BARNHOUSE OFFICE LLC

The Barnhouse Office is distinguished by its proven competence at an unusually broad range of design work. Unlike firms that specialize in only one or two areas, our experience encompasses everything from large-scale contract, corporate, educational and institutional design to private residential commissions at intimate scale. We are flexible, equipped to take the lead as prime designers and consultants on projects of any size but, just as readily, able to work collaboratively with other architectural firms and contractors in any stage of a project’s development. We are comfortable working in any design idiom and to any taste in the spectrum of traditional and modern styles. What it pleases us to offer is not a signature “look” but a palette of skills with which to create resourceful intelligent solutions to your problems in interior design.

Lynn Barnhouse’s talent and wide range of interests have been informing the design of some of the country’s finest residential, corporate, and institutional architecture for over thirty-five years. Known for her collaborative working style and her skill at integrating thoughtful interior design into the building process, she is respected for her common sense, her openness and honesty, and her ability to listen to and focus on the needs of her clients. She frequently works concurrently on residential and commercial projects, finding that the resources used and lessons learned from each cross-pollinate, to the enhancement of both.

 

Awarded a Masters of Fine Arts in Design from Cranbrook Academy in 1981 after completing a Bachelor of Arts in Interior Design from Iowa State University in 1975, Lynn spent the early years of her career at the firms Westburg Klaus Associates and Anderson Dale Architects. In 1984 she was hired to establish an Interiors Department at the noted architectural practice Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd., and went on to be named Partner at MS&R in 2000. She founded her own firm, Barnhouse Office LLC in 2007. Registered in the State of Minnesota, she practices as Certified Interior Designer #CO1134. She has served as a consultant on the Interior Design Advisory Board at the University of Minnesota College of Design and has recently taught senior level interior design at the University of Wisconsin Stout.

 

Lynn has extensive experience in the design of libraries as well as cultural and arts facilities. She has been instrumental in the design of more than thirty library projects alone, including restoration of the United States Senate Library, and new university and public libraries in nearly every part of the country, most recently, the new Central Public Library of San Diego. She is a seasoned innovator as well in the field of office design, with experience in every aspect from site selection and fitting out new facilities to renovations and adaptive re-use. In the private realm, her many residential projects are widely admired.  Her work has won numerous awards and significant attention in the press. A resumé with a full listing of Lynn’s projects is available on request.