WHO WE ARE
Our Company, Our Family
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 "blossomed" into more. Fast forward 17 years later, we married, established our own roots in Chicago's great neighborhood of Logan Square, and expanded our family by three kiddos.
Our company, founded in 2022, centers around three areas of expertise, combining both our creative and artistic expertise with our technical knowledge of the built environment.
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.
Evans Debeza, AIA, NCARB Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Born and raised in the Mississippi Delta, Evans relocated to Chicago in 2014 to pursue her lifelong dream of practicing architecture. She has over twelve 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 managing and delivering projects at all phases from concept design through construction 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.
Geronimo Debeza Co-Founder & President
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.
Community Volunteers & Investors
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 enrichment to students and is an active ACE Mentor.
Evans currently serves as Chair of Chicago Commons' Leaders Council (CCLC), 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. She 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, Evans 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.
What We Do
ART for the soul
At Debeza Studio, LLC we offer original artwork, fine art prints, and home products for purchase. We are also open for commissioned artwork. Check out our Fine Art page to learn more.
DESIGN for the client
Debeza Design Studio, PLLC is our professional architecture and design firm focused on designing unique homes for both our rental properties and clients. Our services cover minor renovations, major gut rehabs, and ground-up construction.
DEVELOPMENT for the community
We are continuing to grow our real estate portfolio in Chicago. Our goal is to both maintain existing housing options and create greater density of high-quality homes within our community. We do this by maximizing a property's by-right zoning potential through existing zoning exceptions.
MANAGEMENT for our tenants
Not only do we design and develop our own rental properties, we manage them too! This ensures they are well maintained to our standards, and that our tenants are well taken care of with our quick, high quality, and personalized service that fits their needs.
Additionally, we partner with local trades, so when maintenance issues do arise, we are able to utilize local resources and get help to our tenants immediately.
INVESTMENT in our communities
IN A NUTSHELL...
We love our communities, both near (Chicagoland) and far (Spain and Mississippi). We utilize our creative skills and technical expertise to not only celebrate and highlight our communities' cultures, histories, and heritage through art, but also to give back through our housing developments and hand-on, community-based volunteer work.
OUR FUTURE:
While we are a small and young company, we are mighty and do more than dream about the possibilities of more housing. We make it happen. As we grow our art, design and development portfolios, we hope you will join us on our journey!