Good news: Architect’s passion for building goes beyond property to character, lives

Good News feature profile for The Commercial Appeal

March 16, 2010

Michael Walker builds houses and office buildings. He has built characters as an actor on stage and backdrops for those characters to move around. And he’s helping build self-esteem and future success for a handful of young men at Manassas High School, both on and off the football field, as a volunteer coach and mentor.

Walker is the owner of Walkerarch LLC. Even as a child, the drawing, designing and creativity of his craft piqued his interest.

“We lived in a lot of new neighborhoods because of the moving (when his father was transferred for work), so I was always around construction and loved seeing things being built,” he said. “As a kid, I was always building stuff or always had a project going of some sort, whether it was building a fort or models.”

Born in Barrington, Ill., Walker attended DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind. On a break from school, his father, knowing his son’s interests and creativity, took him to meet an architect friend.

“My father literally walked me to his office and I said, ‘Yeah, I love that, the detail of a section and how you make it look like stone or wood or insulation.’ ” … (read more)