AIA South Dakota names winners of Champion of Architecture, Legacy, Young Architect awards

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) South Dakota is recognizing a former city planning director, a South Dakota concrete company and two architects with annual awards to be presented as part of AIA South Dakota’s annual convention on Friday, Sept. 14.

The 2018 Champion of Architecture award for individuals, selected by AIA past presidents, will be presented posthumously to longtime Sioux Falls city planning director and downtown visionary Steve Metli. Metli, a Sioux Falls native, was hired to lead the city planning department by former mayor Rick Knobe in 1974, serving in five administrations before retiring in 2005.

Keith Neuharth, AIA, NCARB, vice president of RSArchitects, said Metli was a true visionary, providing Sioux Falls with a blueprint for organized commercial and residential growth for years to come. He was well known for his ability to take parties with differing viewpoints, including city engineers vs. architects and developers, and work out a compromise in which “all parties felt that their side had been heard and everyone walked away winners.”

“With his guidance, we have seen the revitalization of the downtown district, including Phillips to the Falls, the River Greenway, the bike path and the future Arc of Dreams,” Neuharth said. “These things would not have come to fruition without his steady hand.”

The 2018 Champion of Architecture award for organizations goes to Gage Brothers, a Sioux Falls-based manufacturer of innovative architectural and structural concrete products. The company, which was started by members of the Gage family in 1915, has been a longtime AIA South Dakota allied member, an annual convention exhibitor and a founding sponsor of Design in the Hills. Gage Brothers has been an essential supporter of SDSU Department of Architecture.

Mark Aspaas, AIA, NCARB, an architect with Complete Consulting, said Gage Brothers continues to be a champion of the built environment and all of the disciplines to which it contributes.

“Gage Brothers has been not only a friend of the design profession for decades, but a true friend to the city of Sioux Falls, the State and the region,” Aspaas said. “Gage Brothers has never been satisfied to just produce and sell product, but have been on the forefront of innovation, efficiency and service.”

Paul Boerboom, AIA, who retired this spring from his position as a principal, senior architect and design discipline co-leader at TSP Inc., will be presented with the 2018 AIA South Dakota Legacy Award. The annual award recognizes an AIA South Dakota member for a lifetime of leadership and dedication to architecture, the profession and the community.

Throughout his 40-year career, Boerboom approached each architectural project with a deep respect for that process and taught others to do the same. His project résumé includes community and civic structures, churches and fellowship halls, K-12 and university facilities and buildings for private businesses. In his leadership position at TSP Inc., he showed the entire team the right way to listen, ask questions and align design intent with the client’s true needs. Boerboom has held several offices with AIA South Dakota and led the organization as president in the early 1990s. In recent years, he has given countless hours to help develop new talent in the field through design-review sessions with DoArch students at South Dakota State University.

Allison Dvorak, AIA, CPHC, an architect with TSP Inc. who serves on the AIA South Dakota Board of Directors, is the recipient of the 2018 AIA South Dakota Young Architect Award. The annual award, which encourages AIA involvement by early career professionals, recognizes talents and contributions to the architectural profession in South Dakota.

Dvorak began her career by inspecting bridges on Native American land and carried her passion into her other topics of interest: inclusive design, community development, Passive House design and the future of the architectural profession. Studious, driven and passionate, Dvorak has considered how the profession can influence the lives around her. Through her study of inclusive design, she has considered architecture’s role in human interaction, and, more specifically, empathetic spaces that allow those with autism to adapt to the outside world.

Dvorak chairs the AIA South Dakota Communication Committee and serves as a state NCARB licensing advisor.

The AIA South Dakota Design Awards Ceremony and Dinner is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 14, 2018, beginning with a 5:30 p.m. social hour, a 6:30 p.m. dinner and a 7 p.m. program at the Holiday Inn City Centre in downtown Sioux Falls. The evening event concludes the 2018 AIA South Dakota Annual Convention.