Michael Lewis

MLS Architects,Ltd was founded on the principles of Michael Lewis, a legendary, but little known, Minnesota architect who died doing what he loved. His philosophy of architecture is as relevant today as it was a century ago:

Michael Lewis' 7 Rules of Architecture:

1. Know where you are from.
    Architecture is of the earth and should honor the earth.
2. Know who you are.
    For now we must obey gravity. When we learn to fly, we can create
    flying architecture
3. Know why you are.
    Architecture is first and foremost the guardian of life safety.
4. Respect your benefactors.
    Without those who hire us , there would be no architecture.
5. Honor the environment.
    Architecture must contribute to, never detract from, it's surroundings.
6. Architecture must serve those who occupy it.
    Function trumps art.
7.There is beauty in functional, economical, safe,
    environmentally responsible, owner driven architecture.

Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis                                                                                                   Legendary Minnesota Architect

Born September 22, 1905 in a sod house in Wolford, North Dakota to Amish parents
Died May 25, 1954 designing traditional masonry architecture to the end.

             Michael Lewis had humble beginnings putting stone chimneys on sod houses, log cabins, and framed houses throughout the county. To this day, his chimneys still stand like a beacon at long-ago abandoned farmsteads around northern North Dakota.
             He was somewhat eccentric in his youth traveling to construction projects with his his two draft horses and a wagonload of stone and staying until the project was done. We don’t know much about the early years, but at the age of 31, a determined looking Michael Lewis shows up with a mall in a WPA photo beside a pile of stones at the Middle River State Park.
             It is believed that this may have had his first contact with architecture. From then on, Michael Lewis shows up as a support person on virtually every rustic architecture project in the state. His detailed journals indicate that he had strong ideas about architecture which appeared to influence the architects he worked with. Eventually his initials appear on numerous prominent project drawings in a variety of architecture offices.
             While never having a firm of his own, (we suspect he couldn’t be cooped up), he was the right hand man on prominent mid-century architecture in Minnesota. His legacy is his forward thinking philosophy of architecture. His journals are rich in detail of what role architecture should play in society and as a guardian of civilization. The symbolism of strength and honor provide a framework for design that we can’t deny today. Even as architecture veers off the path with faddish exhibitionism and disposable buildings, Michael Lewis provides a direction and strength for us that holds true today and in the future.