Michael Zenreich is a painter and architect by training, but he spends the bulk of his days interpreting the city's cumbersome construction codes.

When a client is looking to get a project approved--a loft conversion, say, or a new restaurant--Zenreich is the mastermind behind the creative solutions to any problems that arise during the building process.

Zenreich, who grew up in Far Rockaway sections of Queens, received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from the Pratt Institute. He has more than 4,000 projects under his belt, including high-profile endeavors like Nobu, the 4-star TriBeCa restaurant, and 497 Greenwich Street, an undulating glass and steel condominium designed by Winka Dubbeldam of Archi-Tectonics. And in NoHo, where the expansion of floor area is prohibited, Zenreich managed to design a rooftop cabana that received city approval.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"I get to work on a lot of celebrity projects," said Zenreich, who founded his own firm in 1990 and counts six of his former Yale School of Architecture professors among his renowned clients. "And it's because I provide the framework from initiation to completion."

While most architects outsource legal analysis to full-time expediters, Zenreich is equipped to handle all stages of the building process. After assessing the feasibility of construction plans, he is often hired to complete them.

Earlier this year, he expanded and removed a fire escape from a building on West 23rd Street, converting the commercial property into mixed-use space with a restaurant on the ground floor and residences above. "I did everything from design to construction to expediting," he said. "I'm a balance between left-sided and right-sided."

Case in point: More than 30 years ago, he submitted a portfolio of abstract paintings based on mathematical formulas to the Yale School of Architecture. The pieces, some of which hang in his Chelsea office, are what he describes as "logical paintings."

During his last year at Yale, Zenreich received a grant from the National Endowment of Humanities to photograph the historic bridges that span eastern Connecticut's Merritt Parkway--a project that harked back to his brief stint as a professional photographer, snapping wedding portraits and working on catalogs.

"My professors all talked about the Merritt Parkway, and how it was beautifully designed," Zenreich said. "One day, someone pointed out that the bridges were all different."

Though he initially put the project on hold, he has now documented more than 20 overpasses. Zenreich recently digitized the black and white prints and posted them at: www.themerrittparkway.com.

Hired by Eli Attia Architects in 1980, his first assignment involved analyzing zoning regulations for a midtown construction site. Zenreich went on to manage large-scale commercial projects like the Republican Bank Tower and New York Hospital, before the firm named him a partner in 1988.

Two years later, a recession crippled New York's real estate market, leaving the company and Zenreich with little work. And that's when he decided to launch his own boutique firm.

"I had no real work around for three or four years, so I consciously decided to become a service-oriented firm," Zenreich said. "I realized there were lots of things people needed to use an architect for--even in a recession."

It's a lesson that has not only kept Zenreich afloat during the current economic slump, but busier than ever. "You always need to find ways to get something approved and changed," he said. "I spend 20 to 30 percent of my time looking at new projects."

Drafts of the latest building code changes--such as a new requirement that architects illustrate compliance with energy efficiency standards in their blueprints--arrive in his inbox every morning. And now that the city has decided to clamp down on shoddy construction, following a series of crane accidents that occurred during New York's real estate boom, "it takes twice as long as it used to get projects approved," he said.

Real estate aside, Zenreich recently completed a series of oil pastel paintings on display at Cooper Classics Collection in the West Village. He was inspired to pick up a paintbrush for the first time in several years by one of his clients--an artist who teaches at Pratt.

At work, however, the balance is shifting away from design. "I look at my career and it's always been on the artistic side, but the business has morphed into coding and zoning," said Zenreich, who divides his time between an art-filled Park Avenue apartment and a home in Westport, Conn. "As for design? I'll leave that to the younger kids."