Founding Principal

Irby grew up in Port Arthur, Texas – Janis Joplin’s hometown – the son of a Gulf Oil refinery employee and a mother who was one of the first female graduates of the University of Texas School of Law.  Weekends were frequently spent at the family farm in Coldspring, Texas, where he gained a healthy respect for the sanctity of the land and the power of nature.  Following in his mother’s footsteps he graduated from the University of Texas in architecture and fled his semi-rural heritage to live and work in New York and Philadelphia.  His love-of-nature past caught up with him in the earlier days of our firm when he signed on to be co-chair of the San Antonio River Oversight Committee along with Mayor Emeritus Lila Cockrell.  Well over a decade later their tireless work and endless persuasion and cunning have resulted in the expansion of the historic San Antonio River Walk both north and south for miles, changing the face of San Antonio forever.  Though he is expert in many areas of architecture and is part of the leadership of our multifamily group, Irby’s passion is urban design and he is a recognized community leader in that field, involved where he can be in helping shape the destiny of our city.