diego State University. Some of his Writings would include: “A Chicano Perspective on Space-Time: The Recordation of History”, By Design Magazine, Summer Issue 2017: also published in By Design: “The Architecture of Cesar E. Chavez Campus: Transcription of the Oral History”, Spring Issue 2017; and “Oneness: The Architecture of Self”, Spring Issue 2018 – In 2020 he was asked to serve as a Senior Editor of By Design. His forthcoming book, “The Chicanx Architecture: Divine Suppositions in a Multi-cultural Society” is a manifesto describing the five principles and architectural language as first practiced by the indigenous peoples of the Americas since the dawn of time.