BACKGROUND

Studio io was founded in January 2018 by Michael Raia, following a long period of careful discernment and many conversations with friends, family, and colleagues – including future Studio io team members Mike Tamara and Katie Ortega – about offering professional liturgical design services steeped in a faithful liturgical theology and an ambitious desire for integrating comprehensive renewal into a sacramental approach to renovation and new construction projects of a sacred nature.

With an undergraduate background in architecture and over a decade of experience as a senior project manager for an architecture firm primarily serving non-profit clients, Michael had the great blessing of serving dozens of church and school clients. In 2014, after having worked on a number of Catholic projects, he enrolled in a 5-year graduate summer program offered by the Liturgical Institute at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake (Mundelein Seminary) in Chicago to focus more intently on understanding the sacred liturgy and the Church’s tradition and requirements for church-building. He received a merit scholarship and graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2019. During his final year of coursework in late 2017, plans for completing architectural licensure shifted as the vision for liturgical design emerged, allowing a new approach to sacred art and architecture. This method seeks to forge a connection to the Church’s missionary work of evangelization in the pattern of Pope Benedict XVI’s framework for mystagogical catechesis and the Via Palchritudinis – the Way of Beauty.

The firm’s vision has always been rooted in broad personal and professional formation and a collaborative approach with clergy, lay professionals, staff, and volunteers serving in various capacities, while also offering the faithful presentation of magisterial teachings and Sacred Tradition. The business took on its first clients to start 2018 while Michael completed his master’s thesis, simultaneously working to finish several prior projects in a contracted collaboration with his former employer. This ensured a continuity in management and quality outcome, and the work was a blessing for the fledgling business as well. It was with great enthusiasm that colleagues Mike Tamara and Katie Ortega officially joined the team shortly thereafter and began building up the firm’s mission, skills, and portfolio. Heading into 2020 with an uncertain future, the Lord generously provided several key projects for the team to undertake during the otherwise quiet period due to the global pandemic, and the team’s experience and skill set have been able to continually grow to meet the blessing of new challenges and opportunities. The team delights in the rich history of American church-building and strives to honor and further the work done by some of the great architects and artisans of the past two centuries.

Michael Raia and Mike Tamara have written and presented extensively on the topics of sacred art & architecture, liturgy, and evangelization to elementary, junior/senior high school, and college students, young adults, seminarians & clergy, building committees, parish-wide and diocesan gatherings, and podcast/radio/periodical audiences.