Matt’s extreme passion for restoring architectural ornament and a sense of wonder to modern-day architecture is one of the defining features of MA’s approach. With a goal of creating (and restoring) beautiful buildings that place-make and stop people in delight, Matt regularly conceives and executes decorative and ornamental programs for all building types and scales. He has created thematic content for numerous high profile projects and specializes in meticulous decorative details that enrich and bestow honor upon every project. No detail is too small to escape his attention, and all serve to imbue with beauty and manifest the unique purpose and personality of the project.

A published and awarded architect and artist, Matt has created designs, and ornamental details, for buildings in 17 countries and on five continents. Prior to co-founding McNicholas Architects, he worked on a number of notable projects, including the King’s Cross Master Plan in London, the MIPIM Award winner for the Best Hotel in Europe, 2006, and buildings at Oxford and Princeton. Over his career he has traveled extensively, lecturing on the subject of architectural ornament and detail, neuroscience and architecture, empathic architecture, and the importance of details in the psychological, physiological, and sociological experience of architecture and the built environment, while presenting at forums such as USGBC’s Greenbuild, the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture, the Classical Traditions Conference, ICAA chapters, guest lectures for Yale and the University of Hartford among others, and the Congress for New Urbanism. 

He enjoys contributing regularly as a guest critic on juries of student work at multiple schools of architecture and has been published in design magazines and trade publications while also donating his artwork to numerous auctions raising money for academic scholarships. To support his passion for the arts, he co-founded Scenographia, a non-profit organization that stages the exhibition of large-scale live hand-drawing events to raise money for scholarships to study traditional art. 

A graduate of the University of Notre Dame where he received his Bachelor’s of Architecture and Master’s of Architectural Design and Urbanism, he also holds a certificate in Neuroscience for Architecture from the NewSchool of Architecture and Design. He is a member of the AIA, Institute of Classical Architecture and Art, the Society of Architectural Historians, the Society for Neuroscience, and the Congress for New Urbanism. 

Matt serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for Adler & Sullivan’s 1889 Auditorium Theatre and is the Facilities Committee chair for the same. He sits on the ICAA Board of Fellows and is a highly sought-after expert witness in architectural copyright litigation. In his free time, he builds LEGO with his son and plays on a master’s water polo team.