History:

In 2002 Renato Santizo was approached by a dentist who was seeking assistance in designing his residence. Renato had been recently laid off from an architectural firm during a downturn, and without any work leads he accepted the dentist's challenge. In a modest setting, and with not more than old fashion drafting utensils, he immediately began assembling the design.

The positive experience of this first collaboration and his entrepreneurial spirit led to the idea of a small business plan, however short in capital word of mouth made little go a long way to promote the new venture. In a few months there had been a jumpstart.

We specialize in New construction, interiors, space planning, landscapes, preservation and GREEN building.

We started 10 years ago with a Residential Historic Preservation project in Ojai Callifornia, which laid the ground for additional assignments of this type in 05 and 06. During the years of the housing boom our list of open projects swelled to 27 in one year. Many clients were homeowners putting their equity into new construction and improvements, investors adding retail, offices, and few entreprenuers starting new ventures such as restaurants and mini-strip malls. With such variety of commissions we got what was needed to secure our footing . 

The end of the boom brought unesxpected challenges, and prompted us to reinvent ourselves, going wholeheartedly into energy efficiency and sustainable alternatives. We re-structered our base, strategized ways to do with less, and ventured into hands on work. Stayed busy doing few pro-bono work and gaining new friends. Today we have adjusted our margins, have remained competiitive, and use the industry's latest cutting edge software to customize your work.

In 2004-2005 he got involved in forums of project analysis participating in the Community Development for the City of Ventura West Side.

In 2006 Renato completed additional Historic Preservation work and attended seminars about conservation of Natural Resources. His long preservationist ideas and sustainable building practices helped him to embrace the GREEN movement and adopt it as a new guide for the company.

RGS Design became member of The US Green Building Council; the organization who certifies engineers, architects, designers and all who promote the Green movement with LEED Certification.

2010 & 2011 were decisively challenging, however RGS made it through the loop, using time to "reduce expenses, adding resources, reaching out to expand its network, making adjustment for a successful business, and doing pro bono work".

2012 has marked the end of an era and the begining of another. RGS Design Studio, Inc. is 10 years old. With a new office in downtown a jolt of new life has been injected. Optimism is high and the flow of projects in each of the three specialties has been steady so far; one architectural, one interior, and two landscapes. We are cautiously energized while history continues.

RGS proudly continues its journey, staying engaged promoting and advocating sustainable design and well being of building occupants. With the introduction of LEED 2012 we'll be aquiring additonal knowledge and implementing it into the office practice.

Member of THE NATIONALTRUST FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION