From LEGOs to transforming Wichita: These two architects are now partners

For the first time in Shelden Architecture’s more than two-decade history, owner Stan Shelden has a partner.

It’s no coincidence that it’s Daniel Gensch, who as a child once briefly shadowed Shelden, a family friend.

“This is one cool kid,” Shelden said he remembers thinking of a young Gensch.

Gensch was inspired by Shelden the way Shelden was by the late Bob Schaefer after shadowing him at what today is known as Schaefer Architecture in Wichita.

Among the many things the two have in common, Gensch and Shelden designed their first buildings out of LEGOs as little boys.

“A lot of people can’t take what’s in their head and express it,” Shelden said. Gensch “was fairly naturally a three-dimensional kind of person.”

Also, he called Gensch a great communicator.

“Everybody’s a friend.”

He said that’s not essential for an architect, “but if you are great with people, it can sure help.”

That’s because architects have to interpret what people are telling them in order to bring something to life.

Shelden watched as Gensch won major architecture prizes and other significant awards at his alma mater, K-State, but he couldn’t hire him when he graduated during an economic crisis in 2009.

“We weren’t hiring anybody at that point.”

Gensch said only 6% of K-State architects immediately found jobs in their fields.

“I was one of the lucky 6%.”

He had a master’s degree, a wife and a baby, and Gensch moved to San Antonio to work for Overland Partners, a firm that in 2010 was named the American Institute of Architects’ Texas firm of the year. He traveled the world to work.

“I just felt crazy fortunate.”

He loved the company, too,

However, Gensch wrestled with whether to return home. Much like Shelden, who had moved to Chicago immediately after school, family and faith are especially important to him.

He said it took about seven months to go from thinking he couldn’t leave Texas to deciding he was open to moving.

Then, within 24 hours of making that decision, he received an unsolicited inquiry from Shelden in 2013 and decided to return and work for a mentor.

Gensch said “a lot of really talented architects come out of this market” but then take jobs on the coasts and don’t return. He said he had those opportunities, too. He’d done internships in Kansas City and Boston.

There was something more in Wichita, though.

“Wichita was on the brink of tremendous amounts of investments into the downtown core and just as a city being in growth mode,” Gensch said.

He especially liked what he saw downtown and in Delano. Gensch said cities often are measured by their downtowns and their infrastructure, or lack of it.

“That’s how a lot of second-tier cities get left behind.”

With Shelden Architecture, Gensch has had the opportunity to help Wichita grow and become a more interesting place.

“I’ve found that being in Wichita has catapulted my career professionally.”

Instead of working on a design for a building in, say, China that may never be built, he said he’s had a chance to make an impact on his own community with award-winning projects such as converting the Broadway Autopark into apartments and creating a shipping container park at Revolutsia. Both were for Bokeh Development, which Gensch said has given him perhaps the longest leash he has on projects.

Bokeh partner Michael Ramsey called Gensch “truly one of Wichita’s greatest assets.”

Other favorite projects include the Wave event venue, the Spaghetti Works District, which won the Keeper of the Plains Award in 2021, and the Fidelity Bank car park, which won the Keeper of the Plains Award in 2022.

“There’s just so many opportunities to make a difference here that seem measurable,” Gensch said. “A few good projects can change the perspective of the build environment and create a tidal wave, and I feel like that’s what’s happening in Wichita right now.”

‘Pretty clear’

Gensch explained a build environment as the inspiring and uninspiring buildings and spaces everyone engages with daily and said you don’t have to have an architecture degree to be influenced by them — for better or for worse.

Shelden said it’s a heavy responsibility to be entrusted with the significant sums that businesses, churches, schools and individuals put into projects. It could be many millions for larger jobs or someone’s entire life’s savings for a smaller one.

In meetings with Gensch, Shelden saw how clients would look to both of them to ask questions.

“It was pretty clear that he would connect with clients pretty fast,” Shelden said. “He could back it up with incredibly fun and inventive and creative ideas.”

Gensch said he enjoys learning about new fields and helping figure out space needs amid constraints.

He’s learned from Shelden, too.

“I’ve learned what it means to have empathy for not just your client but for your consultants and your contractors and your co-workers,” Gensch said. “He’s an amazing person because he values relationships so high.”

Shelden said Gensch had a contact at Sterling College, which already had hired another architecture firm to do some master planning.

Gensch showed how some changes could save $1.6 million and allow the school to add a new gym that it might not otherwise have been able to. It ended up leading to a lot more work with the school.

Gensch said he’s watched Shelden be the kingpin on many projects that bring together all types of people to make them happen.

“Stan is exceptional at that.”

The right time

After starting his firm in 2002, Shelden’s first hire was a bookkeeper.

Then he “had some really, really sharp guys right off the bat” who went on to start their own architecture firms or are now principals at other firms. At the time, he didn’t have a path toward partnership for them.

“It wasn’t the right time for it.”

Nor was it the right time when Gensch joined, even though that was something he was interested in from the beginning.

Shelden’s focus was diversifying his client base and preparing for the next economic downturn.

“I really wasn’t thinking about much of anything except get our feet back on the ground,” Shelden said. “It took me a while to get excited about the future again, to be honest.”

In 2020, Shelden made Gensch an executive vice president.

After years of growing as an architect, Gensch learned more about running a business. He and Shelden continued to talk about a partnership.

Last year, Gensch won AIA’s Kansas’ Young Architects Award. Still, he had bigger plans.

“I wanted to be a decision maker and an influencer in this market for architecture, and I wanted to have ownership.”

He told Shelden he wanted to do that with him.

“And I definitely don’t want to compete against you.”

Shelden asked for patience as he worked on how to do it.

Now, Gensch is a minority partner — along with being a father of five — and there’s a system in place to allow others to become partners as well.

Though he’s “probably going to die in the saddle,” Shelden said he’s decided he does want the firm to continue beyond him.

He said he sees Gensch as the driving force of the next generation of architects in Wichita, so taking him on as a partner made sense.

“It was pretty easy for me, really, when it comes right down to it.”

As much as Gensch is grateful for Shelden, he said he’s also thankful for amazing clients — people who he said have beautiful visions and are willing to take tremendous risks and allow him to be a part of that.

“We are helping people dream about their future.”