The Minnesota Recipients of 2021 AIA National Awards and Recognition
By Chris Hudson | November 11, 2021
Images 1–2: Walker Art Center expansion by HGA, winner of an AIA Architecture Award. Photos by Paul Crosby. Images 3–4: Minnehaha Academy Upper School reconconstruction by Cuningham, winner of an AIA Education Facility Design Award. Photos by Gaffer Photography. Image 5: MSR Design’s Dagmara Larsen, AIA, and Leo A Daly’s Daniel Yudchitz, AIA, recipients of 2021 AIA Young Architects Awards. Image 6: HGA’s Nancy Blankfard, FAIA, LSE Architects’ Mohammed Lawal, FAIA, MSR Design’s Paul Mellblom, FAIA, and Alchemy’s Geoffrey Warner, FAIA, all recently elevated to the AIA College of Fellows. Images 7–8: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s MIT.nano by HGA, winner of a COTE Top Ten award. Photos by Anton Grassl.
SPOTLIGHT
This past year, six Minnesota architects and two building projects designed by Minnesota architecture firms received national honors from the American Institute of Architects. The following accolades continue Minnesota architects’ and architecture firms’ strong performance in AIA National awards and recognition programs:
The HGA-designed Walker Art Center expansion in Minneapolis received a 2021 AIA Architecture Award. The project, which won an AIA Minnesota Honor Award in 2017, reestablished the Walker’s front door on Vineland Place, better integrated the museum into its 19-acre arts landscape, and resolved several vexing circulation issues.
The reconstruction of the Minnehaha Academy Upper School in Minneapolis after a tragic explosion was awarded an AIA Education Facility Design Award. The Cuningham-designed building combines flexible, daylit learning and social spaces with features that memorialize the lost lives and history. It won an AIA Minnesota Honor Award in 2019.
Dagmara Larsen, AIA, of MSR Design and Daniel Yudchitz, AIA, of Leo A Daly received the AIA Young Architects Award, which honors architects who “have demonstrated exceptional leadership and made significant contributions to the architecture profession early in their careers.”
HGA’s Nancy Blankfard, FAIA, LSE Architects’ Mohammed Lawal, FAIA, MSR Design’s Paul Mellblom, FAIA, and Alchemy’s Geoffrey Warner, FAIA, were elevated to the AIA College of Fellows, recognition reserved for AIA member architects who have made “significant contributions to the profession of architecture and society.”
In addition to these honors, the Boston office of HGA received an AIA COTE Top Ten honor for its design of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s high-performance MIT.nano facility in Cambridge.