UNM architecture professor Efthimios Maniatis runs his own architecture studio in a converted garage in his home in the Ridgecrest neighborhood south of UNM. Although he isn’t a licensed architect, he is preparing to supervise construction of a multi-million dollar project in the Bahamas, which he designed.

Maniatis was born in Athens, Greece and moved to the United States in 1975 to study in New York City. He began as an engineering student but changed to architecture after one year of study.

“I believed at the time that to be an architect you had to have wealthy family and friends,” he said. “After that I was told, ‘That’s not true.’”

After visiting his sister in Santa Fe, 16 years ago Maniatis decided to move to New Mexico.

“I fell in love with the place, and it reminded me of Greece,” he said. “Somehow, it feels like being back home.”

After working for five years with Lloyd and Tryk Architects, designing hotels and spas in and around Santa Fe, Maniatis opened his own studio. His heritage and experience with resort design were the reasons he was chosen to design the Bahamas project.

This private luxury villa, which will be built in the Exuma Cays, a group of islands in the Bahamas, has an unlimited budget and is the largest project his studio has produced.

Although unable to name his clients, Maniatis said they intend to rent the property to guests who work in entertainment and media.
“They’re expecting people like movie-makers and TV producers,” he said “They will go there and rent it for a week or a month to produce, to create, to inspire, to be inspired.”

The plans were designed with these occupants in mind, Maniatis said.

“I’m hoping when somebody goes to this villa, the architecture is designed in such a way that you feel inspired and spiritually touched,” he said. “I’m hoping for a spiritual experience. The result of that is exuberance in the mind to create.”

Maniatis, who teaches Introduction to Architecture at UNM, said his designs are enriched by his experiences as an educator.

“My teaching helps me to learn and understand architecture,” he said. “Then I take my experiences from my practice and take them to teaching, and it makes me a better teacher … one feeds the other; if I stopped teaching, my work would be stagnated.”