Vessel Architecture | Senior living design that helps elders flourish

45 senior living communities completed
4,777 resident units
4.5M square feet of senior living
Since 2008 helping owners and operators redefine senior living

Care types: Independent living, assisted living and memory care
What we do: Planning workshops, feasibility, entitlement, architecture, interiors and virtual reality
Offices: St. Louis, Missouri and Denver, Colorado
Latest completion: Holliday Farms Senior Living, Zionsville, Indiana. 157 residences, August 2026.

People

Meet the architects who care about serving you.

Most of our team are licensed architects, and the principals stay close to every project from the first workshop to the final walkthrough.

Peter Schwartz

Founding Partner

AIA | NCARB | LEED AP
Brian Van Winkle

Founding Partner

AIA | NCARB
Lindsay Straatmann

Principal

AIA | NCARB | LEED GA

Where we come from

Hospitality first. Then senior living.

We started in hospitality, designing for Marriott. In 2008 we brought that thinking to elder care, helping Spectrum Retirement create the prototype for their national roll-out.

Every community since has taught us something, and we capture each lesson and put it into the next set of drawings.

“Vessel has consistently met, and exceeded, our expectations… they also offer an important intangible: they are enjoyable to work with.”

Mike Longfellow Spectrum Retirement

How we work

You are in the room, every step.

We listen carefully to understand your vision so we can partner with you to bring it to life.

Team members gathered around a long table covered in drawings
We believe in the creative power of collaboration. Our clients are co-designers with us.

A design workshop with hand sketches, markers and tracing paper
Every concept is tested, improved, refined and perfected through many iterations.

A hand-drawn floor plan sketch in blue marker
We are practicing architects who deliver real solutions on time and on budget.

Cedarhurst of Topeka, a completed senior living community

Virtual reality

See it before you build it.

Clients walk their future community in virtual reality at every major design milestone. It starts as a white box and ends as the finished building, so surprises are found on screen, not on site.