Meet Wayne Visbeen
Architect, entrepreneur, founder & speaker.
Wayne is the founder and principal architect of Visbeen Architects, the architecture and interior design firm responsible for more than 2,500 custom homes across 49 states and 24 countries. He is also a keynote speaker, the author of Excellence in Design, a serial entrepreneur, and the creator of The Blueprint, his video course library on the business of running a business. He works between Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Sarasota, Florida.
WAYNE VISBEEN
Architect, entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and creator of The Blueprint.
The Early Years • New Jersey
A family tradition.
Growing up, Wayne's father owned a construction company in Ridgewood, New Jersey. Wayne spent his childhood on job sites, around blueprints, and in earshot of crews. His paternal grandfather, before that, was a self-taught architect and builder who spent his career working in high-end residential on the East Coast. Wayne’s maternal grandfather was a graphic artist in New York City. Three generations of pens, three types of craft. In many ways, architecture and design chose Wayne from the time he was born.
Wayne Visbeen began his college studies at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he completed a pre-architecture program. He moved on to Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Michigan, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Architecture and a Master of Architecture. The graduate degree formalized what years on construction sites had already started teaching him.
Wayne’s father, Albert (right), uncle, Adrian, Jr. (left), and grandfather, Adrian Sr. (center).
Taubman & Gantos • 1983-1991
Retail before residential.
Wayne's first job out of school was senior designer at the Taubman Companies, the shopping center developer based in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Over the next several years, he designed more than 100 national retail prototypes for some of the largest brands in the country. From there, he took a position as director of store design, director of visual merchandising, and director of advertising at Gantos, a prominent women’s specialty clothing retailer founded in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1932. At its peak in the early 1990s, the company operated over 160 stores across the country. This work in retail taught Wayne three things: how to design at scale, how to sell a concept to people who wouldn't use it, and how to turn a pitch meeting into a yes.
Visbeen Architects • 1992 - present
Founded in June 1992 in Grand Rapids, MI.
Wayne founded Visbeen Architects in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in June 1992. The first clients were the only ones he had: the retailers he had designed for at Taubman. Within a few years, the firm was working with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sears, and Disney.
By the late ‘90s, Wayne had subtly begun to shift from retail interiors into custom residential design. Different clients. Different stakes. Same fundamentals. Today, Visbeen Architects has designed more than 2,500 custom homes across 49 states and 24 countries, with offices in Grand Rapids, Michigan; Sarasota, Florida; and San José, Costa Rica. Wayne is still the principal architect on every plan that leaves the building.
Each initial consultation begins the same way: Pen, paper, and conversation. By the time the client leaves that first meeting, their project has a shape. This live-design approach has been the calling card of Visbeen Architects for nearly four decades.
Awards, Press, and Memberships
A career full of accolades.
Dozens of Best in American Living Awards from the National Association of Home Builders. Over a hundred American Residential Design Awards. The NAHB Best Custom Home in the Midwest and Atlantic South. The American Institute of Building Design's Best in Show. Detroit Home Design Awards. Parade of Homes recognitions on both coasts.
Architectural Digest. USA Today. The New York Post. Florida Design. Cosmopolitan Home. Builder Magazine. Great Lakes by Design. The Herald-Tribune. SRQ Magazine. Detroit News. MLive. Michigan BLUE. WZZM. The International Business Times called him "The Architect Everyone Else Talks About."
American Institute of Architects (AIA). International Interior Design Association (IIDA). American Institute of Building Designers (AIBD).
Wayne is a co-founder of PAVE Global, the nonprofit educational foundation that helps young people pursue careers in retail design. He regularly delivers keynotes at the International Builders' Show, HPBExpo, entrepreneurship summits, and brand events. He's the creator of The Blueprint, his video course library on all things sales, creativity, and selling creatively.