Matthew grew up in Mocksville, North Carolina and attended Davie High School where he graduated in 1992.  During his senior year, the high school principal asked him to design an addition to the high school that added both classrooms and a large auditorium to the campus.  Matthew choose the placement of the building and worked with the principal on the programming.  The site development, programming, and design was presented to the school board and was used as the base for the building that was later built.

After high school he studied Architectural Technology at Forsyth Technical Community College and graduated with High Honors.  In 1994, Matthew started studying architecture at the College of Architecture at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

As a student in the College of Architecture, Matthew participated through Bank of America in the community design of several projects, including the proposed arena project and light rail/trolley line proposals.  He also received funding from the American Institute of Architects to participate in the 1996 AIA Academy of Architecture for Health/AMSCO Student Design Charrette.  During his last two years of college, he worked as a teaching/research assistant for Dr. Kingston Heath--much of this time was spent working toward the completion of his book entitled The Patina of Place: The Cultural Weathering of a New England Industrial Landscape (winner of the Abbott Lowell Cumming's Award for the best written work in North American dealing with Vernacular Design). Matthew's fifth-year thesis project dealt with a technical education facility as a generator of growth in small communities, entitled The Reinterpretation of Main Street as a Point of Economic, Social, and Academic Growth: The Use of an Architectural Technical College as a Stimulate of Growth in Mocksville, North Carolina.

After college he spent a year at Miller Architecture in Charlotte, North Carolina before moving back to the Winston-Salem area to work at Edwin Bouldin Architect, PA where he worked from 2001 until 2018.  Matthew's collaborations with Ed Bouldin resulted in the following architectural awards:

Carver High School (2006): Merit Award from The American Institute of Architects (North Carolina Chapter)

Hutchinson House Restoration (2007): Honor Award from The American Institute of Architects (North Carolina Chapter - Winston-Salem Section)

The Ross Residence (2009): Citation from The American Institute of Architects (North Carolina Chapter - Winston-Salem Section)

Western Regional Record Center (2011): Griffin Award from The Preservation Society of Asheville and Buncombe County

Western Regional Record Center (2011): Gertrude S. Carraway Award of Merit from The Historic Preservation Foundation of North Carolina, Inc.

Haw River State Park, ADA Improvements to the Youth Conference Building and the Administration Building (2013): Citation Award from The American Institute of Architects (North Carolina Chapter - Winston-Salem Section)