One specializes in organization and management. The other is highly skilled at taking a vision and turning it into reality, sometimes with just a pencil and napkin.
Those complementary skills make the pair a formidable, award-winning architectural team. And they are husband and wife.
Carmel residents Clete and Deb Kunce, with more than half a century of combined experience in architecture, met while working together and have been married 24 years. They have four adult daughters, six grandchildren and thriving careers, built on their skill sets, in the design and implementation of architectural projects.
“While Clete and I are both architects, we are very different types of architects. Clete is a design architect, and I’m a management architect,” Deb Kunce said. “In short, he’s the idea guy with the vision, and I’m the one who makes it happen, the project manager, the implementer.
“We’re a great team.”
The results of their work can be seen throughout the Indianapolis area. Clete Kunce opened ONE 10 STUDIO in Indianapolis in 2010 and established a goal of winning an architectural design award each year, a feat the studio has accomplished. The latest award-winner is Garden Table, a restaurant at 350 Monon Blvd. in Carmel. Clete Kunce’s design was chosen by the American Institute of Architects Indiana as this year’s winner in the Interior Architecture (project cost less than $5 million) category.
Among ONE 10 STUDIO’s projects are Black Acre Brewing and Irvington Lofts in Indianapolis and the Conner Prairie Treetop Outpost in Fishers.
“It is one thing to design a building to meet function and budget, but why can’t we satisfy both of those and create beauty?” Clete Kunce said of his philosophy.
Deb Kunce, who became a registered architect in 2000, opened her own business, CORE Planning Strategies, in 2012, with a focus on helping large institutional clients — including redevelopment, education, government and nonprofit entities — achieve their ideal facilities. She sold the business to J.S. Held in 2021 and serves as vice president of that firm’s Indianapolis office. She has led Indianapolis Public Schools’ Capital Improvements Planning and Implementation since 2001.
“With the support of taxpayers and a great team of people, I’ve been able to help improve school facilities for over 30,000 students in our center city where the needs for the underserved are abundant,” Deb Kunce said. “I love projects that transform.”
AIA Indiana chose Deb Kunce to receive its top honor, the Gold Medal Award, this year in recognition of her contributions to the architecture profession and to her community. Deb Kunce is a former president of AIA Indiana and AIA Indianapolis and vice president of the AIA national organization.
“Deb has excelled at everything AIA, period,” said Jason Shelley, executive director of AIA Indiana for 16 years. Shelley met the Kunces through AIA and has witnessed how Deb Kunce has improved the organization with her leadership, especially as a mentor to other female architects.
“It’s never about her. It’s always about helping and lifting up others,” Shelley said.
Though Deb and Clete Kunce are highly successful architects, neither are egotistical, Shelley said.
“They are fun people. I always enjoy my time with them,” Shelley said. “They’re lighthearted, always ready to laugh. They’re good people.”
To relax, the Kunces enjoy golf, traveling and spending time with family at Lake LeAnn in Michigan. They have already built an impressive legacy, one that won’t be measured in just buildings that were made better by their knowledge and skills.
When asked what he thought his greatest accomplishment has been, Clete Kunce said he has learned that architecture is more about people than buildings.
“The buildings and great spaces are what humanize and connect as a community and society,” he said. “The relationships I have had and continue to have might be the accomplishment.”
Those relationships include passing on their knowledge to the next generation of architects.
“I’m sure we’ll both continue to improve our community through architecture,” Deb Kunce said. “Both Clete and I are committed to helping the next generation of architects succeed, some I’m confident will always be a part of our next chapters.”
Early callings
Clete and Deb Kunce of Carmel knew early on that they wanted to be architects.
Deb Kunce, vice president in charge of J.S. Held’s Indianapolis office and winner of this year’s American Institute of Architects Indiana Gold Medal Award, jokes that she was inspired by watching the TV family sitcom “The Brady Bunch,” in which the fictional family patriarch, Mike Brady, was an architect with a home office.
“But seriously, I was always trying to build things as a youngster,” she said.
Deb Kunce said she was focused on becoming an architect since eighth grade. She went to engineering camp in high school (she is a graduate of Teutopolis High School in Illinois) but quickly realized architecture was for her. She graduated from Ball State University’s College of Architecture and Planning and became a registered architect 23 years ago.
Clete Kunce, who founded and owns ONE 10 STUDIO in Indianapolis and specializes in architectural design, said he decided at age 12 he wanted to be an architect.
“I grew up with a pencil in my hand it feels like. Drawing, paired with a curiosity about how things were built and assembled, led me naturally to architecture.”
Clete Kunce graduated from Davenport (Iowa) Central High School and earned an architectural degree from Iowa State University’s College of Design.
