Schuler Shook

Schuler Shook was founded in 1986 and practices three disciplines: theatre planning, lighting design and audio-video design. Chicago is listed first among its six offices, followed by Minneapolis, Dallas, the San Francisco Bay Area, New York and Melbourne, Australia. Project types range from concert halls, opera houses and performing arts centers to airports, museums, libraries, hotels, schools and houses of worship. The firm doesn’t publish a headcount. On the Powell Hall Renovation and Expansion in St. Louis, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra names Schuler Shook as theatre planning consultant, and the firm lists the job in its own portfolio as the Jack C. Taylor Music Center. Snøhetta led design, with Kirkegaard on acoustics.

Eighteen project types, and six offices with the addresses

The firm’s own list of project types runs to eighteen entries, and it is broader than the performing-arts reputation suggests: amphitheatres and outdoor venues, aviation and transit, casinos, concert halls and opera houses, convention and conference, exterior lighting and facades, healthcare, higher education, historic restoration, hospitality including hotels and restaurants, libraries, museums and exhibits, offices and commercial and government, popular music venues, residential and mixed use, retail, secondary schools, and worship.

Airports and casinos on that list are the clue. This is a lighting practice as much as a theatre practice, and exterior lighting and facade work is listed as a project type in its own right.

The six offices, with addresses, are Chicago at 363 West Erie, Suite 400; Minneapolis at 219 Main Street SE, Suite 200; Dallas at 325 North Saint Paul, Suite 3250; the San Francisco Bay office at 6200 Stoneridge Mall Road in Pleasanton; New York at 240 W 40th Street, 2nd Floor; and Melbourne at Level 5, 12-14 McKillop Street. Each has its own direct email and phone line, and the firm runs separate Australian and US websites.

How an engagement starts

Worth knowing before making contact: the firm explicitly accommodates clients who are not yet ready to commission full design. Its stated position is that clients may arrive considering a study or assembling a team, and that the right first step together may be an initial study or a review of existing spaces rather than a full design and consulting appointment. For an owner trying to establish whether a renovation is viable, that is a cheaper front door than it appears.

The firm is marking 40 years and maintains dedicated pages for sustainability, diversity, equity and inclusion, and awards. Its published philosophy is worth one line because it is unusually plain for the category: that functionality, flexibility and sustainability are beautiful, and that it believes in exceeding expectations and in collaboration. It describes itself as consummate listeners who work to ensure every new idea has a chance to breathe.

On structure, the connection between the three disciplines is the stated advantage: the team shares insights across the multiple services and across all six offices rather than running them as separate studios.

The firm was founded in 1986. It publishes no headcount. Instagram, LinkedIn and X accounts are linked from its own site.