This month, we wrap up Blueprint South Dakota’s spotlight on the entries from 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.
Jacobson Plaza
The basics
- Firm: CO-OP Architecture
- Client: City of Sioux Falls
- Category: Large Project
- Location: Sioux Falls, S.D.
The story
Opened to the public on June 30, 2025, Jacobson Plaza is already a boon for Downtown Sioux Falls, S.D.—a long-awaited hub of community activity, filling a void in the fabric of downtown. This southern extension of the City’s namesake park has been slowly materializing since the early 2000s when the City moved to remediate industrial soil contamination on the site and to extend Phillips Avenue north to The Falls. With Downtown’s main artery connected to its greatest natural attraction, the revitalization of Downtown Sioux Falls began. The City wisely designated the Jacobson Plaza site as future park land, so the wheels were set in motion for this new destination.
The project was a highly collaborative public-private effort involving the City’s Parks & Recreation Department, a number of private donors, and a design team led by a local landscape architecture firm with the help of CO-OP Architecture. The landscape architect designed the site in its entirety, working closely with the Parks Department on the accessible playground, the splash pad, dog park, and the overall layout, flow, and connectivity of the park. CO-OP designed two structures on the site: the equipment building and the centerpiece food hall and warming house.
The architect’s primary intention was for both the structures—but especially the centerpiece building—to respond to and complement the site. The architecture should be interesting without overwhelming its surroundings. It should be familiar, relevant, and welcoming. Simple and clean.
Broken-up masses and natural material choices are the main contributors to the success of the design of the 7,325 SF main building. And the building is a contributor to the success of the entire park. Home to a New American restaurant called The Lodge, the food hall brings families and friends together, whether they’re in-between playground and splash pad sessions or in-between a concert at the Levitt Shell and a walk through The Falls.
In the summer, the warming house is a misnomer—a fully air-conditioned space used for yoga classes, corporate events, and, of course, renting roller skates. Its peak form will be in the winter when the roller skates are swapped for ice skates, the Sioux Quartzite fireplaces get rolling, and the refrigerated ice rink is lit up for evening skating.
As intended, Jacobson Plaza is a year-round gathering place and a necessary new piece of connective tissue for Downtown Sioux Falls. The upshot? More patrons of downtown parks means more patrons of downtown businesses, which means more new businesses, greater density, and higher municipal tax receipts for more and better parks. That’s a recipe for community building.
More projects in the series
Click to view a video of all 22 entries in the 2025 AIA South Dakota Design Awards.
