Michael Chavez, originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, is a fourth year Master of Architecture candidate at the BAC where he recently was project manager for one of the schools gateway projects. His ties through the school led him to his current position as Project Manager at YouthBuild Boston in Roxbury, MA, In 2010, Michael received 2nd place in the NESEA's student design competition and was awarded a scholarship for travel to apply to his Long Studio in Puerto Rico.
Most of Michael's professional work to date has been in the field of social and environmental justice, but his education has always been design related. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of New Mexico in Environmental Design with and emphasis in Landscape Architecture.
Although Michael was never formally introduced to the field of architecture, it has always been at the core of his work in social activism and community empowerment. He found that in the majority of the poverty-stricken neighborhoods he worked in, many problems facing communities were due to poor and/or short-term design. Poor lighting and air circulation in/around buildings, deteriorating/non-existent infrastructure, cheap construction materials and methods, and much more had created social rifts between different neighborhoods, classes, and ethnicities. To fix these problems, the residents almost always had to look outside of their communities to find help in the field of design. There were local health clinics, social services and the like within the neighborhood's boundaries, but rarely were there architects or designers. The community also rarely got to participate in the full process of design outside of the city's required community meetings (which often created spaces and buildings that didn't always reflect the needs and characteristics of the people using them). Michael saw this as a serious problem decided to continue his education in design at the BAC, to make a change.
