As a newly elected Member at Large, Gary Maria Goldblum brings more than 30 years of experience in architecture to World Deaf Architecture. He has worked as an Architect, as a Concrete Field Testing Technician - Grade 1, and as a Class 1 Inspector for the California Division of the State Architect. Gary was Vice President of Construction for the Walt Disney Concert Hall and is an Associate Principal with HED in Los Angeles. Gary has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Architecture from SCI-Arc. He has published articles for This is Carpentry, The Construction Specifier, and Solar Today.

Gary has been in a wheelchair for ten years and the experience, which included being in an assisted living facility for six years, deepened his understanding of the spectrum of disability. It has helped him to see how the words of Cardinal Etchegary can apply to architecture: “The Church is asking you to be attentive to the weak and vulnerable, those in whom Jesus Christ rejoices because they see what has been hidden to the clever and the capable (cf Mt 11:25). Never forget this criteria, it is the most precious, the most certain, the most concrete criteria which will help you to recognize what Christ expects from you…The direction is clear: live poorly as Christ did, live with the poor in order to live with Christ. The renewal of the Church always comes as we dare to live a covenant with the poor.”

It is Gary’s conviction that the renewal of architecture, and of culture itself, will also come from being attentive to the weak and vulnerable, to the poor and excluded, to the elderly and disabled. And then, by that renewal, we can build a world for all people.

Gary draws inspiration from Karen Killilea who overcame Cerebral Palsy to live a full life, for in her we see that nothing is impossible with faith in God, and with faith in the Holy Mother God, as it is through the Blessed Virgin Mary that we receive all grace to overcome the world in Christ.