Cruz obtained a Master in Design Studies at Harvard University in 1997 and established his research-based architecture practice in San Diego, California in 2000. He has been recognized internationally for his urban research of the Tijuana-San Diego border. Cruz has been recognized in collaboration with community-based nonprofit organizations such as Casa Familiar for its work on housing and its relationship to an urban policy more inclusive of social and cultural programs for the city.

In 1991, he received the prestigious Rome Prize in Architecture and in 2005 he was the first recipient of the James Stirling Memorial Lecture On The City Prize. His work has been profiled in important publications including The New York Times, Domus and Harvard Design Magazine. In 2008, he represented the US in the Venice Architecture Biennial and this year his work will be included in Small Scale, Big Change exhibition at MoMA. He is currently a professor in public culture and urbanism in the Visual Arts Department at University of California, San Diego, where he co-founded CUE / Center for Urban Ecologies.

In this 2011 interview originally published in Triple Canopy, artists and writer Caleb Waldorf speaks to Cruz about his research of the Tijuana-San Diego border and his interest in how informal economic and urban structures can speak to a new form of urban planning.