Michael Watkins, Architect, LLC

www.michaelwatkinsarchitect.com

330 Firehouse Lane

Gaithersburg, MD 20878

301-675-6223

   After 19 years with Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ), in 2007 Watkins enrolled in a new one-year degree program being offered by The Georgia Institute of Technology in association with the Institute for Classical Architecture & Classical America (in NYC).  Having received his MS Architecture with a Concentration in Classical Design degree in 2008, Watkins has now established his own firm, Michael Watkins, Architect, LLC, which provides services as an architect, town architect and town planner.

   In 1988, Watkins opened the Washington, D.C. office of DPZ, a Miami-based architecture and town planning firm.  He served as the Town Architect for Kentlands, a 352-acre neo-traditional neighborhood northwest of Washington, D.C. where he was responsible for neighborhood design development, review of engineering drawings, and review of architectural designs for compliance with the Kentlands Design Code.  He was also the Project Manager and Town Architect for numerous other neo-traditional neighborhoods.  While with DPZ, he was a member of design teams for over seventy towns and neighborhoods in the U.S. and abroad.

   Mr. Watkins is one of several co-authors with Andres Duany of the SmartCode, a CNU Award winning zoning ordinance that, once adopted, legalizes the development of traditional neighborhoods.  In 2003 Mr. Watkins edited and produced The Guidebook to the Old and New Urbanism in the Baltimore / Washington Region.

   Prior to working for DPZ, Watkins was a Project Architect with Cho, Wilks & Benn, in Baltimore, Md.  His apprenticeships included work with S.O.M. in Houston & San Francisco, and WED Imagineering, the design department of Walt Disney World.  He received a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Cincinnati in 1985.

   Mr. Watkins speaks on the subject of traditional town planning at universities and conferences and has been a juror for design studios at various colleges and universities.

   In his free time Watkins serves on the boards of several organizations including the Seaside Institute (www.theseasideinstitute.org), BOTA (www.BOTA.org) and New Star Communities (www.newstar.org).  Working with the BOTA organization he leads college and high school students on mission trips to Tecate, Mexico where they build homes for families in need.  New Star has committed to build a mixed-use neighborhood of 200 or so residences in Pass Christian, Miss. largely for those impacted by Hurricane Katrina and other recent storms in the area.