Team

Jeff Zook has over 25 years of experience providing well-planned, well-designed and cost efficient facilities. Jeff possesses a strong knowledge of architectural programming with a specialty in understanding the needs of the users and how they will interact with the facility. Jeff will be the principal architect in charge of the design and production team for your project.

He will be responsible for coordinating the various architectural team members and engineering consultants to generate a cost effective solution for your complex project. His design experience includes a variety of projects including high-density residential, commercial, industrial, hospitality, and governmental buildings. His wide array of project experience allows him to pull together various elements from other project types and apply them to this project.

His technical expertise allows for extremely detailed and thoughtful work products which minimize construction RFI and change orders.

Prior to establishing himself in Ventura County, Mike’s education and training led him to study in colleges such as the University of Notre Dame in Rome, Italy, and SCI-Arc’s Design Institute in Lugano, Switzerland. With this background, Mike’s design, master planning, and marketing talents have been utilized on varied projects nationwide and with other firms for the past 42 years.

Mr. Sanchez offers a broad range of expertise ranging from the preparation of initial programming and design concepts to project team management and client services. He has a great appreciation for the people he collaborates with, whether it be our staff, consulting team members, or the education and civic leaders we serve. His diversified commercial project experience includes industrial facilities, commercial centers, medical facilities, and religious facilities. His background includes large-scale master-plan projects throughout California, Florida, Tennessee, New Jersey, and New Mexico. His projects have even been recognized and blessed by the Pope in Rome. His design capabilities have allowed projects to be selected in numerous architecture/design service competitions.

Many of the designs have won local city and national achievement awards of excellence for housing and community development. These and other designs have also been published in many magazines and books. He has sat with the Design Advisory Board and has served as a Chairman of the Planning Commission for the city of Oxnard.

Spencer was born in Ventura and has over 7 years of professional experience.   He studied at the Newschool of Architecture in San Diego before returning home to begin his career.  Spencer joined Coastal Architects in 2017 and has hands-on experience in a wide variety of projects ranging from commercial tenant improvements to multifamily mixed-use developments and seemingly everything in between.

Growing up, Spencer was described as more of a right-brained thinker.  He would score average in math but was always excelling in drawing and art.  His father, with a background in Engineering, ran a local office providing MEP design services.  Spencer started working summer vacations with the engineers while learning CAD drafting and business practices.  In hindsight, this was a great opportunity, but at heart, Spencer never felt he was meant to be an engineer.  Art was always on his mind, and this led into music and writing as Spencer grew older.  It’s no surprise that Architecture seemed like the right path in contrast to following in his father’s footsteps when it came time for college.  

Architectural School for anyone who’s been there, knows that public speaking and presentations are a central part of it.  The initial intent to express creativity became a daunting task, demanding long speeches, justifying design decisions, and enduring constructive criticism from peers.  Spencer will now admit that he values this time in a way he couldn’t otherwise have known.

Coastal Architects has become an invaluable vehicle for him to put it all together.  Drafting alone is such a small part of it and Spencer now seeks to see a project through from conception to completion.  In a single position, he can explore writing proposals for new projects, establishing relationships with clients and public agencies, early planning to logistical constructability, and comparing various areas of engineering with desired aesthetics.  Also, looking out at the sunset every night from Coastal’s new beach office isn’t so bad either.

At the end of the day Spencer returns home to his wife and their two enormous cats.  He still writes often and plays music whenever the inspiration beckons.  In a sense, all the little moving pieces never really went away but rather evolved into something much more profound.