Benjamin Wey’s Biography
Born on January 4, 1967 to Mexican and Chinese-American parents, Benjamin Wey began exhibiting an affinity for building and construction at a very young age. He possessed both very strong mathematic skills and a creative mind, and he spent most of his childhood playing in the dirt, building elaborate earthen structures for his cars and trucks. When he was 11 years old, he got his first real taste of construction walking by a building site every day on his way to junior high. As he watched the building’s daily progress, he developed a lifelong interest in architecture and love for design that spilt over even into his hobbies and future career. He began small, drawing simple structures and later drafting his own designs and blueprints. When he was old enough, Benjamin Wey applied for several apprenticeships at local construction companies, using his high school’s career center as a resource for job listings. He worked after school and fulltime during the summers, gaining invaluable real-world experience and earning money to help pay for his college education.
Unlike most of his peers, Benjamin Wey knew instinctively what he wanted his major to be, and in his junior year, he began applying to various colleges and was accepted to a number of schools’ civil engineering and architecture departments. In 1984, he graduated from high school with honors, and eventually decided against leaving his native state, in favor of joining the student body of a front running California University. Always a hard worker, Benjamin Wey spent his time outside of the classroom garnering more experience as the supervisor of a small construction company. In 1988, he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering, and after carefully considering whether to begin his career or continue his education, Benjamin Wey chose the latter and applied to his University’s graduate program. While studying for his Master’s degree in Architecture, he became a construction foreman for a large firm, and three years later, he graduated with his second degree.
Following his graduation from college, Benjamin Wey took a variety of different positions, from construction consulting to designing, always accepting each job with the intention of learning as much as he possibly could in preparation for the day he would run his own construction consulting firm. Through his first few post-graduate jobs, he was able to familiarize himself with several forms of commercial and residential planning, zoning, and constructing in California and other parts of the country. He spent over a decade sampling different careers, during which time he took a high profile job at a San Francisco Bay Area architecture firm. His work there often took him all over the country, but most frequently to the company’s Los Angeles office, where he handled complex design issues. On one particular trip, Benjamin Wey crossed paths with his future father-in-law who was so impressed with Wey’s versatility, aptitude for civil engineering, and extensive resume he offered him a job on the spot.
In 2002, Benjamin Wey made the move to Los Angeles and joined his eventual father-in-law’s company Donofrio Construction as a Construction Foreman. Soon after, Wey met and married his wife, Lorraine, an aspiring architect and a modern art lover, like himself. For the next few years, he remained at the construction company, until he was mentally and financially prepared for breaking away from the security of a corporation and forming his own construction consultancy. In 2005, he moved his growing family up North to the Bay Area and became the proud owner of A1 Construction Consulting. In addition to running the company, Benjamin Wey currently acts as the firm’s principal consultant and chief architect. Over the past three years, the firm has continued to grow, taking up increasingly larger shares of the Bay Area’s construction business. In the future, Benjamin Wey hopes to increase the company’s burgeoning sphere of influence to include other parts of the state and the US.
Beyond being a consultant and architect, Benjamin Wey is a modern art supporter, a wine enthusiast, occasional golfer, constant traveler, structure admirer, and the proud father of three children: Charlotte, Daniel, and Annie. Although still young, his children are already very interested in games, and he sets aside time from work every weekend to play video and board games with his children. In addition, he and his wife are very active members in their community and donate a significant portion of their time and assets to furthering nonprofit art and educational programs in the Bay Area. As a family, the Weys also enjoy attending a variety of arts and cultural events, but Benjamin Wey also makes it a point to spend some time alone on the golf course every month; as he says, “It helps me to clear my head and be able to focus, so I can return to the drawing table with a fresh perspective.” As one of California’s most exceptional and assiduous construction consultants, Benjamin Wey deserves as much rest and relaxation as he can get.