An Architect by training, Michelle Honig-Szwarc brings to her projects a fluency with biblical sources, a wide range of multicultural experience, and a profound commitment to the practice of architecture and art as a medium for enhancing the collective experience.
In the early nineties, Honig-Szwarc participated in major restoration projects of world heritage sites, including the restoration of murals and stone structures in the Roman Forum, and various sites in the old cities of Acre and Caesarea. In the United States, she has been involved in nineteenth-century restoration projects, including the restoration of "Phillips Church" at the Phillips Exeter Academy. The challenges inherent in this project included preserving the beauty and spirit of Ralph Adams Cram's 1889 design, while transforming the building into a multi-denominational spiritual center that would serve Exeter’s diverse contemporary community.
Honig-Szwarc regards historical properties as timeless and introduces into their restoration elements that will connect the modern experience of the space with the many layers of its history and use. Such elements might be stained glass windows or any form of art that has the ability to inform the old and/or traditional with the vibrancy of a new and more universal reality.
In 1999, Honig-Szwarc won an open competition for her design of a twenty-foot tall stained-glass window for the Phillips Church. She has subsequently been involved in other architectural restoration projects, and has designed stained glass windows for academic and religious institutions, the most recent of which is a 28-foot long, eight-panel window for the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Honig-Szwarc has also worked on a wide range of contemporary design and architectural projects, both in the U.S. and abroad.
Born and raised in Israel, Honig-Szwarc has lived and worked in Europe, is married to a French man and has resided in the United States since 1998. She is a graduate of the United Nations International Center for the preservation and restoration of cultural property in Rome (ICCROM), and holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.