During the 70th AIA Minnesota annual convention in November, three nationally recognized architects chose the chapter’s 10 Honor Award recipients and one Divine Detail winner from among 119 submissions by Minnesota architecture firms. Jurors Jeanne Gang, AIA, Studio Gang Architects, Chicago; James Stewart Polshek, FAIA, Polshek Partnership Architects, New York City; and Ron Radziner, AIA, Marmol Radziner + Associates, Los Angeles, selected the following projects as award recipients.

Honor Awards

AIA Minnesota’s Honor Awards program serves as a tribute to architectural excellence to “encourage a high level of architecture and to recognize the clients and architects who have distinguished themselves and to inform the public of these fine architectural contributions.”

Bigelow Chapel, New Brighton, Minn., by Hammel, Green and Abrahamson Inc., for the United Theological Seminary
The 5,300-square-foot Bigelow Chapel at the United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities realizes a timeless, spiritually uplifting, ecumenical worship space. The chapel, with its glass fins screen light entering the chapel, providing an intimate relationship to nature. “Every material and space is handled with care and precision. There is great confidence in handling the materials; compositionally, it all works,” the jury enthused. “The subtlety in the section with different levels creates interest on an otherwise flat site.”
Photo © Paul Warchol Photography.

Dalseth Family Dental Clinic, Apple Valley, Minn., by ALTUS Architecture + Design with landscape architect Coen + Partners, for Drs. Stephen and Pascal Dalseth
This dynamic new facility for a generation-long local family dental practice becomes a bold destination within the fabric of a suburban community. It expresses a new environment through the exploration of light, form, color, and sustainability. It strives to reinvent the experience and memory of going to the dentist by creating a sense of welcome and joy. “The brise soleil breaks down the scale of the glass-box waiting room, while the random pattern of windows in the exam rooms give dentists, hygienists, and patients—whether standing or seated—a view outside,” the jury noted.
Photo © Peter Bastianellli-Kerze.

General Mills Headquarters Visitors Lobby Renovation, Golden Valley, Minn., by Hammel, Green and Abrahamson Inc., for General Mills Inc.
The Visitors’ Lobby Renovation at the General Mills Headquarters links the older buildings on campus with their newer compatriots. It is a wayfinding space that creates a friendly and easy entrance to the large corporate campus. The renovated public space has its own character while remaining sympathetic to the original, Modern building,” said the jury. “The addition of a blue glass wall as a linear element transforms the space, while visually organizing it. By emphasizing the public zones in the space, the design makes the circulation through the space clear.”
Photo © George Heinrich Photography.

Grandview Community Center, Grandview, Minn., by design architect Ankeny Kell Architects and architect of record Gould Evans Goodman Associates, for the City of Grandview
The architects designed this 60,000-square-foot multiuse recreational facility to reinforce a sense of identity for a suburban community within a larger metropolitan area. The program includes a natatorium, gymnasium, fitness area, parks and recreation department offices, plus a senior center, community meeting rooms, and banquet facility. “The light monitors that line the corridors make the interiors come alive, with fritted glass casting a dappled light into the interior, as if under a canopy of trees. It’s also nice how the ceiling curves, bringing in light and leading people through the building,” the jury remarked. “This is a happy building. There is a lightness about it, a delightful quality.”
Photo © Mike Sinclair Photographer.

Great Plains Software, Fargo, N.D., by Julie Snow Architects Inc., for Great Plains Software
The master-plan strategy for this building was based on making the environment livable by creating buffers from brutal north winds of the higher latitudes. The building interprets its location on the vast plains landscape as one of unlimited opportunity and unrestricted growth. Shifted against this three-story mass are two floorplates that float in the landscape. Details like dropping the sill mullion below the raised floor intensify the sense of “freely navigating the extraordinary vastness of the place,” according to the architect. “The detailing is expertly done, from the very subtle exterior wall to the thinness of the curtain wall and minimal floor and roof lines on the facades,” the jury said. “The honest use of materials as ‘floating’ brick panels in the glass walls makes the elevations really beautiful.”
Photo © Tim Hursley/The Arkansas Office.

Humboldt Mill Condominiums, Minneapolis, by Julie Snow Architects Inc., for Brighton Development
Departing from the historic conversions that have shaped mill district housing, these condominiums offer the open spaces and raw materials of industrial conversions assembled with a precision and lightness not normally associated with historic structures. Contrasting lightness, light-filled spaces, and panoramic views, the project assembles traditional materials with rigorous detailing. “It’s refreshing how the new addition references the massing and brick color of the original mill building without mimicking it,” according to the jury. “There is a lot of variety in what looks like a simple building. It’s a very sophisticated design, handled with a very light touch.”
Photo © Don Wong.

Matthew Cabin, Gull Lake, Brainerd, Minn., by Salmela Architect, for David and Kathy Matthew
In replacing a previous cabin that sat parallel to the lake and burned down, siting the new cabin perpendicular to the lake became key to the project. The new design allows for outdoor rooms to the east and west, providing options of sun and shade for everyday summer living. Lake views from the cabin are broadened with the glazed sidewalls of the house. The assembly of buildings floats in a field of native grasses, conveying a pastoral scene one expects in a Minnesota cabin. “Siting the house perpendicular to the lake provides glancing views of the water in a really beautiful way,” the jury commented. “The white-painted masonry walls, natural wood interiors, and integration of the house and landscape show an amazing consciousness about every detail.”
Photo © Peter Bastianellli-Kerze.

Rochester Art Center, Rochester, Minn., by Hammel Green and Abrahamson Inc., for the Rochester Art Center
The $7 million Rochester Art Center celebrates the urban/natural duality of the site and creates a bold statement about the future of art in the city. With a copper-clad tower and zinc-covered box cantilevering over the Zumbro River, the center is never a static architectural form. “The two, simple volumes, slightly offset and clad in two different metals, are handled well,” the jury remarked. “The zinc box seems to float, with the space between the two masses bringing light into the center.”
Photo © Peter Kerze Photography.

San Fernando Cathedral Renovation and Cathedral Centre, San Antonio, by Rafferty Rafferty Tollefson Architects, for the Archdiocese of San Antonio
San Fernando Cathedral was established in 1731 in what is now San Antonio, Tex. Intense use and growth required the cathedral, property, and support facilities to undertake major changes in order to avoid the complete collapse of one of the most historic structures in the State of Texas. The architecture and engineering resolution restored the historic cathedral, updated the cathedral plan liturgically, created a setting for new and historic works of art, established a new parish hall, and created a Cathedral Centre Plaza for gatherings that interconnect the church with the city. The U-shaped addition responds well to the original church by maintaining heights, massing, and materials,” the jury said. “The newly created outdoor courtyard is nicely proportioned and the blurred zone between the building and court is a subtle transition from old to new.”
Photo courtesy of the architect.

SunsetRidge Townhomes, Minnetonka, Minn., by Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle Ltd., for Curtis Squire Inc.
Located in a first-ring suburb of Minneapolis, the SunsetRidge Townhomes includes eight rental units for older adults looking to maintain an active lifestyle while sharing the benefits and services of a senior community. The design shifts between Modern and iconic residential forms, achieving a level of maturity, durability, density, and invention that will provide quality housing to a growing aging population that is looking for greater design choice. “Too often, senior housing isn’t done with this amount of care and consideration. This is beautifully studied and full of surprising details like folded roof plates, high ceilings, and glass floors that bring light into the space below,” the jury said. “The design is really respectful of the people living there. This is an uncompromised and non-patronizing architecture.”
Photo © Pete Sieger.

Divine Detail Award

“The Poetry of Trees,” Minnesota Landscape Arboretum’s Treehouse Design Competition, Chanhassen, Minn., by Cuningham Group Architecture, for the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum
This house-like structure, crafted from reclaimed wood salvaged by the Reuse Center, finds inspiration from a great white oak. Similar to a mature tree, its solid base engages the ground. Inside, the structure draws attention upward toward shafts of light. Wrapped in thoughtful poetry, the treehouse connects the viewer more closely to nature. “The detailing of the wood suggests growth and emergence from the ground, expressive of a tree. Appealing to the eye is the color contrast between the vertical wood supports and the horizontal wood slats,” said the jury. “Its delicate size is nicely scaled to the children meant to inhabit it.”
Photo © Dan Nordstrom.

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