The Founder’s Legacy: How Wayne Schmidt Shaped a Firm, a City, and Generations of Leaders

Wayne Schmidt’s unforgettable spirit, rooted in servant leadership, continues to shape how Schmidt Associates listens, leads, and builds.

Some people bring a warmth and energy that stays in a room long after they leave. Wayne Schmidt, FAIA, was one of them. In his trademark red hat, with a quick wit and a story for every occasion, he had a way of making people feel seen, heard, and important. Endlessly curious and relentlessly positive, he was impossible to forget.

Behind the charisma was a clear set of convictions. Wayne believed architects should listen before they lead, and that Owners belong at the table as partners, not spectators. He believed every person on a team, from the founder to the newest intern, has something to contribute.

Those convictions became the bedrock of Schmidt Associates. When Wayne started the firm on July 4, 1976, he had little more than faith that the next phone call would bring a new project. While Wayne passed away on June 1, 2024, at age 78, his ideas still shape the way we serve Owners, the way we treat one another, and the way we show up for the city he loved. These are the stories behind that legacy.

A Firm That Facilitates, Not Dictates

From the start, Wayne believed an architecture firm should facilitate, understand, and translate, not impose and dictate.

That belief was built on a servant leadership mindset and his deep Christian faith. Not long after he opened his doors, the phone rang. It was the City of Indianapolis, calling to award him his first major project. There was just one problem: the call had been meant for another architect. Wayne took it in stride, looked to the heavens, and said, “If you keep tossing them, I’ll keep catching them.” He spent the next 48 years doing exactly that.

He Could See Around Corners

“Wayne was a creative and a character, with an entrepreneurial mindset and an eye for talent,” said Sarah Hempstead, CEO and principal. “He was passionate, opinionated, very stubborn, and very, very funny.” He also liked to say that other people knew real things, but he could see around corners. “And that was largely true,” Hempstead said. Where others saw what a place was, Wayne saw what it could become.

In late 1985, he bought a fire-damaged rooming house on a neglected stretch of Massachusetts Avenue and made it the firm’s home, years before the street became one of Indianapolis’s most celebrated corridors. That bet on Mass Ave captured his vision: invest in a place before others believe in it, and help it become what it could be.

He brought the same long view to the business itself. “I learned so much from him as we spent hours together scenario building and planning,” said Brett Quandt, chief financial officer and principal. “Looking back, he thought about his business similar to the way he encouraged owners to think about their master plans.” That planning paid off. When Wayne stepped back from the CEO role in 2016 to serve as chairman, the move to a second generation of leadership had been nearly a decade in the making.

His favorite piece of advice reflected that same patience: “Plant a seed. It may not grow today or tomorrow, but eventually, it will.”

Everyone Had a Role, Even the Intern

Kevin Shelley, now chief operations officer and principal, remembers a design critique from his intern days. He had built study models for an addition to Greenfield Christian Church and assumed his job was to do the work and stay quiet. Partway through the meeting, Wayne turned and asked for his opinion.

“Wayne made me feel part of the team that day, which is part of the reason I never left the firm. No matter who you were, Wayne made sure you were included and valued.”

KEVIN SHELLEY, COO + PRINCIPAL

Architectural Graduate Myrisha Powell felt the same as a returning intern, when Wayne stopped by her desk to say, “Welcome back!” “Two small words, yet coming from a CEO to an intern was a big deal,” she said. “He showed me that no matter the title or position one held, he still saw me as a member of his team.”

Wayne often said he only hired people smarter than himself, which Architectural Graduate Sayo Adesiyakan called “a testament to his humility and his approach of respect for his staff.” As the firm grew, he was candid about learning alongside his team. “Wayne wasn’t afraid to say, ‘I’ve never run a firm of this size before. I need your help just as much as you need me. So we all need to do this together,'” Shelley recalled.

When Schmidt Associates was selected to design the NCAA Headquarters and Hall of Champions, Wayne gathered the whole office and handed everyone a small foam basketball to share the news. Every win belonged to everyone.

Always Looking for Ways to Improve

Wayne had boundless energy and was always looking for ways to improve. Steve Schaecher, design architect and principal, remembers riding back from meetings as Wayne analyzed what went well and what the team could have done differently, a habit that still shapes how the firm refines its processes.

He taught resilience, too. Early in her marketing career, Hempstead was crushed whenever the firm lost a pursuit. Wayne pulled her aside and shared his 20-minute rule: take 20 minutes to feel hurt, mad, or sad, then take a deep breath and move on to the next thing. Years later, Hempstead heard her daughter, a youth soccer goalie, rallying her team after giving up a goal: “20 seconds, guys. 20 seconds!” Wayne’s lessons still turn up in unexpected places.

Wayne didn’t just make room for other people’s ideas. He pursued them. When someone brought him a dream, he helped turn it into something real. Lisa Gomperts, principal and project manager, joined the firm in 2004 and quickly saw an opportunity to expand how staff were trained. When she proposed a dedicated academy, Wayne, who had long hoped for one, encouraged her to build a business plan. Schmidt Academy launched in 2005 and has since developed more than 350 courses and nearly 5,000 learning units, helping earn the firm 17 consecutive years on the Indiana Chamber’s Best Places to Work list. It all began because Wayne said yes.

Moose Hats and a Lot of Laughter

“He was always living out loud and having fun while encouraging others to do the same along the way,” said Senior Marketing Coordinator Beth Ann Etting. When the first big snow of the year fell, he put on his moose hat and led the annual Moose Trek, treating everyone who made it to the office on time to breakfast. There were monthly lunches, coffee talks, outings to the Moonstruck Chocolate Bar, and downtown “safaris” with schoolchildren hunting for the animals carved into buildings.

He was a good sport, too. During construction of the Hall of Champions, pranksters radioed Wayne pretending to be contractors who planned to tear off the copper roof because it was turning green. Wayne frantically insisted it was supposed to do that. The punchline: since it was his birthday, they would replace it with icing.

“You knew if your phone rang, and it was Wayne, your day just got a little bit more interesting and more than likely a lot more fun,” said Anna Marie Burrell, principal-in-charge and K-12 studio leader.

Moving the City Forward

“As architects, we have a responsibility to design structures that meet an intended purpose, of course, but also structures that energize and help move neighborhoods and cities forward,” Wayne said. The firm’s work under his leadership reflected it: the Mass Ave revitalization, the Indianapolis Public Schools Capital Improvements Program, the NCAA Headquarters and Hall of Champions, the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument restoration, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Master Plan, and the Gathertorium at Martin University, among many others.

To Wayne, the biggest of these were never just jobs. When Wayne first called Marilyn Shank, then with Shank Public Relations, about the IPS program, which would touch every student and every building in the district, he called it not just a project but a quest. Thirteen years later, Shank saw it the same way: “It was the most important work I’ve ever done.”

His service extended well beyond the drawing board, from the boards of the Athenaeum Foundation, the Indianapolis Public Schools Foundation, and the Indiana Repertory Theatre to baking chocolate chip cookies for the Kairos Prison Ministry. Along the way, he mentored a generation of designers. Bruce Race of RACESTUDIO put it simply: “Wayne was a generational leader and mentor to nearly every notable architect in Indianapolis.”

The Phone Calls Keep Coming

Wayne collected many honors, including the 2014 AIA Indiana Gold Medal, but success to him was never about awards. It was about the people he worked with, the Owners he served, and the places he helped build. Hempstead said he would have loved seeing the firm carry his legacy forward by continuing to grow and building better places with Owners and communities.

Fifty years in, that is still the work. From a one-man show to a firm of more than 150 people, Schmidt Associates remains true to Wayne’s vision of a firm that listens first and believes in the communities it serves. The seeds he planted are still growing.

Explore More of Wayne’s Story
The Leaders He Shaped


Explore 50 years of people, places, and purpose at schmidt-arch.com/50years.

 

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