Architecture begins before there is a building. It starts in the uncertainty — with raw land, undefined possibilities, and the challenge of imagining what could exist there. That early stage of exploration is where Michael thrives.

With work is rooted in large-scale planning and development, Michael’s focus is on hospitality, resort, and mixed-use environments where the program itself is often still being invented. Rather than designing toward a fixed brief, he is most energized by helping shape the brief -- building strategy, defining amenities, and establishing the larger logic that gives a place its identity. From golf courses and marinas to clubs, residences, and hotels, he sees architecture as part of a larger ecosystem.

What unites Michael’s work is a search for authenticity: how does one create something that feels true to its place? Michael is drawn to architecture that creates immersive, elemental experiences. He often compares great design to the wind: you may not always see it directly, but you feel its presence. That sensibility informs his exploration of both noble and unexpected materials, and the ways they shape atmosphere and memory.

Much of that perspective traces back to his upbringing in Miami, where he spent much of his childhood on the water, even living aboard a sailboat his father built, traveling for several years through islands and remote coastlines. By eleven, Michael was scuba certified, already experiencing the mangroves, reefs, cliffs, jungles in ways that taught him how profoundly place can affect human experience.