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Andrew Reach, Architect and Miami native (b.1961), spent his formative years in Miami. From an early age he had an appreciation of art, graphic design and Architecture and enjoyed drawing and sketching. By high school, he knew what he wanted to be - an Architect.

In 1983, he moved with his life partner (of 26 years), Bruce Baumwoll, to Greenwich Village in New York City to study architecture at Pratt Institute. In 1986, they moved to Los Angeles where Andrew practiced architecture with Harold Zellman. His projects with Harold Zellman ranged from private residences to creative offices for film directors, editors and advertising agencies. In addition, there were Historic Restoration projects with the restoration of the Evan’s house designed by Lloyd Wright and the Yasha Heifetz Studio also designed by Lloyd Wright.

In 1996 they moved back to Florida to be near their families. Back in Miami, Andrew’s architecture moved in a different direction, towards large-scale buildings as an Architect for the large worldwide firm Hellmuth Obata & Kassabaum. His projects with HOK included a new Terminal and concourses at Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood International Airport and the new Miami Federal Courthouse (a joint venture with the world renowned Miami based firm Arquitectonica). As Project Architect, his last project was The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University in Miami.

Starting in adolescence Andrews spine began showing signs of a disease known as Scheuermann’s Kyphosis, an abnormal curvature of the spine where the spine curves forward. Andrew remembered being told as a teenager not to slouch but, frustratingly, it was impossible for him to hold his spine straight. Over many years, his kyphotic curvature continued to get worse. His kyphosis was measured at an 87° deformity. Normal thoracic curves display an angle of somewhere between 30° and 40°. After a day at work he felt like his back was breaking in two. In time, without surgery, his internal organs would be impacted.

His first surgery in January 2003 involved a multi level spinal fusion assisted by rods and screws to correct the curvature. This fusion comprised more than two thirds of his spine.

About a year and a half after the surgery he began having trouble holding up his neck without severe pain. The pain was due to a rare complication called Spondylolisthesis caused by Transitional Syndrome occurring at the top of the rigid fixation from the first surgery. With this complication, the disk segments adjacent to a rigid fixation break down. As his surgeon would explain it to him in lay terms, “Your head is falling off your spine.” He would require another complex surgery extending the fusion to structurally pull the spine back in alignment and stop the spondylolisthesis. The second surgery was performed in November 2004.

After the surgery, Andrew spent 6 months wearing a special neck brace attached to a second thoracic brace around the back and chest and spent 9 months using a bone growth stimulator. He still has debilitating pain which prevents him from performing his profession as an Architect. He has a limited threshold and can’t work sitting or standing for extended periods of time.

Unable to work in his chosen career in architecture, he has turned to the world of computer generated art to express his creative energies and help fill the vacuum left in the wake of the loss of his profession. “I now feel blessed that I have been able to discover a different kind of artist lying dormant within me. As my art has evolved, I have learned to use the power of intuition and visualization to help me cope with my condition, and am continually inspired by the mindfulmess of my body, my pain, and my limitations”, he says.

Andrew’s work has been exhibited in solo and international juried exhibitions in Miami, New York, Burlington Vermont, San Francisco and Chicago. Andrew and Bruce now reside in Cleveland Ohio. His work is now part of the permanent collection of the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, a Smithsonian affiliated museum.