WHO WE ARE

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Hi! We're Evans and Geronimo, founders of Debeza Studio! We met back in college in 2008 while studying architecture together at The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. What started as friendship, eventually evolved into more. Fast forward 17 years later, we got married, established our own roots in Chicago, and expanded our family by three kiddos.

We founded Debeza Studio, LLC in 2022 as a small-scale development and property management company and later expanded our offerings to include our more creative edge through our custom fine art and architectural design services. 

Our focus, at the heart of what we do, is on our communities. Through our work, we strive to provide a holistic and creative set of services to our clients, be it a custom architectural design, a quality rental home coupled with our property management service, or even a unique piece of artwork for your home or office.

Born and raised in the Mississippi Delta, Evans relocated to Chicago in 2014 to pursue her lifelong dream of practicing architecture. She has over eleven years of design experience in multi-family and residential architecture that spans across the nation including Market-Rate, Student Living, Senior Living, and Affordable Housing. Through this experience, she has gained extensive knowledge in leading and coordinating design teams, solving complex design and code compliance issues, as well as delivering projects at all phases from concept design to completion. 

Evans is also a passionate artist and has been painting for most of her life. Her work focuses on blues-centric and Mississippi Delta themes, capturing the heart and soul of the Delta community and its culture. She enjoys curating unique and custom artwork for clients, exhibits, and her home.

Evans is a licensed Architect in the State of Illinois, is NCARB-Certified and serves as Lead Architect, Property Development Manager, and Resident Artist. 

Born and raised in Spain, Geronimo moved to Arkansas to pursue an education in Architecture and Civil Engineering. He then relocated to Chicago in 2016 where he joined Evans and landed a job with a local, large-scale general contractor. He has over nine years of experience in multi-family construction in Chicago and Seattle including Student Living, Market-Rate Rental Housing, and, more recently, sports training facilities. Through this experience, he has gained extensive knowledge in team and project management, bidding and contractual agreements, construction sequencing, as well as a deep understanding of complex concrete and wood construction. He currently works at Pepper Construction where he serves as Project Manager on a sports training facility project.

Geronimo serves as President and Construction Project Manager, assisting with and coordinating the construction process of Debeza Studio's development properties.

Beyond our work at Debeza Studio, we are passionate about supporting our Chicago communities by investing our time with local non-profit organizations. In the past, we have teamed up with The Love Fridge to rebuild existing food pantries. Geronimo volunteers through his job with Pepper Construction providing educational presentations to elementary students and is an active ACE Mentor. 

Evans currently serves as Chair of Chicago Commons' Leaders Council, where she and fellow board members work closely with the staff, Board of Directors, and community to volunteer, fundraise, and provide outreach support for their early childhood education, family hub, and adult day services. Evans is also an active member and previous board Programs Chair of Women in Planning & Development (WP+D), an organization focused on career growth and community engagement for women in the building industry. Most recently, she joined AIA Chicago's Architects in Schools program  as a mentor where local architects introduce the profession and industry to middle school students. She currently works part time at AIA Chicago as their Sponsorship and Donor Relations Assistant.