Awards & Honors

Michael France M Arch  ’26, is featured in CCNY’s Great Grads highlight publication this year!

After seven years as an audio engineer, Michael France decided to pursue a Master of Architecture degree at the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture. Compelled by his interests in affordable housing, sustainable building practices and community development, he hopes to redress current crises of urban poverty and houselessness.

“I wasn’t sure about coming back to school after seven years of working and pursuing a field I had no previous experience in [but] my classmates and professors made the transition back into academic life smooth and welcoming,” said France, who grew up in Ohio.

In his Studio I course, under the guidance of Professor Kaja Kühl, he designed a permanent home for the Climate Museum and proposed an expanded neighborhood scale that reused and recycled building materials. In another studio, led by Professor Jerome Haferd and the Place, Memory, and Culture Incubator, France co-designed a new marketplace to replace the vertical big box structure at the corner of 125th Street and Lenox Avenue that currently houses Whole Foods and other national retailers.

“Professor Paul Ruppert inspired me the most,” said France. “Taking his studio gave me greater confidence in my ability to visually represent my thinking, and it has been a constant inspiration in challenging myself to continue to learn and grow as a designer.”

After graduation, France hopes to stay in New York City and work at a firm that has a strong culture of mentorship and collaboration while he works toward gaining his license.