Maria McGann
architectural designer
Maria@SantulanArch.com
Maria grew up in Colorado’s front range. With aspirations of becoming an architect, she attended California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. At Cal Poly she earned a five-year Bachelor of Architecture and Environmental Design with a Minor in Italian studies that she received from a year of living, travelling, and studying in Florence, Italy. After graduating in her living room in a chaotic zoom graduation, she returned to Colorado to pursue her interests in high detail housing and residential design.
Maria’s design values include site specific designs with attention to the surrounding urban or rural fabric, an emphasis on materiality, and spatial tactics that promote wellness for the user and community. She brings experience in custom mountain homes, interior/exterior home renovations, commercial tenant finishes and high-end mixed-use housing. Santulan’s socially conscious methodology in designing housing is what drew her to her current position.
When she isn’t behind monitors designing or drawing, Maria is passionate about maintaining a wholesome and healthy lifestyle. Her interests range from paddle boarding, reading, cooking soup, hiking, golfing, brewing kombucha and catching up on Jeopardy episodes.
Get to know maria
Where did you grow up? Where did you go to school? Who is in your family? How does your background and life experiences impact your design process?
I grew up on the far west side of Denver in a suburb called Arvada (aka Farvada) then went to college at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California. I am grateful to have called such beautiful backdrops my home, and sometimes take for granted being a Colorado Native. Both sides of my family have lived in Colorado for generations, and both my grandmas grew up on ranches in Colorado. For generations, my family has had underlying values of sustainability and strong ties to the land in Colorado
What sparked your interest in Architecture? What is your first memory of being interested in architecture as a career? Who inspired you to pursue architecture as a career?
As a child, I would reimagine old cardboard boxes as rooms and houses for my toys. I specifically remember cutting up and hot gluing a plastic edamame container to add a greenhouse to one of the houses. Fast forward to high school when I had already applied for a high school internship at an architecture firm when my physics teacher asked me if I had considered architecture as a career. He had noticed my vector diagrams produced a low degree of error and this reinforced my confidence in wanting to pursue architecture.
What are your hobbies? What volunteering or passion projects do you do outside of work? What are your hobbies? What volunteering or passion projects do you do outside of work?
My hobbies range from cliché Colorado girl hobbies to more quirky hobbies. Cliché Colorado girl hobbies include paddle boarding, golfing, hiking, and skiing. My quirkier hobbies include brewing kombucha, thrift store shopping, flipping furniture, and occasionally playing a repertoire of few songs on the harmonica.
What is the most interesting place you have travelled to or would like to travel to? Why?
When I studied abroad in Italy my friends and I decided the Eurocentric trips weren’t giving us the culture shock we wanted, so we booked tickets to Marrakech, Morocco. It definitely was a challenge as we bartered for everything from souvenirs, car rides and even drinking water. I’ll never forget looking up at a tall argan oil tree and seeing it filled with goats who were staring right back at me.
What are your hidden talents? What is your superpower? What is an ability you wish you had?
I am passionate about matching moods, music and cover art to create playlists for myself and my loved ones. Additionally, I am ambidextrous in some sporty activities.