Hailing from Cuba, Talia Capistrano founded Cultivo alongside her friend Alex Barthel, a proudly minority owned architecture and preservation firm, with the ethos of being committed to developing and uplifting local architecture through design and community. The firm, whose name references a famous Cuban poet called Jose Marti, who wrote a poem called “Cultivo una rosa blanca”, which translates to “I cultivate a white rose”, was founded over a happy hour after the pair had spent time working at the same architecture firm, with its guiding light being the cultivation of friendships and cohesion through collaboration.
“As the name suggests, we strive to connect with our clients and cultivate relationships with them and the community,” says Talia. “This is all possible because we work with the clients from the beginning and stay with them till their construction permit is released. If you hire us, you’re getting us at every meeting, answering every question, providing selection services, sharing knowledge, and overall designing something that the clients are happy with at the end of the day.”
By designing with the client’s interests at heart, Cultivo has been able to carve out a niche of designing large-scale residential renovations and new construction, while also taking on small-scale projects that a larger firm may not be able to take on due to their large overhead.
“I provide support to the clients by offering vendors, helping them finalize decisions to avoid going down rabbit holes of products, and eventually becoming frustrated and overwhelmed”, says Talia. “I’m essentially their selection wingwoman who comes with knowledge of everything that the client will need to obtain for the construction that they’re not usually aware that they have to pick out.”
cultivo.studio | info@cultivo.studio | 262-237-4642
