AIA South Dakota presents its 2021 design awards

South Dakota architecture firms captured one American Institute of Architecture (AIA) South Dakota Honor Award, two Merit Awards and one People’s Choice Award during AIA South Dakota’s recent annual conference.

RAd Architect (Robert Arlt) of Sioux Falls won an Honor Award in Architecture for Urban Nest, a net-zero-energy ready Urban Refill family home built just south of downtown Sioux Falls. The stacked front porch features W-flange steel columns adding to the variety of columns seen on the street, and contemporary slat detailing is used to screen views to the second level porch yet frame views toward downtown.

CO-OP Architecture, of Sioux Falls, Aberdeen and Rapid City, won a Merit Award in Architecture for the NSU Regional Sports Complex in Aberdeen, a premier sporting complex helping the university continue its success in athletics and academics.

RAd Architect also captured a Merit Award in Architecture for Sauna Cube, an 8-by-8-by-8-foot volume articulated in five frames with a slice to create a skylight face, allowing early morning sun into the wood interior as well as views out into the tree canopy.

Koch Hazard Architects of Sioux Falls won the 2021 People’s Choice Award for the South Dakota Veterans Cemetery, the first federally funded, state-owned and operated, cemetery for veterans built on a 60-acre property in northeastern Sioux Falls.

Andrew Wells, FAIA, design director and co-founder of Dake Wells Architecture, served as the lead juror, assembling a team of four architects from across the region to judge 18 South Dakota entries. Wells’ work for educational, commercial and cultural clients has been widely recognized for design excellence by the American Institute of Architects, The Chicago Athenaeum, The Chronicle for Higher Education, Interior Design Magazine, Contract Magazine and numerous other digital and print media outlets. In addition to Wells, the jury team included Emily Harrold, AIA, NCIDQ, associate principal of Gould Evans; Gwynn M. Zivic, AIA, principal of Mackey Mitchell Architects and Ian Ford, AIA, senior associate at HGA.

AIA South Dakota also honored former South Dakota State University President David Chicoine, Ph.D., as its 2020 Champion of Architecture honoree. Chicoine, who served as SDSU’s president from 2007-2106, was recognized for his key role in establishing the SDSU Department of Architecture (DoArch), South Dakota’s first accredited architecture program.

The organization also honored Chase Kramer, a project architect at TSP, Inc., and Robert Arlt, of RAd Architect, with its 2021 Young Architect Awards. Kramer is the current guest member on the TSP Board of Directors and was a longtime member of the firm’s Innovation Team. A graduate of Leadership Sioux Falls, Kramer has been honored by Augustana University as a “40 Under 40” alumnus and he was named a “40 Under 40” professional to watch by Prairie Business magazine. Arlt is a practicing architect and a former lecturer at the South Dakota State University Department of Architecture (DoArch), where he taught from 2014 to 2021. Projects designed and built through Arlt’s instruction and professional office, RAd Architect, have received regional and national recognition through publication in architectural journals, online design magazines.

AIA South Dakota President Tom Hurlbert, AIA, of CO-OP Architecture, issued one President’s Award to Friends of the Goss Opera House, a nonprofit organization that helped restore and helps maintain the historic Goss Opera House, a circa-1889 venue in Watertown, South Dakota.

AIA South Dakota also announced its board leadership for 2021-2022:

• President Allison Dvorak, AIA, LEO A DALY, Sioux Falls
• Vice President Jeff Nelson, AIA, Falls Architecture, Sioux Falls
• Secretary/Treasurer Brian Johnson, AIA, TSP, Inc, Rapid City
• Immediate Past President: Tom Hurlbert, AIA, CO-OP Architecture, Sioux Falls