Architecture is the shaping of space with objects in light, to create practical and emotive places.

 

Principal, LEHRERARCHITECTSLA INC.

Partner, LAWRL Design LLP

President, Homeless Health Care Los Angeles

Director, Harvard Alumni Association representing the Graduate School of Design

Harvard Design Magazine Professional Advisory Board

Adjunct Faculty, University of Southern California

Hollywood Planning and Design Review

The Mayor’s Design Panel Advisory

 

 

Michael B. Lehrer, FAIA founded his practice, LEHRER ARCHITECTS LA, in Los Angeles in 1985. He is also the Design Partner of LAWRL Design, a deeply interdisciplinary national practice. His work, from the intimate to the monumental, is grounded in the idea that beauty is a rudiment of human dignity. He designs for community with a reverence for light and space. Delight is a matter of extreme gravitas in the work.

 

The firm’s work consists of institutional, commercial, industrial, residential and urban design projects. Regarding sustainability, the work aspires to embody the beauty of performance and the performance of beauty. Lehrer Architects LA is steeped in the nurturing of creativity culture in its own work—both process and product--and in finding that spark in all of its clients’ endeavors.

 

Lehrer Architects LA has won over 70 major design and sustainability awards, including over 30 design awards from the national, state, and local chapters of The American Institute of Architects. His Studio was bestowed the Institute Honor Award for Interior Architecture in 2008, the top annual award for architecture in the United States, as well as top awards from the International Interior Design Association, the AIA California Council, AIA LA, the Los Angeles Business Council, Contract Magazine, and Builder Magazine, among others. In 2004, his James M. Wood Community Center received the Business Week/Architectural Record Award from the AIA; the AIA Housing Award was given to Norton-Towers-On-the-Court; and Temple Bat Yahm received The Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art, and Architecture / Faith and Form Magazine / AIA Award. The Downtown Drop-In Center and the LA County Elections Operations Center have also won the Institute Honor Award of the American Institute of Architects.

 

Sustainability and beauty are an inseparable couplet in his work. His Water + Life Museums in Hemet, designed with Mark Gangi, AIA, is the first LEED™ Platinum museum in the world. An international environmental showcase, it features a 550 kilowatt photovoltaic rooftop installation. The Museums have won Honor Awards from AIA California Council, Los Angeles and Pasadena Foothill Chapters, among others. Metropolitan Home magazine included it among its “Design 100, Best Designs in the World for 2008”. The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and Metropolitan Arts awarded them the American Architecture Award in 2008 and the Green Good Design Award in 2009. They have also won the Beyond Green 2007 High Performance Building Award from the Sustainable Building Industry Council, and the Pacific Coast Builder’s Conference, Gold Nugget Award for the Best Sustainable Commercial Buildings.

 

Michael’s work has been widely published nationally and internationally and he is regularly called upon to comment about design matters in national and local broadcast media, print, panels and symposia to explain the public interest from the architect’s perspective. This includes Architectural Digest, Architectural Record, ARCHITECT,Business Week, Azure, Builder Magazine, Metropolitan Home, NPR’s Weekend Edition, All Things Considered, KCRW’s Which Way L.A.?, The LA Times, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, Hong Kong’s avant garde Hinge Magazine, among many others.

 

Michael is President of Homeless Health Care of Los Angeles. He sits on the Harvard Design Magazine Professional Advisory Board and represents the Graduate School of Design on the Harvard Alumni Association Board of Directors. He is deeply engaged in the life of the City. He serves on Mayor Villaraigosa’s Design Advisory Panel. He served as Vice Chairman of School Construction Bond Oversight Committee for over 5 years, overseeing (a now)$27 Billion funding for the repair of 700 schools and the construction of almost 150 new schools of the Los Angeles Unified School District. He has served on the Hollywood Planning and Design Review Board for 20 years, and hosts their monthly meetings in his studio. In 2012, he was on the Mayors Institute of City Design team in Birmingham, Alabama.

 

He was President of the American Institute of Architects, Los Angeles in 1999 and founded their annual, ongoing Legislative Day that year which has fundamentally changed the nature of the profession in LA.

 

Michael has been an adjunct member of the faculty at the University of Southern California since 1986, teaching all levels of design studio from 1^st Year through Masters Thesis. He has taught several design studios focusing on senior housing. Prior to 1985, Mr. Lehrer worked at Frank O. Gehry and Associates and other design offices. He regularly sits on academic and professional AIA design juries around the country from the 2012 AIA NY Urban Design Awards Jury to the 2009 AIA Institute Honor Awards Jury for Architecture. Licensed in California in 1981, Michael was educated at Berkeley and Harvard after attending LAUSD public schools. He is married to Mia Lehrer, FASLA of Mia Lehrer + Associates Landscape Architecture. They have three children: Benjamin, Rebecca, and Raphael.

 

Education:

·         Harvard University, Master of Architecture, 1978

·         University of California, Berkeley, AB Major in Architecture with Highest Honors, 1975

Design Awards

 

Potrero Park Community Center

·         Honor Award Southern California Development Forum 2012

Reseda Park Pool

·         Award of Excellence, The American Institute of Architects Los Angeles, The Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Commission  2012

Spring Street Park

·         Award of Excellence for “exceptional contribution” in the Landscape Architecture category, Los Angeles Business Council.2012

Canyon Residence

·         Honor Award Southern California Development Forum 2012

Westwood United Methodist Church

·         Award for Excellence in Design, The American Institute of Architects Los Angeles 2011

·         Merit Award for Sacred Landscape, The American Institute of Architects, Faith and Form Magazine, The Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture 2011

·         Award of Excellence for “exceptional contribution” in the Landscape Architecture category, Los Angeles Business Council. 2011

·         Westside Prize, Westside Urban Forum 2011

Canyon Residence

·         Merit Award for Excellence in Design, The American Institute of Architects California Council 2011

·         Award of Excellence for “exceptional contribution” in the Housing Single Family category, Los Angeles Business Council. 2011

·         Gold Nugget Grand Award for Best Custom Home over 6,500 s.f., Pacific Coast Builders Conference 2011

Registrar Recorder County Clerk Elections Center

·         Institute Honor Award for Interior Architecture, The American Institute of Architects2011

·         Merit Award for Excellence in Design, The American Institute of Architects California Council 2010

·         Award of Merit for Excellence in Design, The American Institute of Architects Los Angeles 2010

·         Westside Prize Honor Award, Westside Urban Forum 2011

·         Honor Award, Environments Category, Annual Design Review I.D. Magazine 2009

·         Honor Award, Graphis Magazine 2009

·         Honorable Mention for Design Excellence Architect Magazine 2009

·         Award of Excellence for “exceptional contribution” in the Renovated Buildings category, Los Angeles Business Council. 2009

·         Honor Award Southern California Development Forum 2008

The Shalom Institute

·         Award of Merit for Excellence in Design, The American Institute of Architects Los Angeles 2010

·         Westside Prize, Westside Urban Forum 2011

·         Gold Nugget Award of Merit for Excellence & Value for Best Rehab Commercial/Industrial Project, PCBC 2010

·         The Vision Award, The Shalom Institute 2009

The Water and Life Museums

·         Honor Award for Excellence in Design, The American Institute of Architects California Council 2009

·         Honor Award for Excellence in Design, The American Institute of Architects Los Angeles 2008

·         Honor Award for Excellence in Design, The American Institute of Architects Pasadena Foothill Chapter 2007

·         Merit Award for Savings by Design, The American Institute of Architects California Council 2008

·         Green Good Design Award®, The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and

Design, The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies, and Metropolitan Arts Press Ltd., 2009

·         LEED Platinum Certification, United States Green Building Council 2008

·         Honor Award, Architectural Foundation of Los Angeles Design Green Awards 2008

·         American Architecture Award®, The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and

Design, The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies, and Metropolitan Arts Press Ltd., 2008

·         Beyond Green™ High Performance Building Award, Sustainable Building Industry Council 2007

·         Gold Nugget Grand Award for Excellence and Value for the Best Sustainable Commercial Project, PCBC 2007

·         Merit Award for Best Public/Private Special Use Facility, Pacific Coast Builders Conference 2007

Lehrer Architects Studio

·         Institute Honor Award for Interior Architecture, The American Institute of Architects2008

·         Merit Award for Excellence in Design, The American Institute of Architects California Council 2006

·         Award of Merit, The American Institute of Architects Los Angeles 2007

·         World Coolest Office, Best Use of Space, INC Magazine and Architizer Website 2010

·         Honor Award, The International Interior Design Association 2008

·         Gold Nugget Grand Award for Excellence and Value for the Best Commercial/Industrial Rehab Project, PCBC 2007

·         Honor Award, CONTRACT Magazine. 2006

·         Award of Excellence for “exceptional contribution” in the Renovated Buildings category, Los Angeles Business Council. 2006

Santee Court

·         Westside Prize Honor Award, Westside Urban Forum 2005

Norton Towers on the Court

·         Honor Award to recognize excellence in residential design, The American Institute of Architects Housing PIA 2004

·         Gold Nugget Grand Award for Excellence and Value for Best Attached Project Over 30 DU/Acre, PCBC 2004

·         Westside Prize, Westside Urban Forum 2004

·         Award of Excellence for “exceptional contribution” in the Residential category, Los Angeles Business Council. 2004

·         Award of Merit, Multiunit Housing, Residential Architect Magazine 2004

Temple Bat Yahm Torah Center

·         Honor Award , The American Institute of Architects, Faith and Form Magazine, The Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture 2004

·         Gold Nugget Grand Award for Excellence and Value for Best Public/Private Special Use Facility, PCBC 2004

·         Honor Award, The American Institute of Architects Orange County 2003

The James M. Wood Community Center

·         Grand Award, The American Institute of Architects California Council, Concrete Masonry Association of California and Nevada 2005

·         Business Week/Architectural Record Award, The American Institute of Architects 2004

·         Merit Award for Excellence in Design, The American Institute of Architects California Council 2003

·         Westside Prize, Westside Urban Forum 2003

·         Gold Nugget Award of Merit for Excellence & Value for Best Public/Private Special Use Facility, PCBC 2003

·         Gold Nugget Special Award for Excellence and Value for Building Industry Community Spirit, PCBC 2003

·         Award of Excellence for “exceptional contribution” in the Institutional category, Los Angeles Business Council. 2003

The Silverlake Master Plan

·         Honor Award of Merit, The American Society Of Landscape Architects Los Angeles (with Mia Lehrer and Associates) 2001

The Downtown Homeless Drop-In Center

·         Institute Honor Award for Architecture, The American Institute of Architects 2001

·         The Ahwahnee Award, Local Governments Association, The American Institute of Architects California Council 2002

·         Award of Excellence, The American Institute of Architects/National Concrete Masonry Association 2000

·         Honor Award for Excellence in Design, The American Institute of Architects California Council 2000

·         Award of Merit for Excellence in Design, The American Institute of Architects Los Angeles 1999

·         LA Beautification Award, Los Angeles Business Council 2000

de Bont Residence, L. A.

·         LA Beautification Award, Best New House. Los Angeles Business Council 1998

The Davisson House, Capistrano Beach.

·         Design Award for Excellence in Design, The American Institute of Architects Los Angeles 1998

·         Honor Award for Excellence in Design, The American Institute of Architects Orange County 1997

Legacy Software Co., Marina del Rey

·         Semifinalist, Business Week/Architectural Record/Award, The American Institute of Architects 1997

Hollywood Tower & Master Plan for Barnsdall Park.

·         Honor Award, Next LA, The American Institute of Architects Los Angeles 1997

·         Royce Neuchatz Preservation Award, Los Angeles Conservancy 1996

 

Elevation to the College of Fellows of The American Institute of Architects

The American Institute of Architects 2004

Presidential Award for Excellence in the Service of Good Design

The American Institute of Architects Los Angeles 2002

 

Olive Award for Excellence in Arts and Architecture (with Mia Lehrer, FASLA)

The Barnsdall Arts Foundation 2006

 

Plato de Oro Award for His Tireless Efforts and Contributions to Improve the Lives of the Homeless in Los Angeles

Homeless Healthcare Los Angeles 2007

 

The Vision Award

The Shalom Institute 2009