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.
Startup Sioux Falls Adaptive Reuse & Renovation
The basics
- Firm: Koch Hazard Architects
- Client: Startup Sioux Falls
- Category: Small Project
- Location: Sioux Falls, S.D.
The story
Constructed in 1894, The Milwaukee Road Freight Depot Building served the young community of Sioux Falls as a center for business and goods exchange. The Depot, constructed of timber and Sioux Quartzite, was designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque style using arched openings along both sidewalls. The east side opened up to freight arriving from the railroads, while the west side served as a loading dock for horse drawn carriages. The Depot also dealt with the distribution and shipment of Sioux Quartzite from local quarries out to the surrounding areas.
Upon the dissolution of the Chicago, Milwaukee, & St. Paul Railroad in the 1980s, the depot went in and out of use, often sitting vacant. Now, 130 years after it was built, the Depot finds new life as an incubator for local startups. Its role as a center for business and goods exchange lives on!
Previous renovations were additive and concealing, partitioning the space down and covering up the original timber structure and quartzite walls. In our revitalization, efforts were made to peel back the previous additions and restore the original beauty underneath. The renovation brings a sense of fresh air and lightness to a space which had been previously made to feel stuffy and compressed.
The south half of the renovated building provides open coworking with offices, breakout space, and conference rooms. The lofty spaces and timber construction in this half of the building serve as an incubator for local entrepreneurs. At the north end, a multipurpose space serves as a resource for Startup Sioux Falls as well as other local organizations, hosting events ranging from business-owner meetups to an occasional live music performance.
Centrally located bathrooms and a shared kitchen with lounge seating serve the coworking functions by day and the event space by night. On top of the restrooms, a loft was built both to increase the variety of work space and also to serve as a small balcony overlooking the event space. The loft was constructed using nail-laminated dimensional lumber, offering a shallow yet sturdy structure and the appearance of a hardwood floor from the loft.
Due to financial constraints, the scope of exterior work was limited to some minor repairs and accessibility improvements. A generous individual donation allowed for the rehabilitation of the building’s heavy-timber loading dock, accessible from the event and coworking spaces. A social stair at the north of the dock creates the opportunity for outdoor gathering while seating along the east side of the dock offers outdoor work space.
Startup Sioux Falls was truly a community-led project and a prime example of public-private partnership. Countless stakeholders and entrepreneurs rallied around the project to create an ecosystem to support our city’s young businesses and foster a vibrant Startup culture in Sioux Falls.
More projects in the series
Click to view a video of all 22 entries in the 2025 AIA South Dakota Design Awards.
