Erick Mikiten, FAIA founded Mikiten Architecture in 1991 to use his experience growing up in public housing to elevate multi-family affording housing to a higher level of artistic design. As a wheelchair-riding, hard-of-hearing architect, his unique insights made him sought after by clients around the country to bring new, creative levels of design to other architects’ housing projects, and to mixed-use, library, museum, corporate workplace, and other building types. Governor Jerry Brown recognized his expertise by appointing him to the California Building Standards Commission that creates the State Building Code.

Extending his efforts nationwide, he partnered with San Francisco non-profit The Kelsey to create a guidelines and rating system, modeled after the LEED Green Building System, for multifamily projects around the country to get certifications for achieving different levels of UD that far exceed the ADA standards.