Ms. Lehrer leads the ML+A office through the design and development of a diverse range of ambitious public and private projects that include urban revitalization developments such as Hollywood Park and San Pedro Waterfront, large urban parks such as Vista Hermosa Park in Los Angeles and Orange County Great Park at the El Toro Marine Base, and complex commercial projects like a Bio-tech Corporate Campus in Thousand Oaks. In recent years, several interesting historic renovation projects have been added to her repertoire; these include Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, the glamorous Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, and Santee Court, an urban housing development that pays tribute to its interesting context - L.A.’s fashion district. Currently the firm is a consultant for the Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan currently leading efforts to identify and plan a comprehensive open space network that interfaces with channel restoration and urbanism.

Committed to her profession and education, Ms. Lehrer is actively involved in several organizations. She is on the Board of Directors at the Collage Dance Theater. She is a member of the International Federation of Landscape Architects, American Society of Landscape Architects, Hollywood Design Review Committee, and has served on the Harvard Graduate School of Design Alumni Council and board of directors of TreePeople.

In addition to being published in international journals, popular magazines, and newspapers, the work of Mia Lehrer + Associates has been included in several important museum and gallery exhibitions. Ms. Lehrer often lectures, traveling as far as Brazil and China to share her insights and philosophy on public landscape design.

Mr. Lehrer--practitioner, leader and teacher—designs for community with a reverence for light, space, and sustainability in the pursuit of beauty and joy. With over 150 built projects, he has won numerous design awards, including honor awards from the national, state, and local chapters of The American Institute of Architects. The firm’s work consists of institutional, urban design, residential, commercial, and industrial projects. Prior to 1985, he worked at Frank O. Gehry and Associates and other design offices

This spring, his new Lehrer Architects Studio in Silverlake was honored by the AIA California Council and the Los Angeles Business Council. 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. In 2001, the Downtown Drop-In Center was bestowed the Institute Honor Award of the American Institute of Architects, the top annual award for architecture in the United States.

This fall, the Diamond Valley Museums, designed in partnership with Mark Gangi, AIA, will open in Hemet, California. This $40 million campus honors the extraordinary infrastructure (with the Center for Water Education) and it’s amazing by-products (with the Western Center for Archaeology and Paleontology) that the Metropolitan Water District has built over the last century. Topped with a 550 kilowatt photovoltaic roof installation, it is expected to garner a LEED Gold rating.

He was President of the American Institute of Architects, Los Angeles in 1999. He served as Vice Chairman of School Construction Bond Oversight Committee, where he successfully led the battle, for over 5 years, to place design and sustainability at the center of the $8 (now $20) Billion funding for the repair of 700 schools and the construction of almost 150 new schools of the Los Angeles Unified School District. 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, Business Week, Builder Magazine, NPR’s Weekend Edition, All Things Considered, KCRW’s Which Way L.A.?, The LA Times, The Chicago Tribune, Hong Kong’s avant garde Hinge Magazine, among many others.

Michael currently serves on the Harvard Design School Alumni Council, and is the Vice-President-elect of Homeless Health Care Los Angeles.

Michael has been a member of the faculty at the University of Southern California since 1986, teaching all levels of design studio from 1st Year through Masters Thesis. He regularly sits on academic and professional AIA design juries around the country.

Licensed to practice architecture in California in 1981, Michael was educated at Berkeley and Harvard after attending LAUSD public schools. He is married to Mia Lehrer, ASLA of Mia Lehrer + Associates Landscape Architecture. They have three children: Benjamin, Rebecca, and Raphael.

Professor Malecha earned a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Minnesota (1973) and a Master of Architecture from Harvard University (1974). As the result of a two-stage design competition he was recognized as the Rotch Traveling Scholar (1980). Mr. Malecha received the American Institute of Architects California Council, Excellence in Education Award (1994). He is the only American Educator to have been recognized as an Honorary Member of the European Association for Architectural Education (1998). Mr. Malecha was presented the Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award by the University of Minnesota, College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (1999). Dean Malecha is a Fellow (1992) in the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and an Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) Distinguished Professor (2002). In spring 2003 Dean Malecha was named the AIA/ACSA Topaz Laureate for excellence in architectural education.

Beginning in 1994, Mr. Malecha serves as the Dean of the College of Design at North Carolina State University, Raleigh. Prior to this appointment, he served as the Dean of the College of Environmental Design at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (1982-1994). During his tenure at both institutions he led the effort to raise the status of the administrative unit from school to college. He encouraged the development of urban design studios with facilities in the community. He has nurtured international programs and in the case of NC State fostered the development of a branch campus in Prague. At NC State University he has provided the leadership to support the faculty development of new academic programs including a Ph.D. in Design, the growth of new academic units including Art and Design and a proposed Department of Design Studies. Most recently, he has led the effort to merge the Contemporary Art Museum of Raleigh into the College of Design.

Dean Malecha has served as President of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture and the California Council of Architectural Education. He served as the Vice Chair of the AIA/ACSA Council on Architectural Research. He has had frequent exchanges with the European Association for Architectural Education as a visiting speaker and as an advisor. He has served as a member of the National Institute for Architectural Education Teaching Office Task Force. Dean Malecha has also served as a Master Juror for the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, as a member of the National Architectural Accrediting Board, and on the Steering Committee of the AIA Architects in Education Professional Interest Area as the Chair, and as a member of the AIA Research Policy Board. He also served as a member of the Board of the Contemporary Art Museum of Raleigh. Dean Malecha has led the effort to promote the development of the case studies in architecture. His efforts as co-chair of the AIA Case Study Workgroup are fostering increased collaboration between academic institutions and professional offices. This work has led him to initiate studies of a Practice Academy Model on behalf of the American Institute of Architects.

Presently, he is serving as a member of the AIA National Board (a 75,000 member organization), the AIA North Carolina Board, and as a member of the Building and Real Estate Commission of the Catholic Diocese of Raleigh. In his role as an academic administrator he serves on a number of University committees and task forces including: the University Budget Advisory Committee, the University Strategic Planning Sub Committee, and the Child Care Task Force.

Professor Malecha has written upon the subject of design. His authorship includes: The Learning Organization, The Nests of Pegasus (drawings and thoughts on the attributes of a design personality) Reconfiguration in the Study and Practice of Architecture (published by William Stout of San Francisco), Foundations, The Fabric of Architecture, Learning About Architecture, Essays on Architecture, The Design Studio, The Study of Design, Form and Performance, Angels in the Architecture (a children’s book), Design in Life (a book for young adults), and an article, "Architectural Education," published in EKISTICS. He authored the Right of Inquiry, adapted as policy by the American Institute of Architecture Students. He also co-authored, with Robert Greenstreet, The Junior Faculty Handbook on Tenure and Promotion and the New Administrators Handbook, both with the sponsorship of the ACSA.

As an academic, Dean Malecha regularly accepts teaching assignments. His areas of teaching responsibility include: Design Thinking for first year graduate and undergraduate studio students, professional practice for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, design thesis advising and studio instruction. He has been invited to conduct seminars and lectures at universities abroad including in Belgium, Chile, Italy, Japan, Korea, Romania, and Spain. Dean Malecha believes that teaching is the essence of a life in the academy, especially as a complement to leadership and administrative responsibilities.

As an educator Mr. Malecha has devoted considerable energy to international studies. While at Cal Poly Pomona he led student tours to Europe, initiated study abroad programs in Japan and Greece and conducted urban research projects in Northern Italy. Since coming to NC State he has provided the leadership to initiate the Prague Institute, a year-round study center at the core of the city. During the course of his leadership at the College of Design student participation in study abroad programs for credit has risen to 45% of the graduating class. Dean Malecha chaired an International Programs Deans Task Force leading to the development of a white paper providing a vision of the future for NC State University. He is regularly requested to lecture and participate in academic programs abroad and has, in recent years, conducted lectures and seminars in Bucharest, Romania; Antwerp, Belgium; and Santiago, Chile. He was the founder of a bi-annual conference between the Architecture Research Centers Consortium and the European Association of Architectural Educators. He has been recognized for his efforts by the EAE for his efforts and he is a regularly invited contributor to EAAE publications on architectural education. For these many efforts, Dean Malecha has been awarded the Jackson Rigney International Service Award from NC State University.

As an architect, Mr. Malecha gained experience working in the firm of Hugh Stubbins and Associates. He continues to practice, working on a variety of commissions from programming to architectural design. He serves as a peer reviewer for projects in the cities of Raleigh and Chapel Hill, North Carolina appointed by the City Councils to raise the standard of architecture in the urban context. He is currently the lead architectural designer for the Chancellor’s Residence at NC State university in association with a local architectural firm.

Leadership in academic management, attention to the scholarly and reflective aspects of a design education, a consulting practice that informs a life in the academy and a passionate belief in the absolute right of access to an education for every individual in our society, have characterized Marvin Malecha’s career. He believes that education and practice lie along the same continuum in life and he has encouraged others to find the connections between them. He has been named second on a list of the thirty most influential architectural educators in the United States regarding the relationship between education and practice by Design Intelligence magazine (2005).

Dean Malecha has been inducted as an Honorary member into the Sigma Iota Rho International Studies Fraternity (2006), Alpha Rho Chi Professional Fraternity (2002), the Golden Key International Honour Society (2002), and the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society (2002).