The City of Lambertville, Montgomery and Princeton Townships, as well as numerous towns and communities throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania. We have previously executed projects in every major city within the United States and Canada. | Background |
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We are an architectural, planning, and interior design firm. Our office is located at 19 North Franklin Street in Lambertville, New Jersey. Our firm is presently composed of one Principal Architect and Professional Planner, and two Intern Architects, for a total workforce of three people. Currently, our firm is very active in The City of Lambertville, Montgomery and Princeton Townships, as well as numerous towns and communities throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania. We have previously executed projects in every major city within the United States and Canada.
Our organization was established in 1983, and we benefit from Michael Burns, our Principal Architect and Professional Planner's thirty five years of experience in the practice with his own, as well as some of the most highly regarded firms in the country. We also employ a core of graduate architects on our staff from many noteworthy design schools nationwide.
The architectural work of our office reflects a consistent enthusiasm and determination to solve current problems with solutions cultivated from traditional ideals and methodologies which have been proven successful throughout time. This is repeatedly evidenced in our planning, programming and design work conducted for specialized learning environments, private schools, and institutes of higher learning, municipal governments, the commercial industry, and the residential community.
Our firm has substantial experience in the master planning, programming, design and development of large scale environments. We are equally well-experienced in implementing projects in phases and under conditions requiring maintenance of operations during construction. One particular project involving creative phasing and implementation while operations continue is the Princeton Montessori School, Phases One and Two. The first construction phase included an addition and alterations to the School which includes 15,000 square feet of academic space, and a 10,000 square foot Fine Arts Building, as well as renovation of the existing 12,000 square foot academic building. This construction occurred while the School and its operations remained in service.
At the same time, we addressed their immediate space needs by providing temporary facilities until the addition was completed. These temporary facilities were achieved by using a most creative, interactive, and extraordinary approach involving the collaboration of students, faculty, and state and county officials.
Further, the Phase Two Infant-Toddler Center, a 10,250 square foot addition is located in the area between the original building and Cherry Valley Road and attaches to the existing building at its entry. 
The Infant building is organized as a small house structure and includes lesson areas, kitchen, and sleeping areas. The Toddler building occupies a larger scale structure and includes four classrooms, each with individual kitchen and toilet facilities. The four classrooms share a common sleeping area. The Infant and Toddler buildings are joined at their intersection and share a common movement area where this intersection occurs. These two buildings are linked to the existing building with a new entry lobby which also provides a Parent-Infant room.
Our large scale planning and programming experience also includes the "University Heights Science Park" master plan development project. We have undertaken this large scale master planning/urban design project for a fifty-acre site in Newark, New Jersey. This plan involves the collaborative effort of the four academic institutions in the city, Rutgers University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Essex County Community College, and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, as well as local industry and corporations.
We are adept at both new construction and rehabilitation and historic preservation work. Notably, our firm has developed a large number of projects which required sensitive planning, design, expansion, addition, and historical preservation of existing structures. At the Lawrenceville School, we were responsible for alterations and additions to some of the older and historically significant buildings on campus. You will be interested to know that we have been awarded twenty-five design citations for some of these projects, with awards presented by the AIA/New Jersey, Somerset County Planning Board, The American Planning Association, and the Princeton Historical Preservation Society. These awards were given in recognition of our faithful, sensitive, and innovative approach to the expansion and reuse of these facilities.
We have extensive experience and take great pride in our ability to work with building committees, state and municipal officials, historic review committees, planning boards, and other local boards and various approval agencies in an effort to successfully develop projects which meet the requirements of these groups, and that are positive additions to the context and environment of the community in which they are built.
We have been recognized by the New Jersey Society of Architects and awarded commendations for our work. We have also received the Somerset County Land Development and Planning Award for our 
work. We were awarded a Design of the Year Award by New Jersey Monthly Magazine, we received the American Planning Association Award for outstanding reuse of an existing building, and we were awarded the Excellence in Downtown Development Award from Downtown New Jersey Inc.,
Many articles featuring Michael Burns, Architect's, projects have been widely published, including recent articles regarding the award-winning planning, design and phased expansion program for the Princeton Montessori School, the historic restoration and alterations to the Montgomery 1860 House Cultural Center, the planning and design development of senior housing for St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Peapack, the master plan and beautification program for Main Street in Manville, the award-winning design for Montgomery Township's adaptive reuse of a historic structure for their senior citizens' center, the award-winning proposed design for New Jersey Institute of Technology's Hazell Student Center in Newark, and the urban concept master plan for University Heights in Newark.
As a final point of interest, our Principal Architect and Professional Planner, Michael Burns, is currently commissioned as an adjunct professor and thesis advisor for Drexel University's School of Architecture. Mr. Burns was honored by New Jersey Institute of Technology and given the University's Excellence in Teaching Award for Teaching by an Adjunct Professor.
