The projects featured in Close to Home are within a 15-mile radius of where Louisville architect Michael Koch was born, raised, and has practiced for almost forty years. Educated at the University of Kentucky School of Architecture during the Dean Anthony Eardley era, where he was taught by Guillermo Julian de la Fuente, Peter Carl, Stephen Deger, Judith DeMaio, Clyde Carpenter, and Herb Greene, Koch has created a body of work in the Ohio River Valley that is site-specific and expressive, translating Kentucky's regional idioms into a vibrant modernism. From airy houses that take advantage of Louisville's Olmstead-designed parks and local materials, to structures that are strikingly adapted to the Ohio River floodplain, to church-inspired metropolitan projects, Koch's buildings are a memorable part of the city's landscape. Close to Home presents the award-winning achievements of his firm Michael Koch and Associates Architects, and introduces readers to the simple elegance of his designs and meaningful contributions he has made to the architecture of Kentucky.
