Michael Ech(ava)rria studied and worked in Arizona, Washington DC, Boston, and San Francisco prior to settling in Sonoma and starting his own practice on the plaza. He most recently worked as a valuable team member on a variety of award-winning projects with Mark Cavagnero, FAIA, at Mark Cavagnero Associates.

Mike is fascinated by the intersection of diverse disciplines, building methodologies, and architectural typologies. He finds fulfillment in the disciplined pursuit of maintaining a project’s 'big picture' design while embracing adaptability to the unknown. Mike believes that, at worst, good building design unifies available resources—time, money, and materials—into coherent forms that thoughtfully address a client’s needs. At best, these objects unify space through which our experiences thrive.

A counterpoint to Mike’s undergraduate and graduate studies in architecture and philosophy, Mike has had the distinct pleasure of earning the title of ‘Mustang’ - having honorably served as both an enlisted NCO and commissioned officer in the United States Marine Corps.

His true loves are his two boys, Jack and West, and his wife, Anna, whom he owes the world.

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Like a dune, ever-shifting and reshaping under the whisper of winds, a building, too, is not a static entity. It interacts and evolves with its surroundings, responding to known and unknown constraints in a continual dance of adaptation. Our experience within its embrace morphs not just over the hours of a day, but over years as the building melds with the ever-evolving tapestry of its locale. Dune encapsulates this ethos, symbolizing our steadfast commitment to crafting narratives that honor and reflect the interplay between individuality and the collective expression of design. Each project is an endeavor to create spaces that gracefully respond and adapt to variables such as weather, sound, the surrounding context, light, life, and the inexorable march of time. Through this process, we aim to ensure a harmonious blend of form and function, akin to the natural elegance of the transient yet enduring dune.