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 …
Road to the Register
(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 …
2021 AIA SD Presidential Award Winner: Goss Opera House, Watertown SD
Celebrations in Architecture: Goss Opera House, Watertown SD receives recognition from AIA SD President, Tom Hurlbert at 2021 AIA SD Convention. (Content submitted by RSA) Every once in a while, we as Architects become involved in a project that changes our perspective on the value of somebody’s passion for a project, and how it can …
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BUILDING LOST: Dakota Hall
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 …
2021 Design in the Hills – Deadwood, Thursday, July 15
Written by Jenn Johnson On the morning of Thursday, July 15, the 10th Anniversary of the AIA South Dakota Design in the Hills event was welcomed by Deadwood Mayor David Ruth Jr. at their recently completed Outlaw Square project. This year’s event had record attendance, celebrating the theme ‘Reconnection’ after a year apart. Kevin Kuchenbecker, …
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Project Feature: Outlaw Square
Thursday, July 15 will kick off the 10th Anniversary of the AIA South Dakota Design in the Hills event. This year’s event will commence at the recently completed Outlaw Square project in Deadwood, SD with a presentation by Deadwood’ Kevin Kuchenbecker. The Outlaw Square project took several years of planning and involvement from design firms …
Historic Preservation Commission Studies Post-War Schools
By Jeremy Altman, AIA, LEED AP BD+C Good news for Architects: The Architect’s Billing Index is way up. Things are getting busy. Before we jump into a design boom, maybe it is worth asking, “have we seen this before?”. The past is prologue after all. Perhaps it is because it is that time of year …
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Expanding Preservation of the 1950-1970s
Liz Almlie, Historic Preservation Specialist, South Dakota State Historical Society One of the newer challenges of historic preservation is the preservation of resources from the mid-20th century. One of the eligibility considerations for the National Register of Historic Places is the age of the resource. Sites newer than fifty years need to meet special considerations …
The Built Landscape of Suffrage History
Liz Almlie, Historic Preservation Specialist, SD State Historical Society South Dakota and the United States have recently marked big centennials of women’s suffrage. A state constitutional amendment passed in November 1918 and the final ratification of the federal 19th Amendment took place in August 1920. I was lucky enough to participate in several public history …
Battle Mountain Sanitarium
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 …