SHELTER ARCHITECTURE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director of Architecture Architect
Beth leads award-winning residential and commercial design projects. Beth joined Shelter in 2013 after earning her Master of Architecture degree from the University of Minnesota. She's an expert at understanding the details and functionality of a space. From a project's first stages, she works to incorporate resilient and sustainable design strategies, making Shelter buildings more efficient and better for the environment. Beth also helps advance our studio's software expertise and graphic excellence. Her leadership in technology brings efficiency and innovation to the studio.
When not designing buildings, Beth channels her artistic passions through other creative outlets including jewelry making, metal smithing, pottery, baking, stain glass, watercolor, crochet, knitting, and glass blowing. At her core, Beth is a maker of beautiful things both in the Shelter studio and outside.
Job Titles:
- Director of Design Architect
With a background that includes construction expertise, Greg brings to our team a unique perspective that helps Shelter deliver work that is not only innovative, but also practical and well-detailed. He's led several award-winning projects, including Skill Shot Coffee & Pinball Bar in Eau Claire, WI, and The Hangar at the Minnesota State Fair.
Greg joined Shelter in 2016 - but the breadth of his work extends well beyond our studio. Since spending a year (2009-2010) in Kenya on a design fellowship, Greg has been involved with important education and water projects there. Currently, he and his wife are leading an effort to develop the Mugunda Maternity Clinic, a prenatal and postnatal care clinic in Mugunda, Kenya. Meanwhile, Greg is working to restore and renovate his own 50-year-old home in Taylors Falls, MN.
Job Titles:
- Interior Designer
- Project Leader
Recipient of the 2022 ASID-MN Emerging talent award, Jackie is an interior designer and project leader at Shelter Architecture. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Interior Design from Iowa State University in 2013. Prior to her work with Shelter, Jackie gained expertise as a kitchen and bath specialist at a firm in Des Moines.
Jackie originally joined Shelter to coordinate the logistics of selection, ordering and shipment for the Oxbow Hotel project and has been collaborating for projects smoothly between the design team, clients, consultants, and contractors ever since. Her effortless ability to manage and coordinate large amounts of information is invaluable to the team.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Partner
- President Founding Partner Architect Interior Designer
Shelter co-founder and partner, Jackie Millea, shares what ‘design for all' means to her: In 1988 my father, then 47,…
Jakob's passions for architecture stem from wanting to provide great spaces not just for people, but for the environment and the animals who inhabit it. Coming from a family of farmers, he has a long and deep connection to ecology and the environment which has shaped his interests in architecture practicing empathy and care for all in the way he approaches design problems. Jakob enjoys the opportunities that Shelter creates to not only design meaningful spaces but also ones that are environmentally conscious.
Jakob has been with Shelter since 2023. He earned his Master's of Architecture as well as his Master's of Science in Metropolitan design from the University of Minnesota in 2022.
Job Titles:
- Founding Partner Architect Lead Designer
John heads up Shelter's project oversight and quality assurance. He's an expert at interpreting building codes and sciences, gathering and prioritizing information from users, and innovating simple and beautiful solutions that meet people's needs, budgets and timelines.
For more than 30 years, John has taken a team-driven approach to design that welcomes stakeholders and community members into the conversation. The goals of this participatory process are to develop a shared vision of the final product and to secure buy-in from the beginning. The approach has yielded wildly successful projects in the public realm, ranging in scale from the Science House - a net-zero-energy teaching outpost at the Science Museum of Minnesota - to the relocation of the entire downtown district of Sauk Rapids, MN, to make way for a new bridge over the Minnesota River.
John's accomplishments as a leader in the practice of user collaboration earned him an AIA Fellowship in 2015. Prior to his time at Shelter, John founded and led Barbour/LaDouceur Design Group (BLDG).
Kat champions the Shelter brand through the planning and execution of a wide range of marketing tactics. She creates content for social media and blog posts, documents project progress, contributes to the website, leads advertising and sponsorship activations, manages award submissions, and handles all other tasks related to showcasing the team's work.
She enjoys creating approachable, engaging content that reflects Shelter's work and culture for clients and followers to enjoy. She also loves streamlining processes to make the team more efficient and functional. Outside of the office Kat finds time to play volleyball, hammock, read, and travel whenever possible.
Keely received her Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Minnesota in 2023, and is now pursuing her Master's of Architecture degree while working part-time at the studio. Keely's passion for architecture started at a young age when she'd spend hours drawing up house and hotel floor plans, imagining how people live in and enjoy spaces. Keely's interest in architecture and design has continued to grow since then. She's particularly interested in urban design, walkable city planning, universal design, adaptive reuse, and sustainable living which she plans to continue exploring both in graduate school and at Shelter.
With a love for learning and using both the analytical and creative sides of her brain, Keely adds a valuable blend of creativity and practicality to our studio. Outside of work and school, Keely enjoys dancing, traveling, photography, and all things Gopher sports.
Job Titles:
- Director of Business Development & Marketing
Kristo creates connections and fosters mutually beneficial relationships for Shelter, our clients and business partners. He brings to our firm more than two decades of business development and marketing expertise with professional services firms and is a champion of diversity, equity and inclusion. Kristo serves on the board of directors for Forecast Public Art, a nonprofit that activates, inspires, and advocates for public art that advances justice, health, and human dignity.
With a degree in speech and theater from St. Olaf College, Kristo gigs as a voice actor, video editor and livestream director. He is the proud parent of three open-champion Irish dancers, and also works as a stage manager and lighting designer for music and dance productions at the Celtic Junction Arts Center in St. Paul.
Job Titles:
- Founding Partner Lead Designer
Kurt's diverse design experience brings to Shelter's projects a point of view that is rare among architecture firms. It's a key component in the award-winning work that fills our portfolio.
Kurt believes one of our most powerful tools is the design process. As a project's plans take shape, he excels at identifying critical design elements, simplifying solutions, solving specialty constructions, planning for challenging spaces, developing presentation graphics and designing customized construction details.
Kurt co-founded Shelter in 2004. His journey can be traced back to his youth, when he demonstrated an early aptitude for drawing. Later, his passion for art and theater became the focus of his studies at St. Olaf College. Kurt began his career in the theater industry, spending nearly a decade as a scenic designer, prop artisan and painter for institutions including the Guthrie Theater and Baltimore Center Stage. He began his next act by earning his Master of Architecture from the University of Minnesota and working for two Twin Cities firms before taking on his role as a Shelter founding partner.
Today, Kurt uses his design talents both in and outside of the Shelter studio. He is currently on the board of the Mixed Blood Theater, is the former chairman of the board of Forecast Public Art, and an instructor of architecture in the art department at St. Olaf College. As a member of Mayflower UCC in Minneapolis, Kurt has helped spearhead the church's Earthwise initiative to achieve a carbon neutral facility by 2030. He is still active as a theatrical set designer and recently designed and built props and sets for independent and Hollywood studio films.
Job Titles:
- Director of Interior Design Interior Designer
Lisa is an expert at directing clients through design decisions and selections of finishes, fixtures and furnishings. Her guidance helps create unforgettable spaces, as unique as they are comfortable. Lisa's design achievements range from residential property renovations to full-scale commercial projects. She is passionate about making spaces really work well for the ways people live.
Lisa graduated summa cum laude from the University of Minnesota, where she earned her BS in interior design. She began her education as an aspiring artist at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, where she worked in the world of sculpture by creating large room installations. Drawing heavily from her intrinsic understanding of form, design and the ways people interact in environments, Lisa has excelled at Shelter for more than a decade.
Having a tagalong pet has changed the dynamics in our office. Sir Otis Macintosh, a forty pound Border Collie/Corgi mix,…