This month and next, Blueprint South Dakota will continue spotlighting the entries in the 2025 Design Awards competition. AIA South Dakota members again proved their creativity and problem-solving skills with beautifully functional work, on display in communities across South Dakota and beyond. Each installment in this series introduces readers to a different project, in the design team’s own words. As part of every entry form, AIA SD asked submitters to provide a “long description” that addressed the design intent and its progression. We invited submitters to go beyond the stats to show the value the project added for their client or community. In turn, they detailed the problems the project solved, told how their process made the most of hidden opportunities, and described the ways the design supports the client or community through form and function.
Fargo Parks Sports Center
The basics
- Firm: JLG Architecture
- Client: Fargo Park District
- Category: Large Project
- Location: Fargo, N.D.
The story
The Fargo Parks Sports Center meets the region’s growing need for year-round access to turf, courts, and ice facilities, alongside sports medicine and performance training. The project is carefully scaled to provide the right number of rinks, fields, and courts while keeping the building open, connected, and easy to navigate. At its core, the facility blends sports, health, and community—creating shared spaces where activities overlap, encouraging connection through movement and wellness.
The building is also home to the Fargo Park District, the Fargo Park Foundation, Sanford Sports Performance, and Sanford Health, all working together to promote health and strengthen community bonds. The various fields, rinks, and courts are connected via a continuous circulation spine. The spine acts as both concourse and “town square”. It provides visitors a sense of connection to sports and activities they may not otherwise interact with, as well as a space for people-watching and comradery.
The design efficiently connects the large program elements while anticipating the additional courts, rinks and fields in the near future as the community grows and additional space becomes necessary. The central spine also offers ample natural light and connection to the outdoors and time of day.
Every primary circulation route is oriented to frame a view to the outdoors. The elevated track, for example, wraps the indoor fieldhouse. Occupants can see outside at the fieldhouse’s corners, enjoying an uninterrupted view of prairie horizon beyond.
More projects in the series
Click to view a video of all 22 entries in the 2025 AIA South Dakota Design Awards.
