The Architect’s Newspaper recognized Detroit-based M1DTW for its portfolio of projects and Notes on a Practice with a 2023 Best of Practice Award in the Architect Small Firm (Midwest) category.
Taubman College Associate Professor of Practice in Architecture Christian Unverzagt, (B.S. ’94) is M1DTW’s founder and design director, working alongside fellow alums Thomas Affeldt (B.S ’06, M.Arch ’11) and Kerry Conway (M.Arch ’16), and Cara Wagner, and Amethyst Davis.
M1DTW Architects is a nationally recognized, design-driven, multidisciplinary architecture studio engaged in expanding the boundaries of practice through the design of objects, artifacts, identities, and spaces. The legacy and cross-disciplinary approach of Michigan’s midcentury designers, including Alexander Girard, Florence Knoll, and Charles & Ray Eames, inspire the firm’s approach to working with clients ranging from emerging entrepreneurs to established cultural and educational institutions.
M1DTW Architects’ projects range from workspaces, retail, and commercial spaces, adaptive reuse projects, and residential work. Since its founding in 2000, M1DTW Architects has completed over 100 commissioned works for clients, including Floyd, Signal-Return, Mills Pharmacy, 6 Salon, Library Street Collective, Eastern Market Corporation, and Samsung.
The Best of Practice program seeks to define an expansive meaning of excellence, which considers inclusivity, social impact, sustainability, regionality, and technological innovation, in addition to formal and structural considerations. Beyond individual projects or products, The Architect’s Newspaper’s Best of Practice awards recognize companies that exemplify efficiency to a high caliber. The program uplifts firms of all sizes working in all regions to illustrate how the practice looks in a given year.
A jury of practitioners and educators thoroughly evaluates applications. In recognizing M1DTW, The Architect’s Newspaper’s Executive Editor Jack Murphy, noted, “The office has an attitude that appears to value engagement with the realities of practice, from proper payment of workers to client satisfaction. It helps that their work backs up the idea, as it transforms what could be mundane locales into considered sites for Midwestern life.”
AN’s Best of 2023 issue features M1DTW.
Photo credit: Jeffrey Kilmer, Diana Paulson
