After a year hiatus, the St. Paul Prize has returned and the St. Paul Chapter of AIA Minnesota is pleased to announce the winners and finalists. First prize of $1,500 is awarded to Yonggyun Noh from RSP Architects, second prize of $900 is awarded to Timothy Shortreed, AIA, from HGA, and third prize of $450 went to Kenos Leong, Assoc. AIA, from HGA. The jury was very impressed with the quality of work from all competitors this year.

The 2022 St. Paul Prize was centered around the themes of equity and community inclusion. To that end the organizers felt it was important to have it be based on a real project. The competition organizers partnered with Equaspace who is going through a capital campaign to purchase and renovate the Grace building in downtown St. Paul with their architectural partner LSE. The project itself is a re-imagination of what co-working might look like after the pandemic for a collective of non-profit organizations. Because of the Grace building’s long history of being a major player in activating the public space at the 7th Place Plaza, the prompt this year also asks competitors to imagine ways to re-activate this public space.

The jury included Sarah Clyne, executive director of Equaspace, Kelley Kell, a member of the Design Council for Equaspace, Sheila Mozayeny-Hale, director of interior design at LSE, as well as AIA St. Paul Past President Wade Goodenberger, and current AIA St. Paul President Andrew Gardner. The jury met mid-December and discussed the submissions based on two main criteria of designs:

  1. Innovation in designing a co-working environment, and
  2. Ideas to reactivate the 7th Place Plaza.

Ultimately, the jury was unanimously impressed with Yonggyun’s proposal because it presented both innovative co-working spaces and provided a year-round plan to provide programming for the plaza.

About the St. Paul Prize

The St. Paul Prize Design Competition is an annual program focused on celebrating and recognizing innovative ideas by young design professionals. Architects and designers within 10 years of graduating from an accredited professional degree program are eligible to participate.