SCHMIDT ASSOCIATES - Key Persons
Abigail Bates, Architect | Schmidt Associates | Architects & Engineers
Abigail prides herself on working well with a team-and that includes her clients. Coordinating the various pieces of a project and the people involved can be tricky, but she believes it is the only way to successfully achieve the bigger goal. Abigail continuously hones her technical skills, communication, teamwork, and problem solving to tackle the diverse challenges that keep the practice of architecture interesting.
Alex has always expressed his thoughts creatively. Whether it's drawing or building something by hand, he enjoys the process of taking a vision or thought and making it a reality. Alex believes that, as an Architectural Designer, he is here to serve owners. He guides each project from inception to completion, while providing quality, professional design.
Allen Jacobsen brings a commitment to excellence in every design on all of his project. He loves the balancing act between the technical requirements, aesthetics, economy, constructability and the needs of the project's occupants. Getting to know the unique needs of each Owner is what allows Allen to deliver unique solutions to any challenge. In fact, educating clients and stakeholders is one of his favorite activities, and you'll usually find him right at home helping to explain why a certain approach will help facilitate an owner's project need.
Seeing beautiful buildings co-exist against a backdrop of mountains, valleys, and blue waters in his homeland of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, Alvin Laguerre knew he wanted to contribute to beauty and speak loudly through design. This solidified his career decision, and he attended Ball State University where he received a Bachelor of Architecture. Alvin has worked on a variety of K-12 projects at Schmidt Associates. As a designer, his attention to detail embraces the relationship between the facility, use, and how the space inspires occupants through color, form, and texture. By using different materials to bring out moods in his projects, Alvin promotes physical and mental well-being in schools.
Amber is a passionate storyteller. When she designs, she is crafting a story, piece by piece-whether it's a single room or an entire building. She believes designers create the user's journey through a space, ensuring they come out of it with a positive experience.
Andrew ensures HVAC needs are met with long-term energy savings in mind. He works with his team to provide sound mechanical design and customer satisfaction throughout each stage of a project. His personal and professional goals are the same: minimize energy consumption and harmful emissions in order to preserve our planet for future generations.
Anna Marie has brought her expertise to the following projects:
Ben Bain didn't arrive at Schmidt Associates in the traditional fashion, but our owners are glad he made it here. Ben built a career by identifying and meeting the needs of his clients in the radio industry. When he joined Schmidt Associates in 2002, it was obvious that his enthusiasm for helping owners understand their needs and what it takes to meet them was a natural fit. Today, he's a natural at engaging prospects and clients as the business development specialist for the K-12 studio. He works with dedicated educators that try to ensure the best for their students in often challenging conditions. Once studying at Yale University and Leningrad State University, he understands the principle that every school and community is unique, and that Schmidt Associates exists to meet the unique needs of each project.
Job Titles:
- Project Leader
- Client Liaison & Associate
Ben Simmons is a results-driven project leader with over 20 years of experience in the architecture and construction industry, having designed and managed some of the largest, most complex projects in the Midwest. He is a strategic thinker, communicator, and motivator who enjoys cultivating an environment, which maximizes potential and elevates overall output of project processes through trust and collaboration.
Ben leads Schmidt Associates' Community Studio in Kentucky with specialized expertise in community and workplace design. He believes the best projects emerge from strong partnerships, and he eagerly seeks out those individuals and groups who believe in the power of design and what it can do to elevate physical and cultural environments.
Ben's past life in construction management gives him a unique perspective as a mechanical engineer today. He believes a well-planned mechanical system provides a stress-free installation for the contractor, a seamless operation for the end user, and uses fewer materials during construction. This equates to lower cost, less time, higher efficiency, and a more successful end product for the Owner.
Ben enjoys how design projects bring together many different professionals and user groups. He brings his skills to the table to solve diverse mechanical challenges and help the team achieve their common goal.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Manager of Energy and Optimization
Bill Gruen has been passionate about energy efficiency, and the associated benefit of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, his entire career. Throughout his career at an Energy Service Company, Electric Utility, Property Management Firm, and Energy Consulting Firm, his role has been the same-implement energy efficiency projects or promote programs that help customers implement energy efficient equipment.
As a kid, Bob enjoyed spending time with his grandpa working in the barn, fixing things around the house, and building his own playground and toys. Since they spent many hours together building and designing, he realized he would be a good engineer one day. Fast forward several years, and now Bob is a civil engineer and project manager here at Schmidt Associates. If you ask him, he says the best part of the job is hearing how his design helped a community.
Brad would claim that there is no better feeling than having a conversation with an Owner and hearing stories about how their project with us was a success. As a mechanical designer, he loves when he is given the opportunity to design a project that truly makes a different for that Owner and for the end users. Brad's motto is to always listen to the Owner… "Don't sell the client a pick-up truck if they are looking for a vehicle that gets good fuel mileage!"
As a kid, Brandon Fox exercised his creativity through drawing and submitting to various art shows. Those skills later led him to attend a summer architecture program for high school students with Ball State University, solidifying his interest in the architectural field. As a member of our design team, Brandon likes digging deep into the details of design and figuring out how it all will work together. He feels a sense of pride when he is able to say a project he helped design performs above the Owner's expectations.
Brandon is a volunteer leader at The Red Barn, a youth center in his hometown. He also keeps busy by spending time with his family, attending sporting events, and rocking out on the drums.
As CFO, Brett Quandt knows that accurate financial data is crucial to making the right decisions, and delays in accounting can wind up being overages on the balance sheet. That's why he's a crucial part of Schmidt Associates, ensuring better choices through better financial data. His work helps the architects, engineers, and everyone else on the project team know where they stand so that they can tailor their inspiration to each client's budget. It helps owners rest easy knowing their budget is involved in every conversation, every time.
With hard-work and dedication, Cheryl completed Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Architecture from Ball State University.
Today, she has found her place at Schmidt Associates among fellow life-long learners. Together with her co-workers, she's dedicated to growing and refining her skills, knowing that it contributes to organizational success. She loves Microsoft Excel, organization, and encouraging others along their career path. Cheryl enjoys seeing finished designs come to life for Owners and she feels a sense of pride and accomplishment when what is asked of her gets done.
Craig Adams, Architect | Schmidt Associates | Architects & Engineers
Design has the power to change people's lives. This is what drives Craig Adama to come to work each day-working with clients to achieve something greater than himself. Craig combines his lifelong passion for architecture and his dedication to the craft to produce the best experience for a building's users.
Dan Billings enjoys the creative problem-solving aspect of architecture. His professional motto: Take the road less traveled, or better yet, make a new road. He credits his interest in design and technology, plus work ethic and creativity, for where he is today.
George Dom, commanding officer and flight leader of the Blue Angels during the late 1980's, has never seen levels of trust as low as they are now. The crisis of trust is vividly apparent to someone whose leadership/team experience meant those who inhabited his world personally came to work every day and literally put their […]
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President of the NBA 's Orlando Magic
A native Hoosier, Wayne S. Schmidt founded Schmidt Associates in Indianapolis in 1976 and was the sole employee. As principal and CEO, he grew the firm's staff and influence over the next 40 years, making a mark on his community through many beloved and historic projects. In 2016, he passed the leadership of the firm to his successor, Sarah Hempstead.
Wayne was an important driver in the urban revitalization of the Mass Ave neighborhood in Indianapolis. In the late 1970s, this now booming cultural district was a rundown, undesirable part of town. Wayne had a vision of the avenue as a hub of art and culture. He believed that by moving his firm here, he could influence and improve the surrounding area. Over the next 40 years, that's exactly what he did. The Schmidt Associates office still resides in the middle of Mass Ave, surrounded by restaurants, shops, trendy apartments, and Indianapolis hot spots, many of which the firm worked on.
Wayne was a strong, well-known advocate for progress in the city throughout his career. In 2002, he received the Robert D. Beckmann Leadership Award from the Riley Area Development Corporation for his service to the community.
He was also heavily involved in the state's architectural community, including the American Institute of Architects, the Indiana Society of Architects, and the Indiana Architectural Foundation. Wayne has advocated for architects in front of the Indiana State Senate, and he co-authored the book Indianapolis Architecture.
Wayne, on how his career began:
"It seems like yesterday I was drafting, with an ‘H' lead pencil and tracing paper, the plans for the Kerner House, my first project. I remember explaining to the owner [that] sun orientation was critical to capturing the morning light and protecting against afternoon sun from the west. The owner asked the contractor if that made sense, and he replied he didn't know - he ‘just tried to make the house wider than it was deep so it looked bigger from the street.' I got the job!"
On July 4, 1976, architect Wayne Schmidt declared his own form of independence, founding Schmidt Associates in downtown Indianapolis with a single employee, himself. Over the next 44 years, the firm grew to more than 100 employees and expanded to offer a full suite of architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, and engineering services.
With a specialty in education design-both K-12 and higher ed-the firm has completed countless projects at many of the school districts, colleges, and universities across Indiana. In addition to education work, the firm has also focused on projects that promote life-long learning, community enrichment, and urban renewal.
The firm played a pivotal role in the revitalization of Indianapolis' Mass Ave neighborhood, including the restoration of the Hammond Block building, the current Schmidt Associates office, and the new construction of Penrose on Mass. Other notable projects over the course of the firm's history include multiple residence halls at Ball State University, Ivy Tech's Illinois Fall Creek Center, Marian University's College of Osteopathic Medicine, and the adaptive reuse of the P.R. Mallory factory.
Bringing their talents together in 1926, established architects William Arrasmith and Herman Wischmeyer founded Wischmeyer & Arrasmith in Louisville, KY. More than 90 years later, the firm is now known as Arrasmith, a Schmidt Associates Company.