Small-firm feel, big-firm backing: Indianapolis-area building owners gain access to more resources and faster project delivery without losing the personal attention of a smaller firm.
When Studio 3 Design President Heather Leslie received an email stating that Legat Architects was interested in acquiring her firm, she deleted it. Over the past 23 years, she and co-founder Tim Cover had built their small firm into a respected architecture and interior design practice in the Indianapolis region.
“Everything was going very well,” said Leslie. “We hadn’t even entertained the idea of an acquisition.”
More emails came, and they were quickly dispatched to the trash bin. Finally, Leslie answered: Studio 3 was not interested. The response she received, however, encouraged her to keep an open mind … to at least hear about Legat and the acquisition process. She agreed, and something unexpected happened: the Midwestern company’s small studio/large firm structure registered with her. Leslie spoke to a few colleagues, including partners Cover and Zach Bode. They said yes to a phone call with Legat’s then incoming president and CEO, Jeff Sandberg.
“We were surprised,” said Leslie. “We identified with Jeff and found him to be a lot like us. He was down to earth, easy to talk to, and loved what he did.”
The initial call led to more calls. Sandberg and his leadership team from various Chicago-area studios visited Studio 3’s Fishers, Indiana office several times. The relationship blossomed.
“We were impressed by Studio 3’s solid local reputation and strong portfolio, particularly in healthcare, hospitality, and multifamily projects,” said Sandberg.
After months of back and forth, Legat made the formal offer, and Studio 3 accepted, creating a mutually beneficial partnership. Legat extends its Midwestern reach and creates a bridge between its Chicago-area and Columbus, Ohio studios. Studio 3 gains resources and technologies that enable them to work faster, handle larger projects, and offer clients more services ranging from master planning to roofing consulting.
Setting Out With a Clean Slate
After working at the same firm for six and 15 years, interior designer Leslie and architect Cover cast their lot by founding Studio 3 Design in 2002. The name reflected the firm’s integrated services: architecture, interior design, and planning. They held their first meeting at a Starbucks. Within a week, they moved to rented workstations at an engineering firm.
What they lacked in clients, they made up for in grit. Initially, finding work was difficult — the duo had to make cold calls, and Leslie even “farmed myself out” by doing layouts for a furniture dealership. Within a few months, their first official project arrived. It required them to survey more than 1,000,000 square feet of warehouses for a local company.
Finally, Studio 3 received its first major commission: an emergency department addition/renovation for Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health (then Clarian Health Partners).
Studio 3’s reputation grew, and the engineering firm that housed Leslie and Cover invited them to relocate to a new building with them.
More projects came in. A mixed-use development. A movie theater. Leslie and Cover expanded their staff. An intern. An office manager. Another architect. The firm moved into larger office space in the Indianapolis neighborhood of Castleton, where they remained for 16 years.
Weary of leasing, Studio 3 purchased its current building in Fishers, located 20 miles northeast of downtown Indianapolis, in 2022. Fishers consistently ranks as one of the best places to live in the United States. The studio is minutes from the downtown area, mixed-use developments, the five-mile Nickel Plate Trail (a rail-to-trail conversion), and the Cheeney Creek Natural Area.
Puzzle Pieces Form a Healthcare Specialty
In 2004, Riley Children’s Hospital kicked off a tower expansion that would require razing a third of its existing facility. The organization called on Studio 3 to establish how staff displaced in the demolition would fit into the remainder of the building during the five-year construction period.
The team met with all affected departments, determined how much square feet each group needed, designed their renovated space, walked them through the move, and gave weekly updates to hospital leadership.
“This was a pivotal project for us,” said Leslie. “We learned how to ask the right questions: What do you have? What do you want? What do you really need to do your job? Where are you going? How do we get you there? It’s figuring out what the puzzle pieces are and how to fit them together.”
The firm has repeatedly applied this formula to its healthcare projects. Hendricks Regional Health, for instance, tasked Studio 3 with repurposing a surgical suite at the core of the original, 1960s-era Danville Hospital into endoscopy, wound therapy, and IV therapy units. The project also rerouted a public corridor to improve navigation.
Blooming in Bloomington: Student Housing and A Historic Bank’s Second Act
Studio 3’s focus on creating warm and comfort-driven healthcare environments paved the way for its multifamily and hospitality portfolio. It all started in a buffet line at a contractor’s open house. Tim Cover met a developer considering an apartment complex in downtown Bloomington. The next week, the developer hired Studio 3 on the spot for the design of Tenth & College Village Apartments, a student-oriented housing development built in 2010. Since then, Studio 3 has designed nearly 30 multifamily developments in Bloomington and as far as Milwaukee.
One of the firm’s most recent projects, POSH on Kirkwood, transforms a two-story historic bank into a 45-room boutique hotel in Bloomington.
“It’s a five-story hotel built on top of, through, and around a two-story limestone box built in the 1960s,” said Tim Cover. “All furniture in the rooms is built in, while loose furniture was custom designed for the hotel.”
The project also gets preservation points for retaining the bank’s facade and interior features such as the original vault.
The hotel, which opened in mid-September 2025, serves everyone from business travelers to Indiana University football fans and parents coming in to visit.
“Before we even kicked off our reservations, we had more than 500 people on our waiting list,” said sales manager Jennifer Mervar.
Middle: Kevin Coppedge, Debora Bonney, Rachel Lindemann, Tim Cover; Front: Heather Leslie, Ian Parent, Diana Nicholas
A Symbiotic Relationship
Legat and Studio 3 have already achieved successes in the four months since the acquisition. One of the partnership’s first major healthcare commissions of 2026 assembles a team from Studio 3 and Legat’s Chicago-area locations for a birthing center renovation. Additionally, solar/shading, audiovisual, and gymnasium equipment manufacturer Draper, Inc. tasked the studio with the design of a multipurpose facility on its manufacturing campus in Spiceland, Indiana. The 12,000-square-foot facility, aptly named “The Draper Experience Center,” will be a showroom for Draper’s residential and commercial products, as well as a training center and health clinic.
Beyond projects, the transition has gone smoothly, and the teams have meshed quickly. In a recent episode of the Self-Made Is a Myth podcast, Leslie talks about the “symbiotic” relationship that has grown since the acquisition.
“Legat’s not moving too slowly or forcing anything to move too quickly,” she said. “We’ve learned a lot from them, and even though they’re larger, Legat has shown interest in our way of doing things and embraced our ideas.”
Studio 3’s smaller size — nine employees with plans to grow — aligns with Legat’s multi-studio structure. As Legat’s sixth studio, the Indy location extends the small firm personalization/large firm resources balance that has fueled the firm’s growth.
Key to that growth is a strong internal culture and a focus on community outreach, core characteristics at Studio 3. The firm has built a close-knit group, from back porch summer barbecues to its annual holiday celebration featuring “Timmy Story Time” where Cover reviews yearly highlights. Involvement in the community is another value. Each year, for example, they host a craft booth at a Boys & Girls Club holiday event.
“From our first visit during the acquisition, it was clear that Studio 3’s culture and approach to client service fit perfectly with ours,” said Sandberg. “This is a good group of people who will help us bring cost-effective and high-performance design to Central Indiana and beyond.”
About Legat
Legat Architects is a nationally recognized architecture and interior design firm dedicated to creating spaces that empower people and enrich communities. It specializes in solutions for education, healthcare, commercial, and civic facilities. The Architect’s Newspaper named Legat the Midwest’s top large architecture firm for its focus on design, culture, and community impact. The firm operates studios in Chicago, Moline, and Oak Brook, Illinois; Indianapolis, Indiana; Iowa City, Iowa; and Columbus, Ohio.
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