I’m Drew Giovanni Solache.
You can call me Gio.

1990 / BEGINNINGS

It started with a drawing.

I was born in 1990 and am now based in Las Vegas. My first introduction to drafting came in a high school class. I still remember developing prints with the old blueprint machine: the paper, that strange chemical smell, and watching a drawing become something I could imagine walking through. The whole process hooked me.

That curiosity also took me into materials engineering studies at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. How is it made? Why that material? What holds it together? Those questions still follow me into every design.

2009–2014 / SERVICE

The Thundering Third.

From 2009 to 2014, I served in the U.S. Marine Corps infantry with 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, the Thundering Third. Deployments took me to Afghanistan, Yemen, other parts of the Middle East, and Guantánamo Bay. I learned to pay attention, adapt, and be someone the people beside me could count on.

I kept sketching. Our range cards turned the landscape into a drawing of landmarks, distances, and relationships that someone else could read. Alongside those practical sketches were little floor plans and ideas for my dream home. Even there, I was thinking about spaces I might one day create. Drawing was a way to understand where I was and imagine what could come next.

2015–2017 / HOSPITALITY

Understanding the experience.

As a host at Hyde Bellagio with SBE, I stepped into another kind of service. Listening closely, anticipating a need, and following through could change someone’s entire evening. I learned how much trust lives in the details, especially the ones a guest should never have to think about.

Hospitality also changed how I noticed a room: the arrival, the view, the way people gather, and where an experience feels effortless or awkward. I was learning about design through the people using it. That perspective still comes with me when I work on a space.

2017 / LUXGLOBAL

The real value was the people.

I founded LuxGlobal Concierge in 2017, turning my hospitality experience into something of my own. The most valuable thing I gained was the network: people from different industries, backgrounds, and ways of seeing the world. Every interaction taught me a little about someone else, what mattered to them, and how I could be useful.

There was a familiar satisfaction in continuing to serve, built gradually through trust and showing up for people. Many of those relationships are still growing today. Architecture and a wider creative skillset have opened new ways to collaborate with people I first met through LuxGlobal. Those connections have become part of the foundation for Ground Zero.

2024 / ARCHITECTURE

From ideas to practice.

I earned my Bachelor of Architecture at Academy of Art University in May 2024 and joined Steelman Partners, opens in a new tab in Las Vegas. The firm has an international presence in resort, casino, hospitality, and entertainment design, with Resorts World Las Vegas and Circa, opens in a new tab among its landmark projects.

As an architectural associate, I contribute to resort and casino work, lodge and cabin design, and smaller retail, entertainment, and commercial projects. My role spans early concepts and schematic studies, drawings and consultant coordination, and construction administration, including contractor questions, submittal reviews, and owner and contractor meetings.

Seeing an idea travel from a sketch to a construction conversation has made me a more grounded designer. I’m learning how to protect the intent while working through the details that make it buildable.

2026 / AI + DESIGN

More room to explore.

Graduate studies in AI integrated design and workflows at Academy of Art University are already changing how I develop ideas and organize my process. I use these tools to test spatial and material directions, work through visual iterations, clarify ideas, and move between architecture, objects, images, and music.

Shorter feedback loops mean I can explore more options, learn from them sooner, and carry more projects forward at the same time. I can take an idea further before deciding where to commit my time. The judgment stays with me: checking what is useful, recognizing what the tools have misunderstood, and turning an interesting result into a deliberate design decision.

NOW / GROUND ZERO

Everything comes with me.

Ground Zero is a starting point built from all of it: the curiosity of that first drafting class, the responsibility learned in service, the care for people sharpened in hospitality, and the relationships that grew through LuxGlobal. Architecture gives those instincts a physical language. AI gives me more room to test where they can go.

This is where I bring the people, skills, and ideas together through design, creative exploration, and practical AI workflows. A space, an object, a piece of music, or a better way to work can all begin here. The satisfaction is still familiar: understand someone, make something useful or meaningful, and keep building the relationship. Same curiosity. More ways to act on it.