Alicia Ponce

Alicia Ponce is the founder and principal of APMonarch, a Chicago based Female and Latinx owned Architecture firm. Since founding the firm in 2007, Alicia’s expertise and passion to design healthy buildings and equitable communities have supported many clients in designing radically healthier projects. Her reputation for resilient and eco-conscious architecture secured APMonarch’s role as the Sustainability Architect and direct protégé to Santiago Calatrava and his firm’s design proposal for the 2019 O’Hare International Airport Global Terminal. The international competition drew 1,200 teams and five were selected for the final presentation. The firms project portfolio includes a master plan for the Field Museum, a carbon neutral youth center in Mexico, and a Living Building Challenge project in the Back of the Yards neighborhood. Alicia considers APMonarch the pollinators of the built environment designing healthy environments that look good, feel good and perform great.

Currently, Alicia is working on the Cicero Corridor Study and the LeClaire Development located directly east of the Academy for Global Citizenship’s new community learning and sustainability hub where Alicia plans to implement sustainable and walkable community design strategies.

Alicia is proud to be among the <1% of licensed Latina architects in the U.S. and is registered in Illinois and Wisconsin. Alicia is a contributing author of Today’s Inspired Latina Vol. VI Europe Edition. In the book, she writes about her purposeful journey to architecture, entrepreneurship, and connection with nature.