Windom Kimsey, B.S. Arch ’83, M.Arch ’85, funds new architecture course focused on design and sustainability.

As a teenager in the 1970s, Windom Kimsey was traveling through Cologne, Germany, on a family trip when he saw a centuries-old cathedral. He may not have known it at the time, but the young Chattanooga resident was about to get hooked on architecture.

“I had never seen anything like that, coming from Tennessee, and It got me thinking about architecture, how spaces can change your feelings about the world and things like that,” Kimsey says. “The more I thought about it, the more I got interested in it.”

Windom Kimsey designed Southend on Water, an 18,500-­square-foot mixed-use project in downtown Henderson, Nevada. The development includes office space, a coffee shop and wine bar, apartments, and Kimsey’s residence.

That interest would blossom into two architecture degrees from the University of Michigan and an influential career in architecture and development in his adopted hometown of Henderson, Nevada, just outside Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Weekly recently called Kimsey a “modern-day urban pioneer,” noting that he has left his mark on the cityscape over the past three decades with major projects that include an airport concourse, a regional justice center, and a 180-acre wildlife preserve.

Along the way, Kimsey has given back to his alma mater. He previously spent eight years as a member of the Taubman College Alumni Council, which was then known as the Taubman Board of Governors. And now, he’s funding a new thesis seminar and studio for Taubman College students called “Arid Logics: Climate Coexistence in Desert America (Arch 660).” His gift covers course fees for all students, as well as materials and a weeklong trip to the fast-growing Las Vegas region where students will study architectural and industrial development and its effect on the environment.

Kimsey will connect students to public officials and practitioners in the Las Vegas area who deal with growth and critical environmental issues such as water preservation. This hands-on learning and engagement will stay with them and help inform what they do as architects, he says. And the students may pass along innovative ideas of their own. It was University of Tennessee architecture students, after all, who came up with the successful concept of building an aquarium as a centerpiece to a downtown redevelopment project in Kimsey’s native Chattanooga. 

“It’s sort of a win-win,” Kimsey says of his gift to Taubman College. “I get to do something for the university and the university gets to do something that could be impactful for my community.”

Taubman College had quite an effect on Kimsey as a student. He spent his first two years in U-M’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts before being accepted into the architecture program, where he found his calling. “When I got into architecture school, I was ridiculously hooked,” he says. “Everything clicked for me. I had no shadow of a doubt, that’s what I wanted to do.”

Earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture at U-M was difficult at times. “You have to go through a pretty rigorous process,” he says. “You had to stand up in front of people and explain your thoughts and ideas, and sometimes the feedback was pretty harsh. Learning how to do that helps a lot for an architect. Once you get around a real client, that’s what you have to do,
so teaching you those communication skills is critical.” 

After college, Kimsey spent five years as an architect in Chicago before a former U-M graduate school classmate invited him to come work at an architectural firm in Las Vegas. He would spend the next 33 years at TSK Architects, rising to the position of president, before retiring in March 2024 to start Blue Skye Development.

Throughout his career, Kimsey designed a variety of buildings — from schools and courthouses in Nevada and California to 60-story hotel towers in China. “I think all the different types of projects you do help inform how you design,” he says. “And it keeps your brain fresh. I know people that, all they did was schools. I don’t know that I could handle that. I need the variety.”

As a developer, Kimsey is helping bring new life to Henderson, a city of more than 300,000 people. He’s developing restaurants, wine and coffee bars, and mixed-use spaces that include apartments and eateries.

“Becoming a developer is sort of like starting a second career, and it’s very related to architecture, but I realize you can be more impactful if you’re looking at things at more of a neighborhood scale,” he says. “So I’m not doing a client’s version of a project; it’s mine, and I have to sell it to the city, figure out how to pay for it, and all of those things. But I want to dedicate myself to Henderson, to really put some effort into the city, because their downtown still needs a lot of redevelopment, and I’m a big proponent of that.”