about

Michelle Todd

Principal Architect

Michelle Todd is an award-winning architect and urban community advocate with over 30 years of experience. She has a longstanding passion for socially responsive, innovatively progressive, and restorative landmark preservation design. Raised in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood within one of Mayor John Lindsay’s modular housing developments, Michelle discovered her love of architecture at the age of ten, inspired by the imagination required to transform empty and dilapidated urban spaces.

This early experience sparked her interest in urban planning and the potential for architecture to positively impact communities and the environment. After a brief tenure at Perkins Eastman, Michelle founded M. Todd Architect in Brooklyn in 2008, focusing on historic renovations and collaborative client partnerships. The firm received the 2024 Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award from the New York Landmark Conservancy for the Ridges Residences project.

Michelle has collaborated with NYC agencies and worked across a range of project types, including schools, restaurants, and landmark buildings. The firm is now known as M. Todd Studio Architecture PC.

Michelle holds a Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design from Columbia University (GSAPP), where she was awarded the Lucille Smyser Lowenfish Honors Award. She is a Living Future Accredited (LFA) professional through the International Living Future Institute and a Certified Passive House Tradesperson (CPHT). Michelle is a member of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and trained in classical design at the École des Beaux-Arts in Fontainebleau, France. She is a licensed architect in New York and Maryland.

Her expertise spans community master planning, Passive House design, and historic preservation, combining socially responsive urban design with sustainable and restorative architecture.