LOS ANGELES, February 28, 2024 - The National Association of Home Builders has inducted Manny Gonzalez, FAIA, into the Hall of Fame at the Best in American Living Awards ceremony. The event took place during the International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas, Nev.
Established in 2008, the BALA Hall of Fame program honors thought leaders in the housing industry who have significantly influenced residential design and construction. Over the past 15 years, the BALA Hall of Fame has welcomed 48 visionaries who have pushed the boundaries of residential design, altering the trajectory of housing. Gonzalez joins recent inductees, including Mike Woodley, AIA, and David Baker, FAIA, as well as industry legends Berry Berkus, FAIA, Walt Richardson, FAIA, and Art Danielian, FAIA.
“I have always had a passion for designing homes that residents would love, from affordable apartments and starter homes to luxury active adult communities and assisted living. To be included in such prestigious company for simply doing what I enjoy is an overwhelming honor,” Gonzalez said.
KEY PLAYER IN THE GROWTH OF THE KTGY DESIGN FIRM
Gonzalez, the founder and president of Lifestyle Design Consulting, LLC, has been instrumental in creating vibrant residential communities across the country. He established this consulting practice after 22 years at KTGY, where he oversaw the design, land planning, and production of numerous residential developments throughout the United States, spanning market-rate, affordable, and active adult multifamily residences, as well as mixed-use developments. During his time at KTGY, Gonzalez was instrumental in the growth of the firm, initiating the establishment of new offices in Los Angeles, Denver, and Tysons, Va.
His career commenced at Johannes Van Tilburg & Partners, now VTBS Architects. Within a year, he became a partner and served in that capacity for another 11 years. In 1993, he joined Kaufman & Broad (now KB Home) designing homes and affordable apartments both domestically and internationally, including Paris, France. While at KB, Gonzalez was the architect for Habitat for Humanity’s Jimmy Carter Work Project in the Watts section of Los Angeles, building 21 homes in 21 days.
DESIGNED HOMES FOR WOUNDED VETERANS
At KTGY, Gonzalez designed three ABC Green Homes that Habitat for Humanity built for the families of wounded veterans and was also the architect for the Gary Sinise Foundation Specially Adapted Smart Home. He led the effort to renovate Hope Gardens for the Union Rescue Mission and the rebuild of the San Fernando Rescue Mission after their fire. He went on to be a part of the Rebuild Together New Orleans program with NAHB following Hurricane Katrina, earning him the inaugural Building Industry Association’s TED Humanitarian Award.
In 2016, Gonzalez was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects. His Fellowship recognition acknowledges not only his individual architectural achievements but also his significant contributions to national architecture and society.
NUMEROUS GOLD NUGGET AND BEST OF 55+ AWARDS
With over 40 years in residential development practice, Gonzalez has received numerous other awards for his innovative designs, including Gold Nugget, Best in American Living and Pillars of Industry awards. He notably secured the LEED for Homes Multifamily Project of the Year Award for the Platinum Certified community of Primera Terra in Playa Vista, California. Gonzalez has earned 28 NAHB Best of 55+ Housing Gold Awards, totaling 44 overall, including four Innovation Awards. He received the NAHB’s inaugural “55+ Associate of the Year” at the 2016 International Builders’ Show (IBS). Gonzalez provided his design expertise for showcase homes at the 2019 IBS and 2016 Greenbuild Conference, pushing the boundaries of efficiency, sustainability, health and well-being.
Gonzalez recently served as vice chair of the Urban Land Institute Lifestyle Residential Development Council and as a member of NAHB’s Multifamily Leadership Board. He has authored and contributed to scores of articles on residential design and previously chaired the Editorial Advisory Board for 55+ Housing online magazine and served as editorial advisor to SGC Horizon's Multifamily Design+Construction (now Multifamily Pro+), Gonzalez has presented at national conferences as well as at the 1st International Housing Conference of the Americas in Mexico City. He was also invited to speak at the International Symposium of Design of Senior Living in Qingdao, China.
An eighth-generation native of Los Angeles, Gonzalez holds a BArch degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MArch from the University of Southern California.
About Lifestyle Design Consulting, LLC
Lifestyle Design Consulting, LLC offers conceptual design services to create innovative floor plans, site plans, and amenity centers. For more information, contact Manny Gonzalez, FAIA, at mannygonzalezfaia@gmail.com.
Related Stories
| Mar 22, 2011
Mayor Bloomberg unveils plans for New York City’s largest new affordable housing complex since the ’70s
Plans for Hunter’s Point South, the largest new affordable housing complex to be built in New York City since the 1970s, include new residences for 5,000 families, with more than 900 in this first phase. A development team consisting of Phipps Houses, Related Companies, and Monadnock Construction has been selected to build the residential portion of the first phase of the Queens waterfront complex, which includes two mixed-use buildings comprising more than 900 housing units and roughly 20,000 square feet of new retail space.
| Mar 17, 2011
Perkins Eastman launches The Green House prototype design package
Design and architecture firm Perkins Eastman is pleased to join The Green House project and NCB Capital Impact in announcing the launch of The Green House Prototype Design Package. The Prototype will help providers develop small home senior living communities with greater efficiency and cost savings—all to the standards of care developed by The Green House project.
| Mar 11, 2011
Renovation energizes retirement community in Massachusetts
The 12-year-old Edgewood Retirement Community in Andover, Mass., underwent a major 40,000-sf expansion and renovation that added 60 patient care beds in the long-term care unit, a new 17,000-sf, 40-bed cognitive impairment unit, and an 80-seat informal dining bistro.
| Mar 11, 2011
Mixed-income retirement community in Maryland based on holistic care
The Green House Residences at Stadium Place in Waverly, Md., is a five-story, 40,600-sf, mixed-income retirement community based on a holistic continuum of care concept developed by Dr. Bill Thomas. Each of the four residential floors houses a self-contained home for 12 residents that includes 12 bedrooms/baths organized around a common living/social area called the “hearth,” which includes a kitchen, living room with fireplace, and dining area.
| Mar 11, 2011
Texas A&M mixed-use community will focus on green living
HOK, Realty Appreciation, and Texas A&M University are working on the Urban Living Laboratory, a 1.2-million-sf mixed-use project owned by the university. The five-phase, live-work-play project will include offices, retail, multifamily apartments, and two hotels.
| Mar 1, 2011
How to make rentals more attractive as the American dream evolves, adapts
Roger K. Lewis, architect and professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Maryland, writes in the Washington Post about the rising market demand for rental housing and how Building Teams can make these properties a desirable choice for consumer, not just an economically prudent and necessary one.
| Feb 15, 2011
New Orleans' rebuilt public housing architecture gets mixed reviews
The architecture of New Orleans’ new public housing is awash with optimism about how urban-design will improve residents' lives—but the changes are based on the idealism of an earlier era that’s being erased and revised.
| Feb 11, 2011
Chicago high-rise mixes condos with classrooms for Art Institute students
The Legacy at Millennium Park is a 72-story, mixed-use complex that rises high above Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. The glass tower, designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz, is mostly residential, but also includes 41,000 sf of classroom space for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and another 7,400 sf of retail space. The building’s 355 one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom condominiums range from 875 sf to 9,300 sf, and there are seven levels of parking. Sky patios on the 15th, 42nd, and 60th floors give owners outdoor access and views of Lake Michigan.
| Feb 11, 2011
Sustainable community center to serve Angelinos in need
Harbor Interfaith Services, a nonprofit serving the homeless and working poor in the Harbor Area and South Bay communities of Los Angeles, engaged Withee Malcolm Architects to design a new 15,000-sf family resource center. The architects, who are working pro bono for the initial phase, created a family-centered design that consolidates all programs into a single building. The new three-story space will house a resource center, food pantry, nursery and pre-school, and administrative offices, plus indoor and outdoor play spaces and underground parking. The building’s scale and setbacks will help it blend with its residential neighbors, while its low-flow fixtures, low-VOC and recycled materials, and energy-efficient mechanical equipment and appliances will help it earn LEED certification.
| Feb 11, 2011
Apartment complex caters to University of Minnesota students
Twin Cities firm Elness Swenson Graham Architects designed the new Stadium Village Flats, in the University of Minnesota’s East Bank Campus, with students in mind. The $30 million, six-story residential/retail complex will include 120 furnished apartments with fitness rooms and lounges on each floor. More than 5,000 sf of first-floor retail space and two levels of below-ground parking will complete the complex. Opus AE Group Inc., based in Minneapolis, will provide structural engineering services.
