Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
represent design solutions in a built environment. His work caught the
attention of other professionals and of private industry. “One thing led to
another,”Valle says. “How can I put it? Computers and I . . . I am able to
talk to them. I understand them. ...I took this technology, merged it so
that it got a lot of excitement . . . and there was a lot of pressure by private
industry to finance me and to come out and do something with it. Basi-
cally, I got together with two colleagues, and the next thing we knew, we
had $100,000 in our pockets and were off and running.A year later, we had
seventy people and five offices . . . doing work all over the world. . . .All this
computer simulation just really took off.”
Valle's original partners were two other UMSA graduates,Victor Dover
and Joe Kohl.Their company, Image Network, was based in Coral Cables,
Florida. Its mission was to bring the benefits and applications of image pro-
cessing to the constructed environment for the service of design profes-
sionals. By creating electronic simulations of development, Image Network
helped architects, builders, real estate developers, and city agencies see how
proposed changes in the built environment would look.The products they
created were important tools for presentation and decision making, and
Valle's chief responsibilities included publicizing their work and dealing
with clients, as well as research and implementation of new technologies.
Image Network was so successful that Valle soon found himself “sitting
in board meetings all the time, talking to investors. . . . It was too big an ani-
mal for us. Not something they necessarily prepare you for in school.”
Within 3 years,Valle and Dover were questioning their commitment to the
business. “We said we weren't sure we were enjoying ourselves,” Victor
recalls. Just at that time, Jaime Correa, an architect/planner on the UMSA
faculty, joined as a partner in the firm.Valle was enlivened by the connec-
tion with Correa, who also had worked with Andrés Duany. Correa became
something of a mentor, encouraging Valle and Dover to look at historical
models for communities and inspiring them to work along the lines of the
New Urbanism.
During that period,Valle also met a talented designer who was an under-
graduate at UMSA. Her name was Estela Lupe Garcia. Originally from
Cuba, she had come to Miami with her family in the Mariel boatlift of
1980. After earning her Bachelor of Architecture degree, she worked
for Duany and Plater-Zyberk at their firm DPZ.Valle found in her not only
an architect who shared his interests and vision but also a partner in life.
Married in 1989, they celebrated their wedding in one of Miami's beautiful
