Michael Karr

AIA|Owner|Architect

After receiving his Master in Architecture from the University of Michigan in 2002, Michael worked for nearly ten years at Payette Associates, a Boston based design firm which is routinely ranked as one of the premier architectural design firms in the country. During this time his projects received numerous design awards from the American Institute of Architects and the Boston Society of Architects while also providing exposure to collaborations with Pritzker Prize winning architects, essentially the Nobel prize of architecture. Although, Michael returned to Northern Michigan in 2013 to raise his family the prior experience has permanently instilled the motivation to pursue architecture at the highest level of the profession. 


For the past eleven years Michael has collected hundreds of stones with his daughters on the shore of Little Traverse Bay. He has also designed dozens of residential,commercial and institutional projects throughout Northern Michigan. His passion is simple, honest, unapologetically modern, architecture. Architecture which rejects trends, doesn't chase fads, and doesn't care what is currently in vogue. Architecture which aspires to permanence. 


When not working or hunting for that elusive Petoskey stone with his girls Michael can be found on the slopes of Nubs Nob, snowshoeing thru Bay View, hiking the North Country trail, roasting s'mores beside a bonfire in the Upper Peninsula or seated with 110,000 of his closest friends in the Big House. 


Education and Professional Organizations:

University of Michigan, Master of Architecture, 2002

Lawrence Technological University, Bachelor of Science Architecture, 1999

Licensed Architect in the State of Michigan

Member of the American Institute of Architects

NCARB Certified 

United States Green Building Council LEED AP