EXCECUTIVE TEAM
Short headline goes here
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Niccolo Valerio
President / Creative Designer Director
NCARB, LEED AP
B.Arch University of Southern California
1994- Founded Valerio Architects, Inc.
Niccolo Valerio founded Valerio Architects in 1994 and brings over 35 years of professional experience. Originally from Italy, Niccolo began his career through working in restaurants; from bussing to managerial. Through this experience he built a vast understanding of design implications for flow, operations and overall optimal efficiency for restaurant spaces. Fast forward to current days, Niccolo leads Valerio Architects as Principal and Creative Design Director. Through his guidance, the firm has grown to promote and help establish a wide range of restaurant concepts, promoting growth and quality through award winning designs.
Elizabeth Valerio
Vice President
Bachelor of Science,
Urban Planning & Development
University of Southern California, 1992
Elizabeth Valerio, with over 30 years of experience in coordinating and facilitating building permits and entitlements, is a seasoned professional in the retail and restaurant industry nationwide. Since joining Valerio Architects in 1997, Elizabeth has overseen permitting and entitlements coordination for esteemed clients such as Louis Vuitton, Dior, Fendi, Dolce & Gabbana, and many more. With her expertise, she expedites the permitting process, attends meetings and hearings, and guides projects through their approval and entitlement stages.Elizabeth also assists with Program Management and acts as an Owner’s Representative when required. Under her leadership, the team ensures timely project completion, meeting all client deadlines and critical dates from Site Survey and Due Diligence to project closeout.
Kay Elcan
AIA, NCARB
Principal
Kay Elkan has over 25 years experience and started working for Valerio Architects in 2006. Since then she has become the lead project architect for several Luxury Retail clients, including but not limited to Louis Vuitton, Dior, Fendi. Dolce & Gabbana, Salvatore Ferragamo, Prada, Graff Diamonds, Bottega Veneta, La Perla, Moschino. Kay has also been involved in multiple roll-outs and brand development.
Kay is licensed in California and an active member of AIA. Her professional experience extends from conceptual design to project management and construction. Her commitment to deadlines, her ability to bridgespatial limitations and client objectives, and her fascination with design challenges, regularly meet and exceed client expectations and make her a valued member of the Valerio team.
Patrick Wildnauer
Associate Principal, AIA Associate, LEED AP
Patrick Wildnauer joined Valerio Architects in 2016 and has been primarily working with Valerio’s retail team. Patrick has over 23 years experience within the field and brings forth a vast range of knowledge,project management, design sense, and detail coordination.
Prior to joining Valerio Architects Patrick worked within the Retail Design Department of Forever 21. Within this period of over 5 years Patrick worked closely with Architects, consultants, General Contractors, and vendors to ensure projects maintained tight adherence to budgets, schedules and brand values. Since joining Valerio he has led several retail accounts including but not limited to Dior, Nespresso, Brunello Cucinelli, Givenchy, YSL, Alexander Wang, Acne Studios, & Bally. Patrick attributes his quality attention to Client needs and focus on project priorities to ensuring efficiency and meeting of goals. Patrick has been a valued support on the management of the Valerio retail team.
Filiberto Gomez
Assoc. AIA, RDI
Principal / Director of Construction Management and Retail Rollouts
Filiberto (Fili) has worked for Valerio Architects since 2008. Over the past 10+ years Fili has been the Director in charge of multiple roll out accounts including Starbucks, Oakley, Superdry, Nespresso and Sunglass Hut. As a Studio Director, Fili manages teams within the office ensuring the projects run efficiently and our client’s high standards are maintained on each and every project. Given his prior 12 year experience working at a high end designed-build firm, Fili was able to expand his role as an Owner’s Rep / Construction Manager for brands that do not have a full in house construction team. Fili oversees a team internally to closely coordinate and manage all aspects as Owner’s Rep roles including but not limited to: Budget, schedule, vendor coordination, ordering, procurements, merchandising, and turnover support. Owner’s Rep and Construction Management provides an added level of support to clients as requested.
Melissa Velarde
Associate Principal
AIA, NCARB
B. Arch California State Polytechnic- San Luis Obispo
2004- Joined Valerio Architects
2003-2004 Rialto Design
2002-2003 McCall Design Group
Melissa has been working with Valerio Architects since 2004. Over the past 20 years Melissa has advanced from drafting, to project management and currently works closely with Niccolo overseeing the Project Design team. Melissa’s efforts have helped to build many successful concepts from an entrepreneurial phase, completing thousands of layouts through her career, to final detailing of millwork and custom furniture designs seen in her projects today. She oversees a team of staff in creating quality visuals through hand sketching and in-house computer aided rendering, helping to tell the design story for each project. Melissa’s work has been featured through multiple online showcases.
Philip Grimaldi
AIA. NCARB. LEED AP
Associate Principal
B. Arch Wentworth Institute of Technology
M. Arch Wentworth Institute of Technology
Philip Grimaldi has over 15 years experience and started working with Valerio Architects January 2020. He is licensed in Connecticut and has been closely involved in luxury retail clients including but not limited to Canada Goose, Gucci, Alexander Wang, and Zegna. In addition to overseeing high end projects he also leads Valerio’s New York office and remote teams as Studio Director. Prior to joining Valerio Philip was a Senior Project Manager for Tapestry where he supervised the execution of over 200 store buildouts per year. He credits this time as providing quality knowledge to support his current clients.
Ruth Garibaldi
Studio Director
Ruth has over 20 years of experience. She originally joined Valerio in 2012 as a senior associate then moved into a Sr. Project / Account Manager position for Valerio’s Starbucks Account. During her time with Valerio she oversaw and completed over 100+ roll out projects for the Brand. Ruth took a short break from Valerio and worked on other corporate retail programs like Charter/ Spectrum, Union Bank, Medmen & Five Below. Since her return, she’s become one of the Studio Director for the LA office. She’s oversees a team of staff working on projects on a daily basis across all offices, as well as coordination with client Design and Program Managers
Mayra Banda
Studio Director
Mayra joined Valerio Architects in 2023 with over 18 years of Architectural experience. She has been integral to the development and expansion of Valerio offices including the recent relocation and expansion of our Monterrey office and team. Mayra has been involved firm-wide with support throughout.
Prior to joining Valerio Mayra has held numerous positions with her portfolio spanning to include Retail, Restaurants, Hotel, Structures, Hospitality, Showrooms, clubs, mixed use developments, and corporate offices. In additionto overseeing the architectural technical coordination closely Mayra has helped in all areas of her projects lifecycle with thorough coordination, document control, scheduling, supervision, and monitoring. Mayra has additional training credits in Project Management in addition to her Bachelor of Architecture from Monterrey University.
Alicia Zaayer
Entitlement Director
B.Arch Ball State University
2012- Joined Valerio Architects
Alicia Zaayer joined Valerio Architects in 2012. Prior to joining Valerio Alicia assisted in building code interpretation and accessibility compliance inspections for multiple well known hotel developments. Alicia joined Valerio Architects at a junior level, quickly building a skillset and expertise into her current role as Entitlements Coordinator. Alicia works under direction of the Entitlements Director, Elizabeth Valerio and manages a team of in-house to oversee the day-to-day jurisdictional research, code compliance reviews, plan check submittals and permit coordination, and assistance through construction and inspections. Alicia has worked closely with jurisdiction personnel for submittals and code review developing quality relationships throughout not only the Los Angeles and California area but nationwide. Alicia and her Entitlements team helps to oversee and ensure smooth plan check and permitting process for each project.