Leadership Team
Board of Directors
Michael Poris, AIA
Michael Poris, AIA, Principal of McIntosh Poris Associates, has spent much of his professional life championing the revitalization of his hometown of Detroit. Since establishing the firm in 1994, Poris has transformed buildings, communities, and urban centers through inclusion and dialogue. His leadership has evolved the firm into a full-service practice offering a range of disciplines in architecture, interior design, and urban planning. Throughout the years, MPA has been sought out for its adaptive re-use practice to help preserve many of Detroit’s 20th-century landmark buildings, historic districts, and iconic neighborhoods. Poris’ background in contemporary architecture and belief in thoughtful urban development has distinctly contributed to the city’s resurgence by delivering exciting environments for tech titans, leading restaurateurs, in the know homeowners, and responsive public spaces. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Michigan and Masters in Architecture at SCI-Arc in Los Angeles, and currently is a member of the Architectural Salvage Warehouse Detroit board of directors and Cranbrook Art Museum Committee.
Gerald Underwood
Gerald is licensed in residential home construction. He works for Detroit Edison, is Vice-President of the Hawthorne Park Community Advisory Council, President of the Greendale Avenue Block Club, and Board Member of the 11th Precinct Community Relations Council. Gerald has been instrumental in developing training programs for the deconstruction crews at ASWD.
Michael Boylan
Michael Boylan has been a member of the ASWD Board of Directors since August 2017. Michael Boylan was born in and attended high school in Detroit (UD High '64.) He attended Xavier University (BA English, Education '68) and Columbus School of Law, Catholic University(JD 1976.) His legal career spanned private practice litigation and dispute resolution in the Cincinnati law firm of Cohen, Todd, Kite and Stanford (Partner Member 1981-2006) and as corporate litigation counsel for the Columbus, Ohio based multi-state engineering and architecture firm of DLZ. He is admitted to practice in the courts of Ohio (inactive) and Michigan, US District Courts in Ohio and Kentucky, and the US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. He has specialized in construction litigation in his practice. Mike is the founder of the Clifton Track Club in Cincinnati (1976), and has been active in road racing, track and field as a meet director, high school coach, mentor, race founder, and as Executive Director of the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon. He has served as a volunteer and board member for GreenUp Day Cincinnati Parks, legal counsel to his community council, and board member to Cincinnati Cable Video. Honors include the Greater Cincinnati Track and Field Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award, Cincinnati Bicentennial Greater Cincinnatian. Mike co-authored the handy reference guide “Diving Out in Cincinnati.”
Diane Van Buren
Diane Van Buren integrates urban redevelopment, historic preservation and sustainable development principles to maximize community resources and energy efficiency of the built environment. In practice for more than 25 years, she has made redevelopment a primary focus of the economic development firm Zachary and Associates, serving a wide range of public, private and non-profit clients. By placing a high value on demonstrating the effectiveness of alternative energy with historic preservation projects, she was instrumental in creating the Sugar Hill Development 71 Garfield project that incorporated the use of solar and geothermal technologies in the adaptive reuse of a deteriorated yet historic 1922 building. She is currently leading a multi-faceted adaptive reuse and technology team to develop and install a fully integrated net-zero community solar project within the Beltline, a former industrial district in Detroit. On a much smaller scale, through a Ford College Community grant, she is leading a collaboration of Wayne State University Honors and University Detroit Mercy architecture students to develop and build solar collector and rain catchment community pavilions with four community garden programs in Detroit.