Richard Cuebas always loved to draw. But that love of sketching would often get him into trouble.
“My mother was a teacher, and she was checking my notebooks all the time, and she would get all mad when she would see I had more drawings in the back of my notebooks instead of notes in the front of it,” Cuebas said with a chuckle.
Cuebas, who grew up in Puerto Rico, eventually realized the time he spent reimagining the buildings he saw around the island, or daydreaming about redesigning his own home, could actually lead to a career.
“Somehow, I found out that architecture dealt with arts, design, drawing and creating new spaces,” Cuebas said.
Cuebas knew he wanted to bring that love of design to life on a grand scale.
“The hunger for getting to new challenges has always been there for me,” he said.
Cuebas left his island home and enrolled in school at Arizona State University, where he received his master’s degree in architecture.
When he returned to Puerto Rico, he joined an architecture firm, spending most of his days designing buildings that are part beauty, part function. On an island, Cuebas explained, the technical side of design is critically important so that buildings can resist the sun, harness natural ventilation, and withstand hurricane-force winds. It’s the sort of design that requires a smart engineer. Cuebas found that in his colleague, Carlos Báez.
“We decided, let’s do something big,” Cuebas recalls.
The two took a leap of faith, opening their own firm, Integra Design Group. For years, Cuebas, Báez, and their team designed office buildings, residential developments, and master-planned spaces across Puerto Rico. Their business grew over the years, and with more demand for their talent, Integra Design added dozens of employees and expanded their offerings.
“Our concept of being big and successful changes,” Cuebas said. “At the beginning, it was having 10 people; It was having two services: architecture and engineering. Now, we blow past those stages and goals. We keep upping the ante.”
Cuebas began looking for a new challenge– one that would allow Integra Design to design a new life for him and his family. He wanted to expand on the mainland.
He sought meetings with business leaders in multiple states and cities. But Charlotte’s charm was unmatched.
“When asking for business meetings with people I didn’t know, I would reach out to business people and they would open the door for me directly,” Cuebas said. “Contrary to other big cities that I visited, I very much rather go with the southern hospitality.”
Drawn to the Charlotte Region’s size and the ever-changing skyline, Cuebas knew there would be plenty of opportunity for his architecture firm to scale up.
“Our growth potential is aggressive,” Cuebas said.
Cuebas has plans to offer engineering services in his Charlotte office, complementing the services available in Puerto Rico. To grow and expand, he’ll need support and guidance.
“There’s a lot of metrics and standards and processes that we need to be implementing that we don’t know,” Cuebas said.
Eager to learn more about how to scale a business, Cuebas joined the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance® Scale Up CLT program in 2021.
Scale Up CLT is an initiative of the CLT Alliance Foundation that accelerates the growth of minority-owned businesses, in partnership with EO (Entrepreneurs Organization) and the City of Charlotte.
Through Scale Up CLT, Cuebas gains insight from industry experts and entrepreneurs. He’s also developed a network of like-minded business owners, looking to grow and scale their companies.
Cuebas credits the program for giving him a deeper understanding of how to grow quickly and smartly, while minimizing growing pains.
“This concept of scaling depends on how big your business is at different stages,” Cuebas said. “These scaling programs are super important in classifying everything. We are able to scale by having controlled metrics and adding layers of sound management.”
That growth has been both humbling and exciting for Cuebas, who often thinks back on how far he’s come.
“This all began as a couple of friends,” Cuebas reflected. “Now, we’ve expanded to 80 employees in Puerto Rico and Charlotte.”
More than 20 years later, Cuebas and Báez are still partners and still reimagining their world. Ask Cuebas where he wants to be in the future, and the architect will tell you, the sky’s the limit.
