Phillip Benitez Gallegos, Jr. is a licensed architect in Colorado and New Mexico. He practices architecture and urban design and has run a construction company. Gallegos attended the University of Notre Dame, where he earned a professional Bachelor of Architecture degree, and the University of Colorado, where he earned a Master of Architecture in Urban Design. At the University of Hawaii at Manoa, he earned an Architecture Doctorate and was designated a visiting scholar.

Gallegos retired with the rank of Associate Professor of Architecture, tenured, at the University of Colorado Denver. He is the author of the school’s Design Build Certificate program and served as study abroad coordinator to Central America, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Rome. He is also the founding Program Director for the BS Architecture program, which has seen substantial growth since launching in 2013. Gallegos has taught at the University of Hawaii and the University of New Mexico, where he served as the director of the Design Planning Assistance Center and a design build studio instructor.

His professional interests include building technologies, structural engineering for architects, and designing in stressed environments. His research interests are in open electronic platforms for online education and the Spanish influences and regulations in the built environment of the Southwest US and Central America. He has also contributed to a book publication, Enduring Legacies: Ethnic Histories and Cultures of Colorado, and has presented papers on design-build in Santiago, Chile, and Singapore.