Firm Profile

CASISON N SANTIAGO INC., whose proponents are two designers with over 35 years of combined experience. Both are products of the Asian Development Bank Headquarters (ADB) project in Metro-Manila, Philippines, among others they were nurtured and became close associates of Medi Nasrabadi and Craig Kronenberg of Skidmore Owings & Merill (SOM). After ADB, they undertook high profile projects working together closely with colleagues and peers, addressing the needs of different clients, whom are mostly property developers, a task requiring special design skills. Later on, both decided to go on his own way. But once again, heeding a gaining clamor to assemble the combined strenth of their experiences in different fields of practice, they finally decided to come together by putting up this vibrant company, now most popularly know as CNSI. With new design associates to back-up every endeavor this duo would re-create, it is definite that this architectural design concern is envisioned to exude sophisticated and high-quality design ideas with executions paramount to its primary goal - achieve excellence.

LEO C. CASISON is the founding director of Interior Exterior Design Consultancy (IEDC) and founding member of Pimentel Rodriguez Simbulan and Partners (PRSP). He worked in association with Skidmore Owings & Merill (SOM) for over seven years. Aside from SOM, he had worked in collaboration with a number of foreign-based Architectural firms i.e. Architecture International (AI), HHCP, 3DI and other Asian- based design firms. He started his career in 1981 with E.L.Mariano and Associater (ELMA).

LUIS P. SANTIAGO is the sole owner and CEO of TWLS Consultancy and Design Services, a firm put up to mainly cater to defects rectification or rehabilitation of aging or problematic building structures. After he had worked for the famous Dutch construction Company, Ballast Nedam Groep as an architectural quality-control inspector, he went on to be commissioned as an Architectural Clerk-of-Works under the stewardship of Kinhill-Mclachlan Joint Venture Group, an Australian construction project management team tasked in the construction of the new Asian Development Headquarters in Manila. In 1994, he was recruited to join the firm, Pimentel Rodriguez Simbulan and Partners (PRSP) as a field architect on a contractual assignment. He eventually rose to the status of Associate and later, as an Associate Partner, Medi Nasrabadi of SOM played a huge role in molding the way Luis would think and act in dealing with project crisis and design peculiarities alleviating structural, mechanical and aesthetic difficulties. Resultant Immediate resolutions offered or proposed were borne from international work experiences.

Both Leo and Luis have had a huge understanding of required design parameters as basis for ideal mix-use projects. International and local building codes have been thoroughly reviewed and evaluated to allow the clients to maximize the use of the lot limitations, economical material and labor cost saving advantages and also to forecast and make use to the client's benefit, the future developments of adjacent premises.

Mission Statement

CASISON N SANTIAGO INC. is a strong service-oriented firm that strives its best to give new dimensions to its personal commitment as attuned to the client's requirement. As mentioned before, the ultimate and primary goal is to achieve excellence through trustworthy service and a sustained high-confidence level felt by the client. This is made possible by firstly, effectively preparing the medium of communication as in sketches, diagrams and ultimately, models. Surely, project models convey excitement to the prospective developer or end user, bridging the gap between the non technical and the technical individuals. This common language is put to good use, making everyone understand of the architect's design intent, the funcionality of the given spaces, the pros and cons of the size of the structure, and the impact of the aesthetic facades to the adjacent skyline and natural environment. To solidify the understanding of both designer and client, we eventually endeavor to produce clear drawings in deifferent stages of the schematic, design development and finally, the construction documentation in CADD.

We constantly work with other important designers in the industry as well. Though the project may appear simple, in all phases of the design development, it is S.O.P. that we work in corroboration with mechanical, electrical, sanitary, structural engineers, lighting and landscape designers/consultants. As the saying goes, "no stone is left unturned." Every aspect of the design is scrutinized, modified, dressed down or worse, deleted should the initial findings translates to inefficiency, dysfunctional and being inappropriate. The length of actual manhour time consumed in the project is deemed irrelevant as long as the end result are the best design schemes hte firm, CNSI can offer to the client.

Stepping further, we offer our professional services by way of involving ourselves in the construction phase of the project. Should the client venture into further value-engineering processes, CNSI is more than willing and is qualified to assist in the progressive evaluation of the ever-continuing construction modifications.