Great Spaces, Great Places
The 2022 Champion of Architecture Award was given to Jay Vogt, who served two roles as Director of the State Historical Society and South Dakota State Historic Preservation Officer. The award was presented at the recent South Dakota American Institute of Architects state convention in Sioux Falls, SD. The award is given to non-architects or …
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Not all great historic buildings can be saved for their original purpose. Sometimes they are vacated due to new ownership, sometimes they become too small and many have accessibility issues. When a building is remodeled for a new purpose, architects call it adaptive reuse. Buildings that cannot find new uses are often abandoned and eventually …
(Cover image by Sandra Lea Dickenson, AIA Emeritus) Her name was Margaret Wellington. She was the wife of Dr. Raynor Wellington, history professor at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion. Margaret was a member of the building committee for a new home for the First Congregational Church in Vermillion, South Dakota (now known as …
Dakota Hall, Redfield, South Dakota 1909-2021 Cover image courtesy of the Redfield Press Not all historical buildings can be saved. I love old buildings and have spent much of my career protecting them, renovating them and repurposing them. There is a little of our history that dies when we lose one. We lost a significant …
By Sandra Lea Dickenson, AIA Emeritus Besides being an architect, I am also a military brat and a military wife and have spent most of my life crisscrossing this country. With 170 Veterans Affairs hospitals out there, we would often come across them. Usually they were hulking wedding cake style complexes, often on a hill …
Many people, maybe even most people, think Frank Lloyd Wright is the greatest American architect. Certainly, he was recognized in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects as “the greatest American architect of all time.” He is the best known and people come from all over the world to see his work. Just two years ago, eight of his buildings were …
This is the third post of series in which we ask community leaders about the community they live in and share their answers with you. We read what their favorite spaces are in the city and why and what issues their city faces from their point of view. By engaging community leaders, designers and communities …
When I served on the AIA Strategic Council we worked on an initiative to reengage past leaders of our organization. Sometimes leaders are just “done” but many times we just don’t ask them for more. I am pleased that South Dakota AIA has asked past presidents of the organization to organize for the purpose of …