About

w|c studio was founded in 2007 by partners John Wolters and Cady Chintis as a designer-led design-build collective that assembles a strategic team of designers, builders, artists, and fabricators to solve unique design problems. Grounded in function and clarity, we meet design challenges by finding the simple in the complex and beauty in the mundane.

We begin each project by asking questions. We look for opportunities associated with the project location and creative ways to implement the client’s vision.

As a designer-led design-build practice, w|c studio works directly with a General Contractor from the beginning to keep the project on track and on budget, while simultaneously upholding the project’s design goals. Client participation is critical through all phases of the process, and will involve working with the design team to analyze and select options to improve value for the user.

John Wolters, Architectural Designer and Construction Manager, is a founding partner of w|c studio, an experimental designer-led design-build studio making its mark on Chicago. Coming from Chicago’s top design firm, Studio Gang Architects, John continues to seek solutions to design problems with creativity and tenacity.

In 2004, as a member of Seattle Build, a group of designers in support of architect-led building projects, John established his own design-build firm, Surface. In his first residential project he reconfigured the single family home to incorporate a live-work unit to offset costs and promote artist workspace. In January 2008, John joined Studio Gang Architects in Chicago and was a top designer working on Reverse Effect, a proposal to re-reverse the Chicago River by joining Jeanne Gang at Harvard University and teaching a design studio on the subject. He also played key design roles on the Media Production Center for Columbia College Chicago and a Social Justice Center for Kalamazoo College. Prior to this, John worked with Erick Van Egeraat Architects in Rotterdam. While in the Netherlands, he gained considerable experience researching many of the innovative ‘water projects’ throughout the country while contributing to design work in Amsterdam, Parma, Italy and the Black Sea.

John earned a Master of Architecture from the University of Illinois at Chicago where his work received considerable recognition including the AIA Henry Adams Certificate of Merit (UIC 2007), the Pella Prize for Design Excellence (UIC 2006 and UIC 2007), the Alumni Choice Award for portfolio design (UIC 2007) and was a finalist in the Schiff Foundation Fellowship (SAIC 2007). Learning Through Landscape, a project that integrated an alternative learning environment and the recovery of Gary’s natural ecosystems, went on to be part of the Green Architecture exhibit at the Lubeznik Center for the Arts.

Cady Chintis, Architectural and Graphic Designer, is a founding partner of w|c studio, an experimental design collective currently working across the disciplines of architecture, graphic design, publishing, and project development. In addition to contributing architectural graphics, publication, and web design services to several area offices while pursuing architectural licensure, Cady, along with partner, John Wolters, practice sustainable urban living principles central to w|c studio’s design approach through the ongoing renovation of a Rogers Park three-flat, backyard chicken-keeping, and year-round bike commuting.

As a recipient of the 2008 AIA Martin Roche Travel Scholarship, she spent four weeks in Germany’s Ruhrgebiet documenting architectural and landscape design strategies that have driven the region’s incredible post-industrial comeback. Cady presented the resulting body of research in several lectures as well as a publication, The Emscher Park Design Guide. While working at Krill Architekten in Rotterdam, she contributed much of the graphic content in a publication about dwell-landscapes. Production of this guide for sustainable and aesthetic solutions for the integration of dwelling and landscape involved travel throughout the “green heart” of Holland and extensive documentation and diagramming of precedent dwell-landscapes.

Cady completed a Masters of Architecture from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Michigan. Recognition of her academic work includes the Pella Fellowship Prize for Best in Show (UIC, 2008), the Faculty Choice and Student Choice Portfolio Awards (UIC, 2008), and nominations for the Schiff Foundation Fellowship (Chicago, 2008) and for student exhibitions at both universities she attended (UIC, 2008 and 2007/UM, 2004 and 2003).