Bob Condia teaches architecture as an art form with due consideration to the real; construction; neuroscience; perception; and poetics. A professor at Kansas State University he has earned the Commerce Bank Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award, his university’s Professorial Performance Award, the College of Architecture, Planning and Design’s Wayne McElwee Faculty Teaching Award, the department of architecture’s Victor L. Regnier Distinguished Faculty Chair, was named by DesignIntelligence as one of the nation’s Most Admired Educator’s, and was elevated to AIA’s College of Fellows.
Bob believes in drawing by hand, that analog illustrations are the hand-eye collaboration of thinking, the possibility of architecture as palpable spaces, and the unlimited potential of students. He earned his master’s degree in Architecture and Building Design at Columbia University and a Bachelor of Architecture at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Bob’s watercolors are imaginative, surreal, and vibrant. His use of watercolors, graphite, ink, wine and coffee challenge our sensibilities. We all knew Bob was certifiable, but he proved it by becoming a Certified Fly Casting Instructor in the Federation of Fly Fishers.
Wendy Ornelas is an architecture professor and former associate dean, who teaches studio, and professional practice-type courses in the College of Architecture, Planning & Design at Kansas State University. In 2005 Wendy was elevated to AIA’s College of Fellows. She is the first and only female and Latino Fellow in the state of Kansas. Wendy earned a Bachelor of Science in architecture from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and her master’s from Oklahoma State University.
Wendy has served the American Institute of Architects as the Central States Regional Director; liaison to the Young Architect’s Forum; and was co-chair of AIA National’s Diversity and Inclusion Council. She has also been active with the National Architectural Accrediting Board serving as its president; was the West Central Regional Director for the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA); and she was named a distinguished professor of ACSA. Wendy was designated as a Scholar of Professional Practice by the National Council of Architectural Registrations Boards and is currently one of three architecture representatives on the Kansas State Board of Technical Professions.
Condia + Ornelas Architects was begun in 1985 by Bob Condia and Wendy Ornelas in San Diego, California. Both are licensed in California and in Kansas. The firm specializes in intimately articulated experiences and material interventions rather than a building type. Their thoughtful work has been written about and exhibited across the country. The firm has won professional and academic design awards for their built works such as Coco Bolo’s, Gaia Hair Salon, Mercado, and Thomas Joseph Hair Studio One as well as unbuilt projects such as Stormwatch One, Fault Finder No. 52: A Monument in a Plaza, Memorial to Six Million Heroes, and A Living Memorial for Little Bighorn Battlefield. Condia + Ornelas Architects now finds themselves doing both built and interior works, as well as competitions and theoretical projects in Manhattan, Kansas.