Sponsored: Cadillac Shaping: Houston - Julio del Carpio

Somehow, when I go to bed, I don't go to sleep, I go to dream. Because in the morning, I have a new idea. Retirement is not exactly part of my future. I have so much work doing right now. My main interest, my dream, is building the replica of the first capital of Texas. My name is Julio del Carpio. I'm an architect and developer from Houston, Texas. I'm originally from Bolivia. The name of my hometown is Tarija. And I came to the States back in 1964. I got a scholarship to go to Williams College, a small Ivy League college in Massachusetts. I like painting a lot. And then I got involved in architecture after seeing the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. I got my master's degree in architecture from Texas A&M. But I still like everything related to fine arts. After college, my family and I moved to Dallas. I was working directly for the people in Saudi Arabia. Years later, we saw the potential of moving to the architectural headquarters in Houston. So I managed to move here. For about 10 years, I lived in the Memorial area. Then I was invited to do work here in the East End by the Laredo National Bank and also by Mr. Dick Atkins of Tlaquepaque. So when I moved here, I met my wife. And we had a wonderful time doing a lot of rehab work here in the East End. Later on, I found out that the first capital of Texas was in this town, in Harrisburg. We decided to do something with this area. The first part of the development was to create the entertainment part, and then later on to do a replica of the first capital of Texas. From here, they directed the independence of Texas. It's a beautiful cabin that used to be owned by John Harris. From that cabin, the first government of Texas directed the war that went from Texas all the way to California to Las Vegas, Nevada. But this is bigger than the Alamo. It's something unusual, something nice. Old Town Harrisburg, it's a unique plaza. We have lots of people coming to the Alley of the Kiss. That goes together with the coffee shop, the pizza place. We have a small church in the back. We have shops. We have Frida's House, which is a small museum, and we're still expanding this area. This is Las Dos Fridas. This is one of the most famous paintings that Frida did. We got a direct connection between here and downtown, so that's gonna be fantastic for us because we will get millions of tourists to come to this area. This is a charming place. We have people from all over the world to come and see what we have in here. Harrisburg is such a unique place. I've been in the East End since about 2005. I don't want this dream to go away. I got some critics, but most of the time, it's people that are really positive about the projects. It's a success because the people keep coming back, and they tell other people to make sure to come all the way from Haiti or Dallas to see this place. So I'm very grateful to the community for their support. At one time, I was all like a stranger coming from another location, but I was accepted by all the groups, by all the people, and that's why I made Harrisburg my home.