Carol McClintock and Lloyd Winnecke have called five places in Evansville home since marrying in 1989, and they say the condominium they moved into in 2024 will be their last.
By the end of 2023, as Winnecke was finishing his final of three terms as mayor, the couple was ready to downsize from their 5,000-square-foot condo on Main Street, but they wanted to stay Downtown. A listing at Riverfront Condominiums four blocks away caught McClintock’s attention — after all, she is a top-selling Realtor with her namesake team at F.C. Tucker Emge.
“I like the size of it. I didn’t know about living in 1,700 square feet, but it’s plenty big,” says McClintock, who had sold the unit four times in her real estate career before buying it herself. “I was familiar with the condo and the location, and we wanted to get down to the river.” Although 3,300 square feet smaller than their prior home, the condo fits the couple’s needs just right: They can host cocktail parties, dinners, and fundraising events, then unwind by reading, watching sports on TV, or enjoying those river views.
That said, the condo — built in 1988 — was dated and had a closed-off floor plan, so in 2024, the couple turned to a talented pair of longtime friends: interior designer Tay Ruthenburg and late real estate agent Susan Haynie. “We saw the possibilities of making it a special unit for Carol and Lloyd,” says Ruthenburg, who owns Evaline Karges Interiors. Steve Briscoe, former co-owner of F.C. Tucker Emge, worked with Ruthenburg and Haynie to identify layout changes. “There are a lot of personal touches there,” says Briscoe, who had remodeled the couple’s most recent condo at The Meridian Plaza, which was featured in the January/February 2014 issue. “We made a number of changes (at The Meridian), but not to this extent.”
They started by narrowing and opening the southeast wall between the kitchen and dining room to let the gathering areas breathe. After cutting overhead holes, they found that, by shifting some ductwork, they could raise the ceiling about 16 inches. The new open-concept kitchen and dining room features custom-built Fehrenbacher Cabinets and bar seating, plus a a beverage cabinet hidden behind motorized shutters. To simplify design options and open up spaces, they chose to paint the entire condo the same clean white. “We did go with all one color, which some people would not like,” McClintock says.
Interior walls in the primary suite were moved to enlarge the closet — “That closet ended up being bigger than the closets we had at the other joint!” McClintock laughs — expand the bathroom, build a new shower, and add storage for linens. Some plumbing was relocated, and new flooring and ceramic tile were installed.
Renovations overseen by Steven Dunlap lasted around five months and involved taking the unit’s bearings down to the studs. Logistics for a demolition job on the third floor of a condo building meant that, to get materials into the unit, anything large — from drywall and windows to countertops — had to be lifted three stories by crane and passed through its balcony. In addition to leading the demolition and rebuild, Dunlap performed all trim work throughout the condo.
The couple moved from The Meridian Plaza to Riverfront Condominiums in 2024. “I love the openness of our condo,” Winnecke says. “We removed walls, relocated doors, and totally re-thought the look of the main bedroom. It has a much brighter, cleaner, and more open feel.”
With a blank canvas, Ruthenburg and Haynie set to work making the condo feel like home for Winnecke and McClintock. “We desired a design aesthetic of developing clean, open spaces filled with simple but important furniture,” Ruthernburg says. “We didn’t put pendant lights in the kitchen because we didn’t want to interrupt the view (of the river), but we did use a chandelier in the dining room.” He also avoided heavy drapery on the windows, opting instead for electric blinds. “There’s wonderful light in this unit because it’s a corner unit,” Ruthenburg says, so he added a wall of mirrors to the dining room to capture that light and bounce it around the gathering spaces. A balcony sits adjacent, a perfect spot to take in the sweeping views from this river-facing condo. “We are regularly amazed at our views of breathtaking sunsets. And no two sunsets look the same,” Winnecke says.
The neutral walls allowed the couple to throw in pops of colors, such as pillows in deep blue, dark peach, and a multi-colored geometric print flanking the burled cube in the living room. A delightful burst comes from a vibrant skyline painting by Evansville artist Michael Key hanging on the wall of mirrors, a housewarming gift from Haynie.
Surrounding an electric fireplace are built-in cabinets, backlit to illuminate shelves filled with books, family photos, decorative art pieces, and personalized mementos from Winnecke’s time in office. Pillows, statues and trinkets featuring elephants dot the decor, nodding at Winnecke’s terms as a Republican mayor.
Only a few pieces of furniture — including the burled cube, Karges dining table and hutch, and pair of living room chairs — made the move from the Main Street condo. Sentimental pieces include a buffet that McClintock’s father purchased in Europe.
The couple works demanding jobs — in addition to McClintock’s longstanding real estate career, Winnecke has served as CEO of the Evansville Regional Economic Partnership since January 2024. Therefore, downtime is minimal and crucial. Ruthenburg and Haynie kept design light for the primary bedroom with minimal furniture and efficient, uncluttered storage. Just like the rest of their home, bedrooms are “not anything lacking, but not too much,” Ruthenburg says. “I think it works well for their organized lifestyle: It’s open, clean, yet sophisticated and comfortable.”
“Between Tay, Susan, and Lloyd and Carol, they all have good taste, so everything they picked was very nice,” Briscoe says. Her work on the condo also serves as a tribute to Haynie, who was killed in late August 2025 during a home break-in. She had been friends with the couple — and a close coworker with McClintock — for nearly 30 years.
“We are so lucky to live in a space with input from both Tay and Susan. What a team,” McClintock says. “Susan was an icon of design and worked well with professionals like Tay and Steve. They valued her feedback. … As I look around our condo, I see Susan in the simple, white, clean look, the mirrored wall with a Michael Key mounted on the mirror, Karges furniture mixed with contemporary styles … it all works. We appreciate all of their effort to make this space our home filled with happy memories.”
Moving only four blocks from their prior residence, she and Winnecke still walk early each weekday morning through Downtown and along the Greenway Passage, picking up litter along the way. “We do like the convenience (of being) Downtown. But … we’re off the beaten path a little bit, so we like that,” McClintock says.
“We committed to living Downtown when I first took office in 2012 and have loved every minute of it,” Winnecke says. “There’s a special excitement about living Downtown. … And best of all, we get to walk to everything.”
