Chris Góngora, AIA

Chris Góngora is an architect and the founder of Stoop, an architecture practice based in Detroit. He has experience on a wide range of project types, from new single-family and multi-family residential, large-scale adaptive reuse, restaurants, and bars.

Born and raised in Miami to a Cuban-American family, Chris spent much of his adolescence on a bike, exploring the city’s natural beauty, diverse neighborhoods, and distinctive architecture. He earned his Master of Architecture degree from Florida International University, where reading about Detroit’s municipal bankruptcy sparked a curiosity about the Midwest’s Rust Belt cities, places that he thinks share Miami’s beauty, diversity, and character in a different way.

In 2017, Chris traded palm trees for Detroit, where he has since completed 25 projects within the city, each one strengthening the neighborhood around it.

Beyond the studio, Chris leads architecture bike tours of Detroit, serves on the board of Preservation Detroit, and advises small-scale, minority developers as an architectural advisor. At home, he is renovating his 110-year-old house in Boston Edison with his partner and their 18-year-old cat, his one project that will never be finished.