About  

Michael’s recent book, The Architecture of Health, traces the history of medical design and its attempt to align architecture with health outcomes. Michael’s recent work looks at the ownership of the built environment and how sharing access can solve the climate and social crises we face.

Michael is the current Thomas Ventulett Chair of Architecture at Georgia Tech, and serves on the board of MASS Design Group, which he co-founded and led until 2022; where he led the design of such projects as the Butaro District Hospital, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and the Embrace Memorial in Boston.

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Integral to MASS’s success was Michael’s decision to take full advantage of MASS’s nonprofit status to secure donations from like-minded philanthropists and using that support to help seed projects that might not have happened otherwise. Michael also placed a priority on important research projects, including those focused on the Public Monument, architecture’s role in Restorative Justice, and exploring the shrinking “Fringe” city in America, inspired by his hometown of Poughkeepsie, NY.

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During Michael’s tenure, MASS was the recipient of numerous awards, including the AIA Firm of the Year Award in 2022, Wall Street Journal Magazine’s Innovator of the Year for 2021, The American Arts and Letters Award, and the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award.

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Michael has been personally honored by the Royal Institute of British Architects as an International FRIBA and has held fellowships and advisory roles with the Emerson Collective, the Aspen Institute, The Santa Fe Art institute, and the Clinton Global Initiative. He has lectured around the world, advocating for a different approach to architecture, including as a keynote speaker for the 2017 AIA Annual Conference and the presenter of 2016 TED Talk “Architecture that Heals”, which has received over 1.8 million views to date.

Michael also authored the book “Architecture of Health” with Jeffrey Mansfield and MASS Design Group, which examines how our built world was shaped by disease and reveals how historical examples can offer us both caution and inspiration.

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Michael has a BA from University of Chicago, an M.Arch from Harvard graduate school of Design, and lives in Boston with his wife and two children.