MINNEAPOLIS, November 14, 2024 — AIA Minnesota announced the winners of the 2024 AIA Minnesota Honor Awards and Commendations for Design Excellence last night at an awards event at the Depot in Minneapolis. Three projects received Honor Awards, and three projects were awarded Commendations for Design Excellence.

Established in 1954, the AIA Minnesota Honor Awards recognize outstanding built projects designed by AIA Minnesota members, or by firms that are owned by AIA Minnesota members, that practice professionally in Minnesota.

AIA Minnesota Honor Awards submissions are evaluated using the AIA Framework for Design Excellence. The Framework is composed of 10 measures—Design for Integration, Equitable Communities, Ecosystems, Water, Economy, Energy, Well-being, Resources, Change, and Discovery—that together form a holistic approach to quality design. Submissions judged to have demonstrated excellence in two or more Framework measures may be given an Honor Award. Entries judged to have demonstrated excellence in a single Framework measure may receive a Commendation.

AIA Minnesota Honor Awards juries are composed of three award-winning architects from across the country. On this year’s panel were Ruth Baleiko, FAIA, of The Miller Hull Partnership in Seattle; Amy Slattery, AIA, NOMA, of Slattery in Kansas City; and Anthony Treu, AIA, of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in New York. The jurors made their selections from among 40 submissions.

Autism Discovery Center

Award: Commendation for Excellence in Well-Being
Location: St. Cloud, Minnesota
Client: St. Cloud State University
Architect: VJAA
Project partners: EDI-Dolejs, Meyer Borgman Johnson, and Donlar Construction Company
Photographer: Jasper Lazor

This new clinic educates and trains future healthcare professionals while providing professional services to individuals diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD. The design team transformed cramped, natural-light-starved office space in a midcentury academic building into airy, calming environments through use of natural finishes, cool and neutral colors, and translucent glass in the interior hallway. The signature design solution is the replacement of the standard rectangular one-way mirror between clinic and observation rooms with a maple-lined circular niche with colorful, inviting seating. Integrating the mirror into the niche reduces the presence of the mirror for children in occupational therapy while still allowing staff and students to observe the sessions.

825 Arts

Award: Honor Award for Excellence in Design for Equitable Communities, Economy, Resources, and Integration
Location: St. Paul, Minnesota
Client: 825 Arts
Architect: VJAA
Project partners: MCE, Meyer Borgman Johnson, Schuler Shook, and Kirkegaard
Photographer: Gaffer Photography

This project saved and reanimated the long-vacant, historic Victoria Theater on University Avenue as an arts hub for the Frogtown and Rondo neighborhoods. On the street, the renovation restored the façade’s existing terra cotta detailing; inside, it immerses occupants in the layers of the theater’s past lives as a silent movie house and a speakeasy. Patched masonry is exposed, as are remnants of old murals and the ghosted outline of a long-removed staircase. New elements including a crisply detailed metal stair and mezzanine bridge and pops of bright yellow accentuate the building’s raw beauty. The reshaped interiors include accessible, multi-functional spaces for music and dance, theater and film, gallery display, teaching, and community gatherings.

CITYPARK Stadium

Award: Commendation for Excellence in Design for Equitable Communities
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Client: St. Louis CITY SC
Architects: Snow Kreilich Architects and HOK
Project partners: MAK Construction, Arcturis, Code Consultants, CPP, David Mason & Associates, DG2 Design, Ed Roether Consulting, KAI Enterprises, Kiku Obata & Company, Kimley-Horn, ME Engineers, Custom Engineering, Faith Group, S20 Consultants, VDA, and WA
Photographer: Michael Robinson Photography

This 22,500-seat stadium for Major League Soccer’s St. Louis CITY SC was designed to anchor a new 25.5-acre sports district in the heart of the city. Built on the site of a former highway off-ramp and parking lot, this project marks a new generation of North American stadiums that embrace openness over full enclosure. With a below-grade pitch and openings at all four corners, CITYPARK brings its rich urban surroundings into the match experience—and the energy of the game action and crowd out into the streets. Thoughtful planning for the district yielded landscaped plazas and promenades and art installations around the stadium. A variety of programming combines with neighboring training fields and facilities to activate the district year-round.

Lakewood Cemetery Welcome Center

Award: Commendation for Excellence in Design for Energy
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Clients: Lakewood Cemetery
Architects: Snow Kreilich Architects and Miller Dunwiddie
Project partners: Ten x Ten, Emanuelson-Podas, Meyer Borgman Johnson, Pierce Pini & Associates, and JE Dunn Construction
Photographer: Gaffer Photography

The 250-acre Lakewood Cemetery is a notable example of the 19th-century Garden Cemeteries, which inspired the first large urban parks in the U.S. Today, Lakewood is a leader in a movement to make cemeteries places not just for mourning but also for celebrating life and connecting to nature. The institution’s historical legacy and future come together in the all-electric, net-zero-energy Welcome Center, Lakewood’s new front door. A contemporary, stone-clad pavilion with a two-story colonnade, the building welcomes and orients visitors and hosts gatherings; it also houses Lakewood’s administrative offices. Net-zero energy use is achieved through an innovative geothermal energy exchange system, rooftop solar, and native and adaptive gardens, among other strategies.

Lindsay Boathouse

Award: Honor Award for Excellence in Design for Well-Being and Discovery
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Client: Upper Canada College
Architects: VJAA and RDHA
Project partners: Valdor Engineering, NAK Design Strategies, and Smith + Anderson
Photographer: Younes Bounhar, DoubleSpace Photography

This new project on Toronto’s Outer Harbor waterfront supports a more public-facing mission for a storied K-12 rowing program. Sited on a man-made peninsula and designed to capture dramatic views of the downtown skyline across the channel, the 9,400-square-foot facility houses boat storage bays, locker rooms, and a rowing training room that converts to community space for a variety of events. Environmental measures include a low-carbon, cross laminated timber structure assembled onsite, expansive bird-safe glazing for daylighting, passive ventilation, and green roofs for heat absorption and stormwater management. The boathouse and its launch area and crew docks are also part of Ports Toronto’s master plan to improve public access to an adjacent nature preserve.

Mills Hall and the Gibbons Center for Arctic Studies

Award: Honor Award for Excellence in Design for Integration, Resources, and Energy
Location: New Brunswick, Maine
Client: Bowdoin College
Architect: HGA
Project partners: Consigli Construction Co., Sebago Technics, Stimson, South County Post & Beam, GSM Project, Acentech
Photographer: Michael Moran

The first commercially scaled mass timber project in Maine, these two buildings were conceived in tandem to anchor the southeast corner of the historic Bowdoin College campus. Mills Hall, clad in red brick and copper, houses flexible classrooms, collaborative spaces, offices, a cinema, and an event space for the school and surrounding community. The Gibbons Center, a cross-disciplinary hub for bringing Arctic research to a broader audience, is the new home of the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum. Clad in black plank masonry, the Center for Arctic Studies was inspired by silhouette figures from the museum’s glass lantern slide collection. Together, the two buildings showcase the potential of innovative, carbon-reducing timber construction for the region.

 

The American Institute of Architects Minnesota, founded in 1892, is dedicated to advancing a vital profession, vibrant communities, and architecture that endures. For more information on the organization and Minnesota architectural firms, visit our website and subscribe to ENTER, our digital monthly newsletter that explores the people and ideas shaping a better built environment for Minnesota.