Michael Maltzan was born in 1959 in Levittown, on Long Island , New York . He holds both a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Bachelor of Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design, where he received the Henry Adams/American Institute of Architects Gold Medal. He received his Master of Architecture degree with a Letter of Distinction from Harvard University in 1987.

Since establishing Michael Maltzan Architecture (MMa) in 1995, Michael Maltzan has been responsible for the design of a range of arts, educational, institutional, commercial, and residential projects, including the Mark Taper Center/Inner-City Arts Campus, Harvard-Westlake School's Feldman/Horn Center for the Arts, and MoMA QNS in Long Island City, which opened in June 2002. MMa is currently constructing the Kidspace Children's Museum in Pasadena , California and the UCLA Hammer Museum in Los Angeles , as well as the first phase of the Fresno Metropolitan Museum in Fresno , California . The firm is also completing the designs for the Sonoma County Museum in Santa Rosa , California , and a structure for the Jinhua Architecture Park in Jinhua City , China ; MMa was recently jointly awarded the commission for the Giardini Di Porta Nuova, a cultural campus and park in Milan , Italy .

The firm's work has been featured in a number of publications including Architecture , Architectural Digest , Architectural Record , Artforum , A+U , GA Houses , Phaidon Press 10x10 , The New York Times , the Los Angeles Times , and Wallpaper Magazine. The Hergott-Shepard residence was included in the “Unprivate House” exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art , followed by an international tour that included the MAK Center in Vienna , the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis , and the UCLA Hammer Museum in Los Angeles . The Kidspace Museum was exhibited at the 8th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 2002 and the Leona Drive Residence will be included in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum 's exhibit Extreme Textiles in 2005. The firm's work was exhibited at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2003 and will be the subject of an exhibition at the Carnegie Museum 's Heinz Architectural Center in Pittsburgh in 2005.

Mr. Maltzan has served as a design instructor, lecturer, and visiting critic at The Architectural League of New York, Harvard University, Rhode Island School of Design, the Southern California Institute of Architecture, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Southern California, and the University of Waterloo. His work has won numerous design awards. He is a licensed architect and a member of the American Institute of Architects.