Founded as a two-person design practice that tackles school, church and small commercial projects in the home of Michael Treanor, Lawrence, Kan., Treanor has grown exponentially since its founding in 1981. Today, the firm is still headquartered in Lawrence, but has 175 employees in 12 offices nationwide who practice in six areas: advanced life preservation industries and health education, Greek justice and historical education
“Our mission is to help our clients thrive and our communities thrive. So we’re not a company that comes in with a preconceived idea of what their design should be. We work hand in hand with the client. We like to say we put the pencil in their hand,” says Joy Coleman, director and chair of the board. “And they’re with us during the design. I think that’s unique because it’s process-oriented and not just results-oriented. Sure, we like our projects to win awards. We like to be recognized for doing great work. But first and foremost, it’s what the client needs that project to be and what we can do to help.”
To help support its growth, Treanor has acquired several legacy companies throughout its history, strategically expanding its capabilities from both a geographic and personnel perspective. In 2024, the firm changed its name to simply Treanor, to reflect its unified, multidisciplinary practice.
In the Midwest, a steady flow of work in the public sector, health care and education has helped the company thrive. Its regional revenue in 2025 reached $51.5 million, up 9% from the previous year.
“We had more success in 2025 than we anticipated, which was wonderful. Our diversification of different types of projects and clients, and the markets we’re in, really helped us match up,” adds Coleman. “And luckily for us, we had selected some of those markets that saw an increase in work and not a slowdown. All the stars aligned.”
Located in Racine, Wisconsin, the 70,000-square-foot Jonathan Delagrave Youth Development and Care Center is a trauma-informed, education-focused, and treatment-focused youth justice center.
Image courtesy of Treanor
Justice for all
When Jeff Lane, director of Treanor’s justice design team, started with the company more than 25 years ago, much of his team’s work focused on prisons. “Today, what we’re seeing a lot more in corrections, detention and youth work, is how we engage with behavioral health,” he says. “Being able to think about behavioral health first and be at the forefront of that on the justice side has really helped our business.”
State and city entities also face new needs and deteriorating facilities after not spending as much on infrastructure over the past decade or so, Lane adds. That slowdown has led to a race to catch up and a bit of a justice boom in the Midwest.
“We’ve been very, very busy. We’ve seen work in Wisconsin, here in Kansas and Missouri. We’ve done a lot of work on the youth side in Kentucky,” he says.
Repeat customers have also contributed to Treanor’s success. “One of the first projects we did that started our justice team was in the early 1990s with Douglas County, Kansas. And we’ve continued to work with that client ever since,” says Lane.
Treanor is currently working with Douglas County to reimagine its judicial and law enforcement center as a modern justice campus. Located in Lawrence, right across the street from Treanor’s headquarters, the $82 million renovation and expansion will bring new courtrooms and strategic upgrades to the 158,000-square-foot facility.
Completed in May 2025, the Delagrave Center will house 48 young people in six eight-bed residential units. Racine County worked with Wisconsin-based Treanor and Ramlow Stein to create this case study in a trauma-informed design.
Image courtesy of Treanor
In Racine, Wis., Treanor recently designed the 70,000-square-foot Jonathan Delagrave Youth Care and Development Center, the design of which took a trauma-informed, treatment-centered approach. It replaces a traditional detention model with residential units.
“In the early 2000s, it was about beds. Today, it’s about specialty,” says Lane. “We’re talking about interior materiality, daylighting, solar studies and sustainability in our facilities. So because we can show these things to our customers, they start to see benefits, both with the staff and the people who come to these facilities.”
While Treanor’s teams are seeing some design-build projects fall through, most of their regional work is delivered as CM at risk, notes Coleman, “which is good because it keeps these larger projects together. And then we’re seeing clients, especially county-level clients, who are tackling their entire justice system at once.”
“Being able to think about behavioral health first and be at the forefront of that on the justice side has really helped our business.”
—Jeff Lane, Justice Team Director, Treanor
One of those was the Saline County Jail and Sheriff’s Operations Center, completed in late 2023. Treanor’s designers used analytics software to assess natural lighting to inform the building’s orientation and glass placement, creating a healthier and more efficient building.
But when it comes to working with clients who have done little or no work for extended periods of time, decades in some cases, education quickly becomes a priority.
“That process of helping clients understand what the state of the art is and what the trends are within juvenile courts or detention facilities is really difficult,” says Lane. In addition to ever-present budget concerns, assumptions also require careful navigation.
“With some of the things that are happening in our world today, like the ICE facilities, we’re fighting those conversations because our clients see it on the news and think that’s what justice does. That’s not who we are. We don’t do any of that work,” Lane stresses.
Treanor facilitates site visits with summer interns to show them how to safely navigate a construction site.
Photo courtesy of Treanor
Design priorities
What sets Treanor apart is its commitment to its customers, Lane says. “If you look at our website and our architecture, I don’t think any of those pieces of architecture are the same, because they’re driven by our customers. We understand what their needs are and determine what it looks like from an architectural standpoint,” he explains.
Erik Theis, court administrator for Jasper County, Mo., agrees, saying that Treanor stands out because its teams take the time to understand both their clients and the systems in which they work.
Theis, who has worked on two major projects with Treanor on behalf of Jasper County, finds working with the company a very positive experience. The Jasper County Youth Services Center was completed in 2019 and the Jasper County Courthouse followed in 2023.
“On both projects, Treanor guided us from the early design stages through construction. They helped us solve problems as they arose, which is essential on projects of this size,” says Theis. “Treanor’s role went far beyond the design of the building. It was a true partnership. They helped us communicate the vision for the project to our community, guided us through the planning process, and worked with stakeholders to build consensus on the operational goals of the facility. They understand that great public projects are as much about relationships and trust as they are about design.”
While justice projects continue to dominate the region, another recent project was the Pi Beta Phi Sorority at the University of Missouri. Treanor also designed the Kansas City Proton Institute, a 40,000-square-foot outpatient cancer center in Overland Park, Kan., that is the first physician-led proton therapy center in the Midwest.
Treanor employees volunteered for Habitat for Humanity and renovated a local residence in the Kansas City area.
Photo courtesy of Treanor
Heart people
Although Treanor started as a sole proprietorship, today the company is owned by 25 people. “Over the last 10 years, we’ve really paid attention to what our succession plan is. We’re in the third generation of ownership transition,” says Coleman. “When you own 15% of your company, that expands that responsibility and only makes the company stronger.”
Outreach is another priority: Treanor employees volunteered more than 1,400 hours by 2025. Each year, the company closes all of its offices for a day so employees can volunteer at local charities. The summer of 2026 will be the 10th anniversary of this initiative.
Employees also provide specialized services to individuals and communities in need. For example, Coleman helped Pendleton County Market owners Karen and John Pendleton assess and design renovations after their historic home was damaged by an EF-4 tornado in 2019.
“When you own 15% of your company, that expands that responsibility and only makes the company stronger.”
—Joy Coleman, director and board chair, Treanor
In addition, each of Treanor’s directors is allocated $5,000 annually, for a total of $145,000, for local fundraising and charitable efforts. Some beneficiaries have included the Willow Domestic Violence Center, the Ballard Center and Junior Achievement of Kansas.
“We love our communities, it’s intertwined in our weekly lives,” says Coleman. “We also think it’s important for our profession and our practice areas to volunteer with professional organizations. So we have national, state and local involvement with the AIA. In the Midwest, the areas that are really strong for us are historic preservation and justice, so we work with the Preservation Technology Association and the American Association for Justice.”
Culture also plays a role in helping Treanor attract and retain talent, as does flexible career paths. “We’re not pigeonholing people,” says Lane. “Giving staff lots of different opportunities and the ability to explore other things, especially younger staff, is really important.”
Treanor brings the entire company together for an annual face-to-face meeting called Connect, where employees celebrate the year’s accomplishments. “It really helps people know they’re part of something bigger,” he says.
Coleman believes the future looks bright for Treanor. “As an architect, you’re always worried if the market is going to dry up,” he says. “We’re building on our multifaceted approach, going where the growth is happening.”
