Thursday, April 24, 2008

Denver Architecture Firm of the Week 4/24/08
Michael Tavel Architects

Image Credit:Mark Sink Project: Solar Village Prospect

From their website: Michael Tavel is a fourth generation Coloradoan. He studied fine arts and structural engineering as an undergraduate and interned as an architect in New York City before receiving a masters degree in Architecture from the University of California at Berkeley in 1989. He won the top prizes in architectural design at Berkeley including a one-year traveling fellowship. Michael also worked for three internationally known architects: Mark Mack in San Francisco, Christopher Alexander in Berkeley, and Heinz Tesar in Vienna before returning to Colorado in 1991 to teach in the graduate school of the College of Architecture and Planning at the University of Colorado. He has lectured locally, nationally and in Europe and South America on architecture, landscape, and town planning.

While teaching at CU, Michael co-founded and directed a summer study abroad town-planning program in Prague, Czech Republic that worked with city officials on challenging urban projects from 1993 to 2000. In Colorado, Michael simultaneously worked for Hoover Berg Desmond Architects from 1993 to 1996 and was a Senior Associate at Wolff Lyon Architects from 1997 to 2002 gaining extensive professional experience in traditional mixed-use neighborhood development. After one year with Van Meter Williams Pollack Architects in Denver, Michael was offered the Solar Village mixed-use project in Longmont, and with this he founded Tavel Weise Architecture and Urban Design in collaboration with Jack Weise. Jack’s specialization is construction documents. He now works as a subcontractor to the practice recently renamed Michael Tavel Architects.

"Michael’s work with other firms has won numerous national and regional awards including ones from Progressive Architecture, AIA and HUD. Michael Tavel Architects has recently won seven awards for their first two major projects: Solar Village Prospect (with Solar Village LLC) and Geos Neighborhood (in collaboration with David Kahn Studio). More about these projects from the AIA Denver Chapter Awards website.

Solar Village Prospect Awards:
2005/2006 Architects' Choice Award from the Rocky Mountain News and AIA Denver
2006 Sustainability Award from AIA Denver
2006 Design Award from the Colorado Renewable Energy Society
2007 AIA Denver Citation Award

Geos Neighborhood Awards:
2006 Colorado AIA Citation Award
2006 Denver AIA Honor Award
2006 Denver AIA Sustainability Award

Michael Tavel Architects

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