Michael serves as the firm’s Director of Architectural Design for the Educational Studio and brings more than 30 years of experience to the practice. His belief that collaboration creates great architecture embraces information as a force which makes a valuable contribution to design. In adopting an evidence-based approach, he seeks to free his team’s architectural imagination from habitual thinking and standard typologies so they may deal with the evolving challenges of contemporary student life.
His breadth of knowledge, project leadership and passion for the craft has propelled educational design forward for nearly three decades now. His portfolio, which is widely recognizable across the state, includes award-winning projects such as the new Palm Beach State College Dental and Medical Services Technology Building on the Loxahatchee campus, the University of Central Florida’s Student Union, campus defining buildings at Gulliver Prep, the Center for Innovation at the Bolles School, New High Schools for Collier and Orange County School Districts, Canoe Creek E-STEM K8 (one of Florida’s first Net Zero Ready schools), and many other public schools and master plans, as well as school designs for the Department of Defense Educational Activities (DoDEA) stateside and abroad.
Michael joined Zyscovich in 1999 and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Architecture from Tulane University. Having designed more than 500 educational facilities, he has developed an extensive expertise in the special requirements, design, and programming of progressive learning environments from K-12 to higher education. He is passionate about reversing years of environmental damage, believing architects, school districts and faculty members, engineers and construction firms have a fundamental role to play in responding to the challenges of a warming planet. He designs educational facilities that are sustainable, energy efficient, durable, resilient, and healthy places to live and work because his philosophy is grounded in the idea of contextually appropriate architecture. For him, sustainable design is a pragmatic, holistic approach to design and architecture which should address environmental, economic, and social concerns within an integrated framework.