Meet Anselmo Testa

What sparked your interest in pursuing a career in architecture?

When I was five years old growing up in South America one of my father’s good friends was an architect – he sent me on my way. He was the picture of an architect, extremely well dressed, smoked a pipe, drove a vintage convertible. You know, one of those guys! I looked up to him. I used to love going to his house and visiting his studio because he taught me to make little models and draw with a scale to get my brain working. He connected an intuition I must have had with the beginning of a skillset. He was a wonderful individual and a huge motivator for me.

Your leadership has led to multiple award-winning projects, what’s your method for leading these highly collaborative and client-focused teams? 

I’m a highly collaborative person by nature. Having a problem to solve and being able to lean in and solve it as a team is exciting; that’s where the magic is for me. I believe in the process, not necessarily the product. I have full confidence that at the end of the day we can make beautiful buildings, so I don’t worry about that. I worry about the process and getting the team engaged, to lean into the obstacle and develop ideas that will invariably lead to that solution. I don’t focus on the target; I focus on the doing. That’s a personal philosophy and has been successful for me for over 30 years of practice. 

What is the biggest challenge working within the Defense and National Security market? And what do you love about it?

The answer to both of those questions is the same. We often deal with challenging sites, schedules, and, most importantly, budgets. The challenge is giving the men and women of the armed forces what they need to do their jobs well. We also need to think about the future, how are they going to be doing their work in five to ten years from now. By focusing on creating the kind of spaces that generate pride of place, we can in turn make a place where people enjoy coming to work and enjoy what they do. So, the biggest challenge is carrying out these goals within the parameters we’re often given. At the end of the day, you have citizen soldiers, who don’t always have the best facilities to work in, and when they walk in and I get to see them smile, that’s what I love about it. 

If you weren’t in your current role, what would be your dream alternative career? 

My dream alternative career would be a full-time musician. I was in multiple bands from high school through graduate school. I was the frontman if you can imagine. We played mostly rock, with a brief shift into punk. When I look towards retirement, and what the future might look like, that’s one thing I’d go back to, getting a music degree and making music. 

When you aren’t working, what are we most likely to find you doing?

I spend a lot of time outdoors and hiking. I also do a lot of paddleboarding with my family. The workshops and design charrettes we do can be intense, and the depletion from that process requires regenerative times. Nature-bathing, I call it. 

What do you enjoy most about being part of #OurJacobs?

The people. We deliver work at an extremely high level of quality, and I love the fact that I can reach out to a network of professionals who help me do my job. I can always count on there being someone knowledgeable about something I need help with. I was working on a dive stations project, and with little effort, I found an Underwater Demolition Specialist, an ex-Navy Seal. What kind of company has these resources? Or you go to some remote site and realize that you’ve got two of the planet’s best specialists sitting next to you with their sleeves rolled up, drawing. The level of skill and knowing there’s someone somewhere within this organization that can support, give answers, and help me do what I do better; that’s excellent to me. Also, Jacobs genuinely cares about who we are. I’m particularly enamored with the direction we’ve taken with Inclusion & Diversity, that’s been important to me.