About
MC/A Architects was founded in 1985 in Austin, Texas. From the very beginning the trademark of the firm has been the highest emphasis on design in both architecture and town planning. Design not as a mere adoration of buildings and cities unimportant for their proper functioning, but design as the principal ordering tool rooted in the understanding of the human condition.
MC/A Architects has established itself as one of the leaders in urban design and community planning in Texas, and has successfully participated in several national and international competitions. In the past 15 years MC/A has closely collaborated with the Gateway Planning Group on many urban design projects as the lead urban designer. The firm was awarded Gold Medal in the International Cities Design Competition sponsored by the IUA and the University of Wisconsin, First Prize by the Bloch Cancer Foundation in Kansas City for the design of Cancer Survivors Parks around the country, Progressive Architecture (magazine) award, Best Project Award by APA for McKinney Regional Employment Center Plan (with Gateway Planning), National Award for Leander TOD Code from Form Based Code Institute (CNU) (with Gateway Planning).
In the six years following the victory at the national competition for the first Cancer Survivors Park in Kansas City, MO, MC/A has worked with the Bloch Cancer Foundation (Created by H&R Block) to design eleven and build six parks across the US, from Cleveland to New Orleans, in both urban and garden settings. Each park is designed as a unique setting for contemplation and inspiration and with powerful metaphors aimed at restoring our confidence in the powers of the mind in the healing process.
Recent projects in both urban design and architecture include primarily mixed use projects based on the approach that lasting value is created through making great places to live. These projects utilize walkable neighborhoods as the primary unit of development. Network of interconnected streets, squares, sidewalks, and open spaces represent the glue that physically holds the community design together and affords opportunities for unplanned human encounters and for creating and sustaining relationships – an essential quality of real places and communities.
One of MC/A's special interests is sustainable and eco-balance based design. MC/A is aware that long-term concerns are at the same time large-scale concerns and is able to distinguish between systemic and local solutions. Understanding that lost sustainable design opportunities on a large scale cannot be reclaimed on the building design scale has enabled MC/A to create urban design solutions that capture the value of both. Over the last several years, MC/A has been working with Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems (CMPBS) in Austin on extending the Transect planning to cover sustainable design issues. Milosav is also the Architect of Record for CMPBS.
MC/A Architects gratefully acknowledges the important contribution to its work by two extraordinary artists and good friends: Dede Christopher of Christopher Illustration, and Don Oelfke of donodesign@earthlink.net.