About

Collective Office is an award-winning urban architecture firm focused on high-end residential, retail, and commercial buildings. For over 15 years, we’ve been crafting tailored spaces for thoughtful people. Chicago is our home, but the reach of our work spans the U.S. states and Canada.

At the heart of our approach lies the singular belief that a well-designed space can change your life. At the start of each project, our team prioritizes getting to know you. Through detailed question-asking and rigorous listening, we seek to uncover your personality, preferences, and particularities. This foundation of deep understanding enables us to deliver sophisticated design solutions that enhance both how you live and who you want to be.

A custom space provides respite from the strain of the modern world. We hope you’ll join us in our collective pursuit to live more purposeful, peaceful, and productive lives. We are storytellers, strategists, solution-seekers.

Services

Residential

Space designed for how you want to live

Designing a home is a very personal experience. We design modern homes. At the heart of our approach lies the singular belief that a well-designed space can change your life. At the start of each project, our team prioritizes getting to know you and how you live. Through detailed question-asking and rigorous listening, we seek to uncover your personality, preferences, and particularities. This foundation of deep understanding enables us to deliver sophisticated design solutions that enhance both how you live and who you want to be. We believe good architecture is familiar. The spaces we inhabit should promote ease. Life unfolds effortlessly when people are at the center of the process. We believe in the power of partnership to create your ideal space plan & layout, providing the best balance between design and functionality, light, materials technology and efficiency.

Services

Design Planning & Implementation, Analysis & Synthesis of Design, User Observation, Prototyping Methods, Experience Modeling, Communication Strategies, Human Experience, Interactive Design

Retail

Why we love retail design

We love retail design for the experimental, fast-paced nature of the process. This process can be driven by complex real estste and lease negotiations, where design is required to be a quick response to a compressed timeline from pressure to open. Retail requires a thorough understanding of the client-landlord relationship, and building department permit process at the same time. All of the administrative nuance to a quick retail process is balanced by our intent love of connecting retail brand to architectural experience. We use space planning, lighting, material & finishes, fixtures & furniture and the emersion of brand and identity to create purposeful and thoughtful space for retailing.

Services

Programming, Space Planning, Design of Casework & Millwork, Fixture Selection, Furniture Selection, Equipment Planning & Selection, Schematic Design, Design Development, Bidding & Negotiation, Construction Documents, Construction Administration

Workplace

We create space to work

The way we work has changed, it will continue to change. Wellness is paramount in our continually evolving and always-connected world. We want to create workplaces that promote more purposeful, peaceful, and productive careers. We like that workplace design is challenging, client-specific and has a quicker pace. Meeting space, both formal and informal in varying sizes from 2 people to board rooms has become very important. As people have become untethered to a specific desk with flex work days, and increasing travel, the workplace has become a hybrid space between focused and formal. Our workplace design involves space planning, open & private working environments, collaboration spaces, support spaces, with layers of technology, brand & identity, wellness, and accessibility.

Services

Space Planning, Design of Casework & Millwork, Fixture Selection, Furniture Selection, Equipment Planning & Selection

Team

Jeff Klymson, OAA AIA NCARB

Founder, Architect

Jeff Klymson is the Founding Principal, directing all creative and technical aspects of the practice. He’s an AIA Licensed Architect in 15 states. Mr. Klymson holds a Master of Architecture degree from IIT and a Bachelor of Architectural Science from Toronto Metropolitan University. Jeff Klymson created Collective Office to focus on practice and research. The practice provides a project-specific, detail-oriented process. We employ this process on all of our projects. We aim to challenge convention and push boundaries, asking questions at every stage of our process. The primary focus of Mr. Klymson’s research is the convergence of architecture and the branded world to create personal experiences. He aims to use this idea to create a more intuitive connection for people within their own built environments.

Tyler Moench, RA

Project Architect

Tyler Moench grew up around Minneapolis, Minnesota. After receiving a Bachelor of Design in Architecture from the University of Minnesota, he decided to continue his academic pursuits out west in Seattle Washington. While in Seattle, he earned a Master of Architecture degree with a certificate in Design Computing and a concentration in Materials and Fabrication. His work during graduate school primarily revolved around exploring the connection between emerging parametric design tools and digital fabrication techniques, and their impact on the design process. Outside of the architecture office, Tyler enjoys tinkering with anything that he can get his hands on, ranging from making furniture, to wrenching on bicycles, to building 3D printers.

Preston Smith

Designer

Originally from Kansas City, Missouri, Preston graduated from Auburn University where he received both his Bachelor of Architecture and Bachelor of Interior Architecture. While at Auburn, his work emphasized concept-driven design, always investigating new ways to approach a problem. His thesis research, for which he was awarded the ARCC King Student Medal, explored how the mediums of architecture and film might converge, thinking of architectural sequences as cinematic stage sets. Outside of his architectural pursuits, Preston’s interests include cooking, collecting vinyl, reading classic novels, and making things with his hands.

Clayton Pangrcic

Designer

Clayton grew up an hour and a half Southwest of Chicago in LaSalle, Illinois. He graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture from Illinois Institute of Technology with specializations in Design/Build and Architectural History and Theory. Throughout his academic career, he focused on the power of simplicity in design and ways to promote thoughtful experiences in all aspects of daily life. In addition to architecture, his studies consisted of short films, furniture design, landscape design, and much in between. On his time off, Clayton enjoys making furniture and lamps when his life is not consumed by taking care of his plant collection.

Partners & Consultants: Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture, Carlo Parente, Neal Prabhu, Louis Shell Structures, Kibler A+E, Rockey Structures, RTM Engineering Consultants, The Cosine Lighting, Chicago Architectural Club, Chicago Architecture Biennial, MEPC Engineering / Past Collaborators: Clay Knapp, Dylan Otte, Matthew Vanhoff, Jeff Widjaya, Andrew Santa Lucia, Dolly Sehr, Clayton Richenberg, Nikita Troufanov, Kevin Stewart, John Clark, Matthew Dalziel

Contact

Think we’d be a good fit for your project? Great! Send us an email to info@collectiveoffice.com, we can’t wait to connect with you.

Studio

9 E. 24th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60616

1-312-818-2006
info@collectiveoffice.com

Employment

We are always interested in meeting candidates that might be a good fit for our team. Submit work samples, a statement of intent and your resume to careers@collectiveoffice.com (1 mb max. size). No phone calls please.

Basecamp

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Webmail

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