Abraham Kadushin got his start as his own boss when his boss moved on up the ladder.

The Ann Arbor resident was working for a non-profit architectural and planning firm in 1975 when his boss was tapped to be the city planner for the city of Detroit. Kadushin took the reigns of the company and created Kadushin Associates Architects Planners.

The Ann Arbor-based firm now employs six people, a handful of independent contractors and the occasional intern. It also has an office in Florida.

Kadushin specializes in urban developments and affordable housing. It has done lots of projects in Ann Arbor, Florida and Detroit, among other places. Its most recent accomplishments are the highly successful Woodbridge Estates in Detroit and the recently launched Gardenview Estates in Northwest Detroit.

The firm plans to take on more sustainable projects, especially with regard to the readaptive use of old buildings, such as old factories turned lofts.

"We hope to work with a major landowner (in Detroit) to do sustainable plans for readapting old industrial buildings," Kadushin says.

Source: Abraham Kadushin, principal of Kadushin Associates Architects Planners
Writer: Jon Zemke