Rooted in Southern California since 1967.
What began in 1967 has only grown deeper. Amato Teta established his San Diego practice with a singular focus on thoughtful residential design, building a foundation shaped by longevity, regional understanding, and a deep commitment to craft. In 2006 his son Allan joined him, and in 2014 TRE Architecture was established, carrying that legacy forward across Southern California.
TRE
TRE, the Italian word for three, reflects the founder's heritage and a central idea in architecture. Informed by Vitruvius' timeless principles of utilitas, firmitas, and venustas, the practice is built on three qualities: Enduring, Refined, and Distinctive.
Not as aspirations, but as the standard against which every decision is made.
Enduring
Purpose expressed through structure and proportion.
Refined
The quality that honors material and elevates space.
Distinctive
Design shaped by place, culture, and the lives within it.
Nearly six decades of continuous practice has built deep familiarity with local jurisdictions, coastal agencies, and design review bodies, expertise that carries every project from first submission through final approval.
TRE Architecture has been published in the San Diego Union-Tribune, named among the best residential architects in San Diego, and has received the Best of Houzz award across multiple years. TRE is among a select group of firms referred by the Rancho Santa Fe Association and the Santaluz Design Review Committee.
Distinctions earned through client relationships, not self-promotion.
Earned, Not Pursued
The Team
The TRE team is small by intention. What each person brings, technical fluency, regional knowledge, a genuine care for the work, reflects a shared belief that good architecture comes from people who are invested in it. That investment shows in every project they touch.
Amato Teta
Amato established the practice in 1967 with a simple idea: that a building should feel like it belongs exactly where it stands. A general contractor as well as an architect, he spent decades applying that standard across homes, commercial, and institutional projects throughout Southern California. Along the way he passed something harder to teach than architecture, a genuine care for the people on the other side of every drawing. Allan was paying attention.
Allan Teta
Allan grew up on job sites before he grew up in studios. After earning his degree from the University of Southern California, he spent over thirty years working across every phase of the practice, developing a fluency in design, construction, and the details that make the difference between a good building and an enduring one. In 2006 he joined his father, and together they built something neither could have shaped alone.
Alyssa Apodaca
Alyssa grew up in Oceanside, not far from the communities TRE has spent decades shaping. In two years with the firm she has become the operational backbone of the practice, the person who makes sure the experience of working with TRE matches the quality of the work itself. Clients rarely see what she does. They feel it.
Ricardo Dengel Mestres
Ricardo grew up between countries and cultures, a background that shaped both his eye and his precision. In nearly five years with TRE he has become an indispensable voice in the design process, bringing the technical mastery that turns a great design into a permitted reality.
Shaya Barzilai
Shaped by a life of movement across cultures, Shaya came to TRE with three years of experience in architecture and interiors and a belief that the spaces we inhabit shape the lives we live within them. That conviction drew her to the firm from the start, and runs through everything she brings to design and detail documentation.
In Their Words