Welcome to Blueprint South Dakota, a blog created by architects in South Dakota to provide a forum for public conversations with citizens, city planners, developers, property owners, designers, public office holders and others. Through these conversations, we want to participate with the public and community leaders in the creation of vibrant, prosperous, beautiful and effective places to live, work and play in South Dakota. Please join us in conversing about design and planning issues in our state.
Pride and Architecture
The gratefulness and thankfulness that is supposed to accompany this season is somewhat at odds with a culture that preaches one to be “proud” of one’s accomplishments or to take “pride” in their work. How often do we hear hear someone tell us to be “proud” of this or that, or even parents telling their …
Obligatory Thanksgiving Post
This week is a bit of a punt (no Thanksgiving football pun intended), as the week quickly got away from me to produce some original content. We’ll try again next week. Instead, I’ll reshare a post put together by some other folks at TSP, about some of the projects we are grateful for being a …
Design Competitions
While still not really a common request by clients in our state and region, design competitions are nonetheless become more prevalent. In recent years, some competitions have been more controversial than others, with such controversy focusing more or less on how they compensate (or rather, didn’t compensate) those competing. With that said, I will cover …
Beauty: What It Is (and Why It Matters… to Architecture)
Full admission, the title of this post is stolen from the title of a book I just finished reading a few months ago, written by John-Mark Miravalle. While it detailed aspects of beauty from the traditional fine arts, it also was broad enough to cover the literary and culinary arts, and even touched on the …
Continue reading “Beauty: What It Is (and Why It Matters… to Architecture)”
It Takes a Village
For over 35 years I have had the pleasure of working with Architects, Engineers, Interior Designers, and Landscape Architects as they have used their unique perspective and skill sets in creating our built environment. The Sioux Falls Arts Council (SFAC) Board includes members with backgrounds in law, business, human resources, arts, education, architecture and engineering. For a …
Artists show us how to keep learning
We hear a lot about the importance of lifetime learning—growing our brainpower and appreciation of the world around us by adding knowledge and new skills as we age. Artists are doing that constantly, providing inspiration and a good example for all of us. As a performing musician, I’m aware of how critical it is for …
Hashtag: TogetherWeArt
How a global pandemic changed the Sioux Falls Arts Council The warm days of summer have all but disappeared, kids are back in school, and we are all finding our new strides in a post pandemic world. It is hard to look back at the last three years and remember “what we were doing in …
The Importance of Expertise in Creating and Supporting Municipal Cultural Growth
The City of Sioux Falls has provided support for nonprofit arts and cultural organizations for decades. It was instrumental in the development of the Washington Pavilion, and continues to own the facility while leasing it to a nonprofit corporation that operates its performing, visual arts and science center. It owns the Orpheum Theatre, home of …
Continue reading “The Importance of Expertise in Creating and Supporting Municipal Cultural Growth”
An open Letter to Blueprint South Dakota’s Committee
Dear Blueprint South Dakota Committee, I wanted to thank you for approaching the Sioux Falls Arts Council to host the Blueprint South Dakota blog for a second time. Back in October of 2020 we had the opportunity to host the blog and used that time to explore the many intersections between the arts and architecture. …
Continue reading “An open Letter to Blueprint South Dakota’s Committee”
A mentoring program from National AIA
Are you looking for guidance on the next step in your career? Are you looking for ways to mentor the next generation of architect leaders? In a successful mentoring relationship, everyone wins. Mentees get the coaching and career development they need to be successful. And mentors strengthen their leadership skills and learn new perspectives on …
More posts