About

Our vision is to inspire our community through impactful design.

We endeavor to distill complex challenges into unique solutions that engage experience with design, urbanism, and the public realm. With an emphasis on process and collaboration, our philosophy unifies need with imagination to shape our community for the potential of today, tomorrow and our future.

Approach

Woven with purpose and creativity

Recognized for our work and contributions in planning and design for aviation, education, and public safety, we are uniquely positioned to pursue partnerships with a calling for a rich story and deep community engagement.

Mission: Relationship-driven design rooted in critical thinking, research, collaboration and personal experiences, balanced by fiscal responsibility.
Orlando Economic Headquarters, located in the heart of downtown Orlando.
“The strength of Schenkel Shultz is our commitment to our clients, the communities we serve, design excellence, and our core values.”
J. Thomas Chandler, President & CEO 1998 - 2020
Markets
Aviation
Education
Public Safety
Civic
Cultural
Commercial
The new executive terminal at Marco Island Airport creates a distinct sense of arrival for passengers with an abundance of natural daylight, locally sourced materials and regional art work.
Sustainability
We support the AIA Framework for Design Excellence and aim to incorporate all concepts into our projects. We also are a recent signatory of the AIA 2030 Commitment and the AIA Materials Pledge. We strive to infuse all our designs with sustainable objectives regardless of the project type or client. We are currently amending our aspirations into a Stewardship Action Plan that will bring design and metrics together to inform better more sustainable outcomes for our clients and for the building industry.

Culture

Core Values. Communication, integrity, respect, teamwork, accountability, leadership, and design excellence

Offerings
Long-standing relationships remain the cornerstone of our success due in part to our unique philosophy that serves as an internal value-system centric to performance, quality, and fellowship.

Espousing fiscal responsibility, design integrity, agility, and innovation, we are committed to challenging the status quo through rigor and exploration.
Services
Architecture
Urban Design
Sustainable Design
Interior Design
Environmental Graphics
The new, modern face of Jean Ribault High School expresses and commands academic and athletic excellence within and without.

Placing equal importance and finding balance in skills sets to achieve the opportunity, design the project, and technically execute to fruition are drivers in our internal team approach and formation.

History

1958

Company Founded
Founders Dick Shultz and Jim Schenkel

1983

Built Reputation
Orlando
Inspired by robust growth and a sense of opportunity that existed in Florida during the early 1980s, the firm asked Tom Chandler, a promising young talent, to relocate from our Indiana headquarters and open a second office in the epicenter of the state. The Orlando market proved to be an insightful choice, leading the way for the firm’s growth over the next 40 years.

1992

Southwest Florida Office Opens
Fort Myers
Driven by a desire to expand our footprint in Florida, we opened our second office in the state within the burgeoning community of Fort Myers.

1993

Cultivated Reputation as a Leading Education Design Firm
Winter Springs High School
Winter Springs High School was born out of a true collaboration between the design team, school district staff and visionary educators. Collectively, the team sought to create an educational plan that would breakdown the scale of the 2,500-student campus into smaller learning communities. The project was a game changer, and served as an educational model that has been adopted by districts across the state, cementing Schenkel Shultz’s status as a leading academic designer.

1996

Designed the first Ronald McDonald House for the Central Florida Community
Central Florida
Our reputation as a community designer began with our work on the first Ronald McDonald House of Central Florida. Since that time, we have gone on to design award-winning facilities for numerous community organizations, while also donating our time and treasure through volunteerism and board service to a number of inspiring causes.

2003

First LEED Certified Building Florida
Stetson Lynn Business Center
University officials envisioned their new home for the School of Business would be a forward-thinking icon that would attract nationally known educators. Leveraging emergent design trends, the team pushed to create a sustainable program that would enhance energy efficiency, occupant comfort and environmental impact. The result was the first LEED certified building in the state of Florida.

2007

Sarasota office opens
Our newest office expanded our presence along Florida’s Gulf Coast and landed us in the hub of the community’s vibrant arts culture and within reach of our local educational and civic clients.

2012

First International Schools Designed
Ramstein High School
Leveraging our deep expertise as education design leaders in Florida, the firm won a significant contract with the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) designing schools on United States military bases throughout the world. The work has grown to encompass projects from Puerto Rico to Germany, and as far as Japan.

2018

First LEED v4 New Construction Certified Intermodal Terminal in the World
Orlando International Airport Intermodal Terminal Facility
Operating as the General Consultant to the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (GOAA), Schenkel Shultz worked closely with airport leadership to author a Sustainability Management Plan that provided a framework to improve environmental stewardship at Orlando International Airport. By implementing the priorities outlined in the SMP, Schenkel Shultz was instrumental in bringing to life the Intermodal Terminal Facility at Orlando International Airport, the First LEED v4 New Construction Certified Intermodal Terminal in the World and the First LEED v4 New Construction Certification in Florida.

2020

Building on Our Legacy with four partners
Transition of ownership to the next generation of leadership.

2023

A Celebration of Design
Our 65th year in business, and 40th year in Central Florida culminated with a signature event, aptly named "A Celebration of Design". Through a variety of artistic mediums, the program highlighted our studio's embodiment of authenticity, craftsmanship and creative exploration with an aspirational view toward the future.


Published first Stewardship Action Plan.