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Wheeler Kearns is a collective practice of architects.

We work with people who seek to enrich their lives in spaces that embody their purpose, energy, and vision.

Founded in 1987, we have over thirty years of experience with visioning and master-planning, renovation, adaptive reuse, and new construction projects for residential, institutional, commercial, and community-driven organizations. Our work spans from alternative affordable housing models to multi-family mid-rise structures; from community food pantries to innovative visual and performing arts venues. We are drawn to complex design problems and constraints that challenge us to create unique, responsive, and inspiring solutions.

We are a diverse group of thinkers and designers who equally share in the roles of designer, technician and manager. Each project architect is fully immersed in your project, from the very first conversation through move-in and evaluating the success of your space after it is occupied. We have been fortunate to cultivate long-lasting relationships with many of our clients.

In our practice, every architect proactively trains across multiple project types ensuring that the breadth of experience and institutional knowledge built over time enriches each project. We build our teams to include individuals with a range of experiences and knowledge to avoid any preconceived notions about your project and ensure fresh ideas and continuous innovation.

Through office-wide studio pin-ups and internal reviews, all staff members contribute ideas and feedback to every project to provide the best ideas and highest quality work. This philosophy offers a wider spectrum of possibility and has led to unanticipated solutions, like transforming a shuttered lumberyard into an innovative 21st-century school. Or discovering that the 70-foot tower of an abandoned food-manufacturing plant can be a viable and exciting gallery and performance space. Our approach ensures that the best ideas will be explored for each unique project.

When a space we design resonates with your deepest intention, it has a lasting and powerful impact. As we work with you, we devote all our energies to understanding your core purpose, the transformation you seek, your mission.

We want to see your challenge through your eyes. Doing this guides us to what we call the “emotional center,” the heart around which your entire project revolves. We return to that central idea as we craft concepts, help you make decisions, and refine our responses to those choices.

The result is a space that responds uniquely to your mission. When a client contacts us years after a project is complete to let us know they’re “just sitting here experiencing beyond-expectations contentment,” we know we’ve gotten it right.

Year Completed 2017

Location

St. Joseph, MI

St. Joseph Beach House

St. Joseph Beach House is a new single-family residence nestled into expansive dune grass along Lake Michigan. In response to the client’s desire for intimate living spaces, lake views, and privacy from the street, a cluster of vernacular volumes clad in soft, weathering materials are crafted to create a variety of indoor and outdoor spaces for the family and guests.

Horizontal shiplap wood-cladding and cedar shingles are detailed in a taut, minimal way, and are designed to both protect and weather gracefully in the constant wind coming off the lake. Instead of using endangered hardwood siding, an acetylated wood siding, Radiata Accoya, was selected for its sustainable, durable, and rotresisting features. Stainless steel fasteners are used to withstand the acidity of the chosen siding.

Inside, finer finishes contrast to the weathered outside surfaces, creating warm and intimate environments. Gathering spaces, throughout the separate volumes, are all united by continuous white oak floors, ceilings and millwork. A suspended steel entry staircase features monolithic white oak treads, and a wood top-rail attached to the steel railings.

Throughout the home, inside and out, finished or exposed, wood captures the ever-changing dance of light, wind, sand and water.

Photography

Steve Hall

Year Completed 2022

Location Lakeside, MI

Photography Steve Hall

Meadow Lane Retreat

Meadow Lane Retreat leverages the unique attributes of a two-acre wooded bluff site overlooking Lake Michigan to achieve the homeowner’s desire for “an escape from the city for family to gather. A place to breathe.”

Three separate structures—the main house, an entertainment/guest wing, and a garage—are thoughtfully arranged to maximize natural light, capture views, and create inviting outdoor spaces. Natural, native materials blur the distinction between inside and out.

At the ground level of the main house, a limestone wall wraps the exterior and extends through the home, beneath the feet, and out to a pool terrace.

The ground level of the entertainment wing and garage is clad in dark slatted wood siding, echoing the vertical woodland. The second-story boxes, clad in weathered black locust, gracefully float above a band of clerestory windows. The clerestory windows not only fill the interiors with natural light but also ensure privacy around a contemplative garden courtyard. Beneath the box’s overhang at the entry, a slatted oak ceiling continuously flows out and in. Floor-to-ceiling glass openings and mitered glass corners invite sunlight to illuminate each room, immersing one in nature.

The owners arrive and exhale. This is their sanctuary—a place to be restored.

Sawyer Retreat

Year Completed 2024

Location

Sawyer, MI

Sited along a steep lakeside bluff bordering a ravine, Sawyer Retreat is a new vacation house integrated into the native Michigan sand dune landscape. The owners were drawn to the property’s remoteness, unique topography, and panoramic views of Lake Michigan, making it the perfect environment for respite from city life and for gathering with family.

Located at the end of a meandering single-lane road, the home asserts privacy from the street with a low single-story, black-charred wood exterior. A thin wood and steel pedestrian bridge spans the sloping ground to reach the front door, reinforcing the light touch and respect for the site, strategically positioned around existing trees.

Conceptually, two slightly skewed wooden boxes float over a concrete base rooted into the hillside—built up rather than out. At the entry point between the two volumes, a ‘slice’ through the home connects sky, lake, and light. From the lakeside, the façade opens up with large glass openings that take advantage of panoramic views while remaining nestled into the dense dunescape.

Inside, spaces are oriented to prioritize views. The entryway presents a brief glimpse of the lake beyond, a moment meant to capture the essence of the home. On the south end, an open living, dining, and family space opens onto an exterior deck that overlooks the ravine and the lake. In the ‘slice’ between the living room and the primary suite on the upper floor, a skylight spans above a staircase to the lower level, which includes a family room, guest bedrooms, and a bunk room.

Photography

Tom Harris