About

Michael Biros is the founder of Groundwater Studio, which provides landscape architecture and adaptation planning services to help communities mitigate and adapt to ecological challenges. Michael is a licensed landscape architect and has over 10 years of experience providing environmental science and design services in coastal Louisiana.

Water has been systematically erased from our landscape for the creation of capital and protection of property, yet water is foundational to New Orleans at every scale. Being in a distributary delta, the river creates land. Every grain of sediment beneath our feet was deposited here at some point by a flood. Yet in our efforts to control flooding, water has become something to be feared and fought. The disassociation between our built environment and our watery landscape continues to erode the fabric of our city and region -- physically, economically, and spiritually.

Michael works to repair this rift by collaborating with organizations and communities to reconnect the built environment to ecological context through green infrastructure, environmental outreach and engagement, and adaptation planning. Through this work, he hopes to help the city realize its goal of ‘living with water’ and help communities gain self-determination in how they grow and adapt to a wetter future.

Prior to founding Groundwater Studio, Michael worked on a wide variety of projects at previous firms including LA SAFE (Louisiana’s Strategic Adaptations for Future Environments), the Isle de Jean Charles Resettlement Program, and the BP Deepwater Horizon NRDA (Natural Resources Damage Assessment). He received his masters degree in landscape architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and bachelors degree in environmental science from Dickinson College.