Biography

Carlos A. Menéndez is a production designer and licensed architect. He was born in Havana, Cuba, and emigrated to the United States in 1968. Carlos received a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied high-rise building design with Natalie de Blois, renowned architect of the Pepsi Cola Headquarters and the Lever House in New York City. While at UT, Carlos studied British urban, interior, and landscape design in Oxford, England, and site design with world-renowned post-modernist Charles Moore. Upon graduation, Carlos joined the New York architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, working as an architect on high-rise commercial buildings such as ABC Phase III Corporate Headquarters, the Rizzoli Tower, Mellon Bank Tower, Philadelphia, and IBM corporate headquarters in Montreal, Canada. Inspired by the filmmaking process and employing architecture as an aesthetic foundation, Mr. Menendez began designing film sets in the early 1990s for Dick Wolf's television series South Beach (1992). Since then, he has worked as a production designer on Breed of Greed (2024), Law & Order: Organized Crime (2021-24), The Equalizer (2020), Emergence (2019), NYPD Blue (2019), Asher (2018), Dietland (2018), The Breaks (2017), Madoff (2016), South of Hell (2015), Rob the Mob (2014), Step Up Revolution 3D (2012), Love Wedding Marriage (2011) and Stopping Power (2007) as well as art director and set designer on The Dictator (2012), Larry Crowne (2011), Miami Vice (2006), The Lost City (2005), Any Given Sunday (1999), Analyze This (1999), The Horse Whisperer (1998), Wild Things (1998), Speed 2 (1997), Ransom (1996), and Bad Boys (1995). In addition to his work on feature films, Carlos has designed numerous award-winning commercials in South America, Europe, and Southeast Asia. He received three nominations from the Art Directors Guild for excellence in production design for Capital One What's in Your Wallet and Macy's Christmas campaign. In 2012, Carlos' set design for Step Up Revolution was featured on the cover of Perspective magazine, where he is a frequent contributor. In 2014, Carlos began collaborating with Pinewood Studios, UK, and Entrenamientos Cinematográficos del Caribe to teach art direction in the Dominican Republic and has given a Master Class in production design at The University of Texas at Austin School of Radio Television and Film.
- IMDb mini biography by: AB