The above pull down menu provides a selected listing of representative projects of Michael Roy Iversen, Urban and Campus Ecology.
BACKGROUND
- Principal, Michael Roy Iversen, Urban and Campus Ecology (present)
- Director of Sustainable Design, Serena Sturm Architects
- Project Manager, Tenney Pavoni Associates
- Project Manager, Harry Weese & Associates
LICENSURE AND ACCREDITATION
- Licensed Architect, State of Illinois
- LEED® Accredited Professional, U.S. Green Building Council
- Registered Energy Professional, City of Chicago
PRACTICE PHILOSOPHY
Michael Roy Iversen, Urban and Campus Ecology (MRI-UCE), has been one of the leading consultants in urban and campus sustainability design in the Chicago area for the past two decades. With more than twenty years as an architect, Michael Iversen has successfully merged practice, research and teaching in the area of environmentally-sustainable planning and design. By studying different disciplines such as ecology, industrial ecology and building simulation, Mr. Iversen has developed an urban and ecology systems ecology process, which is based on the study and control of energy flows and material cycles, along with associated information and cost flows.
Design is not a style. It is an expression of a culture’s relationship with the natural environment, which is based on the adaptation to and integration with nature’s process. Therefore, architectural design is derived from the analysis and assessment of the energy, material and information flows and cycles that are integral to environmental sustainability. Subsequent design objectives are then determined in the areas of energy and resource efficiency, indoor environmental quality, durability, waste management and environmental impacts.
By integrating this approach at the beginning of each project, MRI-UCE is able to offer clients excellent environmental performance at costs comparable with conventional projects. Consulting services include project team development, green design criteria and strategies, and environmental analysis and assessment. MRI-UCE provides expertise in state-of-the-art green design and energy analysis software, as well as in green building rating methodologies, including USGBC LEED™ and EPA ENERGY STAR.
The assembled project team is greater than the sum of its parts. It represents a multi-disciplinary team of leading architects and engineers in building design, in both the conventional and ecological design sense. Sustainable, or ‘green’ design, is not to be viewed separate from urban planning, as sustainable design is basically ‘good design’. Any material, product, system or building has to perform well both in the conventional sense (functionality, durability, cost, utility, aesthetically) as well as ecologically (site harmony, energy and resource efficient, waste minimization, and indoor environmental quality).
Using current information technology, MRI-UCE collaborates with other professionals in various disciplines to form project teams to perform work that, individually, they could not provide. By virtue of their lower overhead, advanced computer literacy and larger talent pool, these collaborations provide more efficient and appropriate services at a lower cost then traditionally organized firms. Many of these collaborations operate and exist only for the time it takes to execute the project.
Prior to staring his own firm, Michael Iversen was employed as a project architect by Harry Weese & Associates. While at HWA, he was responsible for construction administration phase services for such project as the Swiss Grand Hotel (Chicago, IL) and the rehabilitation and renovation of the historic Federal Post Office and Courthouse (East St. Louis, IL).
Michael Roy Iversen 