Mike Saylor is an urban planner and currently the president of BHR, Inc., a Jacksonville based engineering, planning, surveying and landscape architecture firm.
Saylor was born and raised in a “neo-traditional neighborhood” about a five-minute bus ride from Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. His parents’ home overlooked what was the largest steel mill in the world at that time.
He attended Baltimore public schools. In his freshman year of high school his father, a foreman at that nearby steel mill, was offered a promotion to Gary, Ind.
After becoming an Indiana high school track champion, he accepted an athletic scholarship to Ball State University, in Muncie, Ind. Saylor graduated from Ball State with degrees in regional and urban planning and political science.
Saylor moved to Bradenton in the winter of 1972, the day after college graduation. He began his career as a land use planner in Manatee County on Christmas Eve, 1972. He moved to Jacksonville in 1978 after having worked as the deputy director of planning for Pensacola.
Saylor, like many design professionals in Jacksonville, spent time at Reynolds, Smith and Hills, Inc. as a project manager. Since 1982, Saylor has been pursuing his career at BHR.
In 1993, Mayor Ed Austin appointed Saylor to the Jacksonville Planning Commission. Saylor served as chairman of the Land Development Sub committee and was elected chair of the full commission in September 1996.
Believing he could improve relationships between City staff, the Planning Commission, and local design professionals, Saylor served on the commission in several capacities for more than seven years.
Saylor became president of BHR, Inc. in 1996 and is currently responsible for corporate management and quality assurance and control in the areas of urban planning and design, regulatory approvals, and coordination of large-scale project teams.
Saylor has worked on a number of high-profile local projects, including Cecil Field Redevelopment, The Shipyards, Alltel Stadium, The Baseball Grounds at Jacksonville and the new Jacksonville Veterans’ Memorial Coliseum.