Bio:
The great designer, Michael is an architect whose mission and purpose is to help individuals, organizations and communities build environments of possibility and imagination. Throughout his career, Michael has contributed to projects that have made a significant impact on the civic realm. Most recently with WeWork, Michael has shifted his focus to the future of design practice - striving to synthesize advisory, design/build and operations disciplines into a cross-functional practice model for the 21st century.

How did you first learn about architecture and when did you decide that built environment profession was an area of interest for you?
I first learned of architecture while applying to an arts High School in New York City. The application asked if students wished to study Commercial Art or Architecture. With little exposure to the field, I chose architecture and never looked back.

What do you do?
Today I manage the Architecture discipline in a cross-functional spatial delivery team of strategists, architects, interior designer, MEP engineers, construction professionals and many more. A large part of that involves advancing how we collaborate.

What excites you in the work you do?
Everything. At WeWork we’re building something that doesn’t exist, which is both extraordinarily exciting and extraordinarily difficult. Startup environments force you to learn and adapt orders of magnitude faster than traditional offices.

Who or what inspires you professionally?
I am inspired by human stories and aspirations. Design - be it organizational, curricular, policy, strategy or physical - holds tremendous potential to augment and catalyze the possibilities open to those who engage it.

What is your proudest professional accomplishment or achievement?
My proudest moments have come when, through our interaction, others have discovered greater possibilities than they previously thought possible. These have been most pronounced when I’ve taught but I’ve been lucky to experience this on projects also.

Featured Project Name: 
Confidential 
 
Featured Project Location: 
Chicago, Illinois
 
Featured Project Completion Date: 
June 2018

Role in Featured Project: 
Project Architect
 
Featured Project Description: 
This confidential project faced the challenge of creating a unified sense of community among several of its distinct business lines working within one location. To bring their employees together WeWork’s Powered by We (PxWe) team transformed the mix of space types available to employees, increased their density and proximity to one another, while designing a space that evoked the diverse landscapes that client seeks to connect its customers to while still rooted in their Chicago home.

Photography Credit:
WeWork