MINNEAPOLIS, M.N. – January 8, 2025 – Christopher Kleingartner (CK), is an award-winning architect and designer with a diverse portfolio of higher education projects spanning the Midwest and Mountain States. He has joined JLG Architects as the new firm-wide Higher Education Practice Studio Leader. Based in the firm’s Minneapolis office, Kleingartner brings a new generation of expertise-driven design leadership to JLG’s rapidly expanding higher education practice.
“As we double down on our commitment to higher education as a core discipline, we’re delighted to welcome CK to our firm. Not only do his values of resilient, sustainable, and equitable design align with ours, but his extraordinary leadership talent and skill level strengthen our ability to serve our higher education clients at new and heightened levels.”
Michelle Mongeon Allen, FAIA, LEED AP, CEO – JLG Architects
A Distinguished Career
Kleingartner has a distinguished 25-year career designing innovative campus destinations focused on student wellness and timeless design. He served as project executive for the Colorado School of Mines Energy & Minerals Research Facility and University of Colorado-Colorado Springs Engineering & Applied Science Building, as well as a project designer for the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Building.
In addition to his expertise in laboratory design, Kleingartner has also led the design of a myriad of student-life, student-housing, and campus master-planning projects. Over the last 12 years in Colorado, while with Perkins&Will, and most recently HDR, Kleingartner has built growth-oriented practices in the Education, Science, and Technology markets throughout the Mountain States region.
“CK’s diverse background will be an extraordinary asset, strengthening our ability to leverage expertise from all five of our practice areas for our higher education clients: Community, Health, Sport, K-12, and Higher Education,” said Michelle Mongeon Allen, FAIA, LEED AP, CEO at JLG Architects. “We want all those perspectives to inform our projects, especially for our higher education clients. Few firms in the Upper Midwest can offer such a comprehensive approach.”
In addition to his design leadership role in Minneapolis/St. Paul proper, Kleingartner will be working strategically on regional and national projects.
Commitment to Design Excellence
Kleingartner is known for addressing complex programmatic challenges and elevating design while being sensitive to the campus context, seeking more resilient and ecologically productive student environments. This is particularly important in the Upper Midwest, where the region is already feeling the effects of climate change-related agricultural impacts.
“My passion is design excellence on all aspects of a project, and that starts with client advocacy,” explained Kleingartner. “We listen first, then commit ourselves to leading our clients through the hard conversations that every project encounters, always measuring progress against early project guiding-principles; building teams and managing stakeholders is arguably my biggest reward. We’re going to need major student wellness and regenerative, design–focused projects to help protect our learning institutions from the threat of a rapidly changing environmental and student health landscape.”
Kleingartner has a Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies from the University of Minnesota in 1999 and a 2003 Master of Architecture from Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Michigan. He is an active member and presenter with the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL) and the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP).
About JLG Architects
In 1989, JLG Architects emerged in the Midwest as a two-person firm founded by Gary Johnson and Lonnie Laffen. With a “DESIGN for LIFE” approach to architecture, their integrity and vision became the firm’s catalyst for national growth in leadership, peer education, and client connectivity. Today, JLG is a national pacesetter and home to over 200 employee-owners across nine offices. The firm is expertly engineered to advance the sectors of higher education, K12, medical, sport, wellness, and community design.
Through collaborative solutions, nurtured relationships, and environmental stewardship, the firm invokes a lifelong approach to design with unified goals at the helm: increase clients’ well-being, brand, bottom line, and sustainability. We take our clients’ success personally, driving design that engages occupants, elevates architectural standards, and enriches the lives of our clients and community.
