Kahler Slater is an architecture and interior design firm headquartered on North Water Street in downtown Milwaukee. It also has offices in Madison, Chicago, Richmond, Virginia, and Charlotte, plus a studio in Singapore. Besides architecture and interiors, it offers environmental branding and advisory services. Healthcare is a big part of the practice, alongside higher education, workplace, hospitality and restaurants, multifamily, sports and recreation, and cultural and civic work. Kahler Slater designed the six-story, 266,200-square-foot care tower at Centra’s Lynchburg General Hospital in Virginia, which topped out Oct. 6, 2026. The tower holds a new emergency department, 12 operating rooms and women’s services, and the firm says it’s the largest healthcare project in Virginia designed around geothermal systems.
Two people hold the chief executive title at Kahler Slater. Al Krueger, AIA and Glenn Roby, AIA share it under what the firm calls a shared leadership model, with Roby also working as a workplace strategist. Tracie Parent is executive vice president and chief financial and operations officer. Team leaders include Larry Schnuck, FAIA, Jeff Piette, AIA and Joseph Sinnett, AIA, with Christopher Morales, AIA, LEED AP as practice leader.
Four disciplines run side by side rather than as add-ons: architecture, interior design, environmental branding and strategic advisory services. The firm describes a data-driven process that starts with a client’s obstacles and goals before any design begins — which is why advisory sits alongside the drawing work rather than beneath it. Twelve market sectors are served, among them community recreation and wellness, health and sciences education, medical office buildings, and sports and recreation.
The portfolio is heaviest in Wisconsin but far from confined to it. Milwaukee holds the Bradley Symphony Center for the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and BMO Tower. At UW-Madison the firm designed Morgridge Hall for the College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence, which won a Fast Company Innovation by Design Award in 2026, and the campus Recreation and Wellbeing Center. The Haggerty Museum of Art took AIA Wisconsin’s inaugural 25 Year Award in 2026, an award given for design that has held up over time.
Healthcare runs deep: SSM Health outpatient centers in Sun Prairie and Verona, a transformational care tower at Centra Health’s Lynchburg General Hospital, Bryan Health’s Merrick Medical Center, and HSHS St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. The firm is also designing Moss Universal Park, which it describes as the country’s first universally inclusive park, and Milwaukee’s first universally accessible playground.
Work extends into Canada and Singapore, including Metso/Outotec interiors and brand design and the University of Tennessee College of Dentistry. The six studios are Milwaukee and Madison in Wisconsin, plus Richmond, Chicago, Charlotte and Singapore.
Culture gets unusual emphasis for a design firm. Design Week, an annual event mixing speakers from inside and outside the industry with hands-on activities, has run for more than a decade. The firm has backed United Way in Milwaukee and Madison and UPAF for more than 20 years each, and partnered with Ronald McDonald House Charities across 2025 and 2026. Staff get a choose-your-own-benefit program that can be directed at parking, home internet or flight upgrades, alongside hybrid work. It was named a Best Place to Work in 2026.
