Fadi S. Garcia, a Cuban American national with a Middle Eastern background and Jessica Shell, a Florida native, met in 2014. At the time, both working for reputable companies in the Tampa Bay area quickly bonded over art, their ideals of the built environment, and their passion for contemporary regional architecture.

In 2015 Fadi founded a design-build practice mainly focused on light commercial and residential projects, the firm quickly grew and in 2017 Jessica and Fadi joined forces to create Open Workshop for Architecture (OWA). Today OWA is a husband and wife led, full-service Architecture and Interior Design firm offering professional design services for a diverse range of project types and clients.

Their partnership was a natural evolution of what began as a collaboration between the two architects to complete their first large scale project in 2016.