Registered architect, urban planner, certified interior designer, registered lobbyist and chartered real estate broker. A development file normally passes through five firms. Here it stays on one desk. Montréal, since 1992.
OAQ
Registered Architect
Ordre des architectes du Québec
Issued 1992
OUQ
Registered Urban Planner
Ordre des urbanistes du Québec
Issued 1994
CIDQ
Certified Interior Designer
Council for Interior Design Qualification
Issued 2001
RLQ
Registered Consulting Lobbyist
Registre des lobbyistes du Québec
Issued 2010
OACIQ
Chartered Broker & Agency Director
Organisme d’autoréglementation du courtage immobilier du Québec
Issued 2011 · G1737
01The cost of five desks
A development file passes through five sets of hands.
An architect draws it. An urban planner tests it against the zoning. A lawyer papers it. A lobbyist carries it to the city. A broker finally sells or leases it. Five firms, five contracts, five briefings.
Every handoff is a delay and a re-explanation. Intent gets lost in the gaps between disciplines that do not share a file, an incentive, or a deadline — and the project pays for it in months.
02The turn
Escobar holds every one of these registrations himself. The drawing, the zoning argument, the approval and the transaction stay inside one file, carried by one person who is accountable for all of it.
03Selected work
c. 1986 / Little Italy, Montréal
Architectural concept — competition winner
Early career / Place d’Armes, Old Montréal
Stained glass concept, entrance hall — with Elwood & Henderson
Early career / Old Montréal
Realignment with Saint-Urbain — with SIMPA
04What he is retained for
Miguel Escobar personally
Ordre des architectes du Québec · since 1992
Commercial, residential, industrial and institutional. Concept through construction administration.
Miguel Escobar personally
OACIQ · agency director since 2011 · G1737
Acquisition and disposition with an architect reading the building. Roughly 500 transactions.
Future Cities Group — multidisciplinary team
Consulting subsidiaries
The disciplines around the building, delivered by the firm rather than signed personally.
Registered architect since 1992
Four orders and a public register
Since the 2011 licence
Montréal · Beijing · LATAM brokerage
The mission
To create a future sustainable world of new environments, while creating value for clients, their users and their stakeholders.
Projects committed to ESG: sustainable design, community impact and ethical governance — backed by ICD corporate-directors certification, not just stated.
05Two ways in
Track A
Acquisition strategy, feasibility, master planning, architecture, the approval path and the government file — under one accountable signature.
Track B
Chartered brokerage with an architect reading the building. Montréal, plus Punta Cana and Puerto Vallarta.
06Where the work has been
His previous site listed six markets. These are the ones with a project, a licence or a live listing behind them.
01Home practice since 1992
The rehabilitation of parts of Montréal’s underground city, McGill College Avenue, Villa Mozart, the Aldred Building, Côte-de-la-Place-d’Armes, Gatineau’s downtown core, the Mount Sinai relocation and a 100-hectare new city near Ottawa.
02Several years of practice in China
Led projects tied to the 2008 Olympic Games, and won the competition to redevelop Wangfujing — Beijing’s principal commercial street.
03Brokerage, not architecture
Active listings in the Dominican Republic and Mexico, carried under his OACIQ agency licence.
Europe, the United States and the Middle East appeared on the old site with no project behind them — pending confirmation from Miguel, they are not claimed here.
07On the record
Press
Oct 2024
The atypical career of Miguel Escobar
JBC Media — Nathalie Savaria
Article
May 2026
Three early projects that helped shape Old Montreal
miguelescobar.ca
Article
May 2026
Villa Mozart: the landmark that marked an early vision
miguelescobar.ca
Podcast
Jun 2023
Au-delà des plans #70
Construction podcast, with Bruno Rajot
Insights, occasionally
Every enquiry is read by Miguel himself.