Michael Ball

Secretary

Michael W. Ball was born and raised in Palestine, Texas. He received his Bachelor and Master of Architecture from Tulane University in 2007, and has been a licensed Louisiana architect and member of the American Institute of Architects since 2015.

After a formative period of 14+ years at Mathes Brierre Architects in New Orleans, Michael recently moved to New Orleans’ sister city of Lafayette, Louisiana. There he has joined the team at SO Studio, an innovative firm which has been a significant change agent for architecture and urban design throughout Lafayette and South Louisiana. Michael is excited by Lafayette’s unique combination of the close-knit and the cosmopolitan —  similar to that of New Orleans, if at a smaller scale. He looks forward to opportunities to embrace, serve, and enhance his new hometown.

Michael’s previous project experience ranges from work at The National World War II Museum campus to numerous multi-family, educational, office, landscape, and infrastructural projects for clients including Orleans Parish School Board, AT&T, Chevron, and various private developers. He enjoys the occasional residential addition as well.

As a complement to his architectural practice, Michael has moonlighted as a graphic designer for numerous organizations such as DesCours, an annual architecture and installation-art event in Downtown New Orleans and the French Quarter (5 years’ involvement); New Orleans Musica da Camera, the oldest continuously performing early-music ensemble in North America (10 years’ involvement); and the NASA Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas (lifelong involvement).

As a lover of many genres of music and an amateur French hornist through his university years, Michael’s longtime involvement with music first led him to the Birdfoot Festival in late 2011, and it has become a family affair for him since. Much to Birdfoot’s delight, Michael continues to relish designing all of the Festival’s graphics even from his adopted city.