2026 DESIGN AWARDS

Congratulations to all of the winners in the 2026 Design Awards program, who were recognized during a ceremony and dinner in Sioux Falls on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026.

2026 HONOR AWARDS

• Architect of record CO-OP Architecture, of Sioux Falls, Rapid City and Aberdeen, with design architect Anderson Mason Dale Architects, won an Honor Award in the Architecture-Large Project category for its design of Northern State University’s Business & Health Innovation Center, which occupies the northeast corner of the Aberdeen school’s historic quad.
• CO-OP Architecture won an Honor Award in the Best Moment category for its renovation of the H.P. Gerber Building at Northern State University, reversing 120 years of enclosure by removing a bearing wall, cutting the floor and inserting an entry-facing stair.

• Koch Hazard Architects of Sioux Falls won a Merit Award in the Architecture-Small Project category for its restoration of a century-old building at 100 S. Grange Ave. in Sioux Falls, transforming a declining former neighborhood grocery store into a vibrant neighborhood bistro and commercial kitchen with law offices above.
• Koch Hazard Architects won a Merit Award in the Architecture-Small Project category for its addition and renovation project at the circa-1887 Illinois Central Depot, the riverfront home of the Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation.
• EAPC Architects Engineers of Sioux Falls, in collaboration with Perkins&Will, won a Merit Award in the Best Moment category for its creation of the First Bank & Trust Arena Legacy Wall, which repurposes the original Frost Arena basketball court into a design element that preserves South Dakota State University’s history, authenticity and pride.
  

• Mike Cooper, the former city of Sioux Falls planning director, was named the 2026 AIA SD Champion of Architecture, an award selected by the organization’s past presidents. Cooper joined the city in 1986 as a senior planner and took on leadership roles in the Planning and Parks & Recreation departments, retiring after nearly 33 years of service. He was instrumental in completing a number of projects.

• Mark Aspaas, AIA Emeritus, who recently retired as a principal with Architecture Incorporated in Sioux Falls, was recognized with the 2026 AIA SD Legacy Award. Aspaas served in several leadership roles for AIA South Dakota, including AIA SD President in 1987, and served three terms on the South Dakota Board of Technical Professions. He also served as an NCARB national board director.

• Josh Muckenhirn, AIA, with ISG in Sioux Falls, was recognized with the 2026 AIA SD Young Architect Award. Muckenhirn is an AIA SD board member, chairs the AIA SD Communication Committee and is active in the Greater Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce and other organizations.

2025 YOUNG ARCHITECT AWARD

• Trevor VanConant, Assoc. AIA, a project manager with CO-OP Architecture in Sioux Falls, was recognized with the 2026 AIA SD Associate Award. VanConant has served more than a dozen years in the industry and volunteers on the Southeast Tech Architectural Engineering Technology Academic Advisory Board.
  

The juror panel for the 2026 AIA SD Design Awards was led by Anne Marie Duvall Decker, FAIA, a founding principal of Jackson, Mississippi-based Duvall Decker, winner of the 2026 AIA Architecture Firm Award. Also serving as jurors were Shannon Gathings, AIA, NOMA, of Duvall Decker, a leader in and out of the studio and a skilled project manager and designer, and Jennifer Charzewski, AIA, LEED AP, a principal at Liollio Architecture, an award-winning design studio celebrating nearly 70 years of practice in Charleston, South Carolina.Thanks to everyone who submitted entries in the three award categories — Architecture - Large Project, Architecture - Small Project and a Rolling Category — Best Moment.

AIA SD President Justin Oleson, AIA, presented President’s Awards to AIA SD Immediate Past President Jeff Nelson, AIA, and longtime member and former AIA SD President Keith Neuharth, AIA.

PREVIOUS YEARS' WINNERS

2023

• CO-OP Architecture, of Sioux Falls, Aberdeen and Rapid City, won an Honor Award in Architecture for its design of the new Click Rain & Lemonly Headquarters.
• CO-OP Architecture, of Sioux Falls, Aberdeen and Rapid City, won an Honor Award in Architecture for its modernization of Watertown Regional Airport.

• EAPC Architects Engineers of Sioux Falls won a Merit Award in Architecture for its design of the South Dakota State University Raven Precision Agriculture Center in Brookings.
• Koch Hazard Architects of Sioux Falls won a Merit Award in Architecture for the Falls Center Trash Enclosure, part of its update to the circa-1899 Jewett Brothers and Jewett Wholesale Grocers building in downtown Sioux Falls.
  
• TSP, Inc., of Sioux Falls and Rapid City, won a Merit Award in Architecture for the Northern State University Jewett Regional Science Education Center.

• Bernie Hunhoff, editor-at-large of South Dakota Magazine.

• Patricia Acevedo Fuentes AIA, NCI CS, partner/architect with Joseph David Associates in Rapid City.

• Jared Carda, AIA, Associate Principal Architect with CO-OP Architecture in Rapid City.

The juror panel for the 2023 AIA SD Design Awards was led by Kate Schwennsen, FAIA, Professor Emeritus and Director Emeritus of the School of Architecture, Clemson University. Also serving as jurors were Thomas Savory, FAIA, LEED AP, NCARB, a principal and higher education design director with McMillan Pazdan Smith Architecture, and Jane Frederick, FAIA, LEED AP, a principal at Frederick + Frederick Architects who had served as the 96th president of the American Institute of Architects. Thanks to everyone who submitted entries in the three award categories — Architecture - Large Project, Architecture - Small Project and a Rolling Category — Best Moment.

2022

• JLG Architects of Sioux Falls and Rapid City won an Honor Award in Architecture for the Dakota State University Cyber Lab in Madison.
  

• Koch Hazard Architects of Sioux Falls won a Merit Award in Architecture for the National Music Museum in Vermillion.
  
• CO-OP Architecture, of Sioux Falls, Aberdeen and Rapid City, won a Merit Award in Master Planning & Community Design for Friends & Citizens.
  
• TSP Inc. of Sioux Falls and Rapid City won a Merit Award in Architecture for the American Indian Student Center in Brookings.
  

• Tom Hurlbert, AIA, AIA South Dakota's immediate past president, for his hard work on guiding AIA South Dakota through the pandemic.
  
• Terri Miller, AIA, Cassie Pospishil, Assoc. AIA, and Justin Oleson, AIA, for their work with AIA South Dakota's Emerging Professionals.

• Jay Vogt, retired director of the South Dakota State Historical Society.

• Angela Boersma, AIA, ID8Architecture.
  

The juror panel for the 2022 AIA SD Design Awards was led by Jeffrey Day, FAIA, founding principal of Actual Architecture Co., assembling a team of three to judge 19 South Dakota entries. Thanks to everyone who submitted entries in the three award categories — Architecture - Large Project, Architecture - Small Project and a Rolling Category — Master Planning & Community Design.

2021

• RAd Architect (Robert Arlt) of Sioux Falls won an Honor Award in Architecture for Urban Nest, a net-zero-energy ready Urban Refill family home built just south of downtown Sioux Falls.

• CO-OP Architecture, of Sioux Falls, Aberdeen and Rapid City, won a Merit Award in Architecture for the NSU Regional Sports Complex in Aberdeen, a premier sporting complex helping the university continue its success in athletics and academics.
• RAd Architect captured a Merit Award in Architecture for Sauna Cube, an 8-by-8-by-8-foot volume articulated in five frames with a slice to create a skylight face, allowing early morning sun into the wood interior as well as views out into the tree canopy.

• Koch Hazard Architects of Sioux Falls won the 2021 People’s Choice Award for the South Dakota Veterans Cemetery, the first federally funded, state-owned and operated, cemetery for veterans built on a 60-acre property in northeastern Sioux Falls.

• Friends of the Goss Opera House, a nonprofit organization that helped restore and helps maintain the historic Goss Opera House, a circa-1889 venue in Watertown, South Dakota, received a 2021 President's Award.
  

• Former South Dakota State University President David Chicoine, Ph.D., Chicoine, who served as SDSU’s president from 2007-2106, was recognized as the 2021 Champion of Architecture for his key role in establishing the SDSU Department of Architecture (DoArch), South Dakota’s first accredited architecture program.

• Chase Kramer, a project architect at TSP, Inc. Kramer has been honored by Augustana University as a "40 Under 40" alumnus and he was named a "40 Under 40" professional to watch by Prairie Business magazine. Kramer is the current guest member on the TSP Board of Directors and was a longtime member of the firm's Innovation Team.
• Robert Arlt, of RAd Architect. A graduate of Leadership Sioux Falls, Arlt is a practicing architect and a former lecturer at the South Dakota State University Department of Architecture (DoArch), where he taught from 2014 to 2021. Projects designed and built through Arlt’s instruction and professional office, RAd Architect, have received regional and national recognition through publication in architectural journals, online design magazines. recognized in 2015 when the rest stops were named to the National Register of Historic Places.

2020

2020 MERIT AWARDS go to:

• CO-OP Architecture, of Sioux Falls, Aberdeen and Rapid City, in the category of Architecture for its design of the Britton Event Center in Britton, South Dakota, a community facility used for events, concerts, activities and more. 
• Koch Hazard Architects, of Sioux Falls, in the category of Preservation & Adaptive Reuse for McVicker Plaza in Vermillion, South Dakota, which was renovated and restored in partnership with the Vermillion Area Chamber & Development Company. The building is home to the Chamber and provides retail space and additional collaborative space for the community.
• CO-OP Architecture, of Sioux Falls, Aberdeen and Rapid City, in the category of Preservation & Adaptive Reuse for its design of Look’s Marketplace in collaboration with BCV Architecture + Interiors. Look’s Marketplace is a retail restaurant and butcher shop featuring a bakery, a coffeeshop, a cheese counter, a brewery and a full-service restaurant.

2020 PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD goes to:

• TSP Inc., of Sioux Falls, Rapid City and Watertown, with SmithGroup, for its design of the Jewett Regional Science Education Center, located along Northern State University’s primary entry in Aberdeen, South Dakota. The center creates a new portal onto the campus for students, faculty and the Aberdeen community.

2020 PRESIDENT'S AWARDS go to:

• AIA SD Past President Patri Acevedo, AIA, JLG Architects
• Brian Rex, Assoc. AIA, chair of the South Dakota State University Department of Architecture (DoArch), Brookings
• AIA SD Executive Director Angela Lammers, Cetera Services LLC, Sioux Falls

2020 CHAMPION OF ARCHITECTURE goes to:

• Ray Hillenbrand, Rapid City businessman and philanthropist, who played a significant role in the revitalization of the city’s downtown. Hillenbrand created downtown’s Prairie Edge & Sioux Trading Post in an effort to educate the public about and preserve Native American culture and provide a place for Native American artists to display and sell their artwork.

2020 LEGACY AWARD goes to:

• Ward Whitwam, FAIA, a longtime Sioux Falls architect who designed schools, churches, elderly care facilities, medical facilities, corporate offices, private residences and the state’s iconic concrete tipis along Interstate 90, which were recognized in 2015 when the rest stops were named to the National Register of Historic Places.

The juror for the 2020 AIA SD Design Awards was Matt Kreilich, FAIA, of Snow Kreilich, an AIA Firm of the Year honoree.

2019

2019 HONOR AWARD goes to:

• South Dakota State University DoArch in the category of Architecture for its design of Passive House in Brookings, a net-zero-energy single-family house built to demonstrate sustainable development to the region’s residents, contractors and building officials

2019 MERIT AWARDS go to:

• TSP Inc. of Sioux Falls, Rapid City and Watertown, in the category of Architecture for its interior renovation of Hamre Recital Hall at Augustana University in Sioux Falls.
• JLG Architects, of Sioux Falls and Rapid City, in the category of Architecture for Farmhouse Bistro in Spearfish, a modern reflection of rural Americana located on a rolling farmstead along Spearfish Creek
• CO-OP Architecture, of Sioux Falls, Aberdeen and Rapid City, in the category of Architecture for its design of the Northern State University athletic fields in Aberdeen

2019 PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD goes to:

• JLG Architects, of Sioux Falls and Rapid City, in the category of Architecture for Farmhouse Bistro

2019 PRESIDENT'S AWARDS go to:

• Allison Dvorak, AIA, of Avera McKennan, for her tireless drive and passion to AIA South Dakota as chair of the communication committee
• Dakota Resources and its president, Joe Bartmann, for their work in rural areas of the state
• SDSU DoArch’s Passive House, for putting theory into practice and demonstrating sustainability

2019 CHAMPION OF ARCHITECTURE goes to:

• South Dakota sculptor Dale Lamphere and structural engineering firm Albertson Engineering Inc. 

2019 YOUNG ARCHITECT goes to:

• Sara Lum, AIA, a planner with the South Eastern Council of Governments (SECOG)

2019 LEGACY AWARD goes to:

• Jeff Hazard, AIA, the longtime CEO and principal of Koch Hazard Architects

2018

2018 HONOR AWARDS go to:

• TSP Inc. of Sioux Falls, Rapid City and Watertown, with SmithGroup in the category of Architecture for its design of the DSU Beacom Institute of Technology in Madison
• Koch Hazard Architects of Sioux Falls in the category of Architecture for its design of the renovation of the South Dakota State Capitol Law Library in Pierre
• South Dakota State University DoArch in the category of Detailing and Craftsmanship for its design of the Lamella Arch in Brookings

2018 MERIT AWARDS go to:

• TSP Inc. of Sioux Falls, Rapid City and Watertown, with SmithGroup in the category of Architecture for its design of the new Augustana University Froiland Science Complex in Sioux Falls
• Koch Hazard Architects of Sioux Falls in the category of Architecture for its design of Jones 421 residential/commercial center in downtown Sioux Falls
• Ciavarella Design Architects of Mitchell in the category of Architecture for its renovation design of Hyde Stadium in Pierre

2018 PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD goes to:

• TSP Inc. of Sioux Falls, Rapid City and Watertown, with SmithGroup in the category of Architecture for its design of the DSU Beacom Institute of Technology in Madison

2018 PRESIDENT'S AWARDS go to:

• Sandy Dickenson, AIA, of Fine Line Architecture in Vermillion, for serving a term on the AIA national Strategic Council
• John Riker, Assoc. AIA, of JLG Architects in Rapid City, for leadership with AIA SD advocacy efforts
• Gene Fennell, AIA, of Fennell Design, for service and leadership to the organization as immediate Past President

2018 CHAMPION OF ARCHITECTURE, INDIVIDUAL goes to:

• Steve Metli, longtime Sioux Falls city planning director and downtown visionary 

2018 CHAMPION OF ARCHITECTURE, GROUP/ORGANIZATION goes to:

• Gage Brothers, a Sioux Falls-based manufacturer of innovative architectural and structural concrete products

2018 YOUNG ARCHITECT goes to:

• Allison Dvorak, AIA, CPHC, an architect with TSP Inc.

2018 LEGACY AWARD goes to:

• Paul Boerboom, AIA, retired principal, senior architect and design discipline co-leader at TSP Inc.

2017 

2017 HONOR AWARDS go to:

• CO-OP Architecture in the category of Architecture for K.O. Lee Public Library in Aberdeen
• Koch Hazard Architects in the category of Unbuilt for ARCH House for Affordable Housing Solutions

2017 MERIT AWARDS go to:

• Koch Hazard Architects in the category of Architecture for Stockwell Engineers in Sioux Falls
• Ciavarella Design Architects in the category of Architecture for El Columpio restaurant in Mitchell
• CO-OP Architecture in the category of Historic Preservation and Adaptive Reuse for Minneapolis & St Louis Railroad Depot building in Aberdeen

2017 PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD goes to:

• CO-OP Architecture for K.O. Lee Public Library in Aberdeen

2017 PRESIDENT'S AWARDS go to:

• Michelle Klobassa, of TSP Inc. in Sioux Falls, for Exceptional Leadership and Service to AIA South Dakota for developing the AIA South Dakota Design Awards into a celebration event.
• Dave Van Nieuwenhuyzen, of JLG Architects in Sioux Falls, for Exceptional Leadership, Service and Mentorship to AIA South Dakota for his service as board president (2014-2015) and past president (2016) and for the co-development of a professional-to-student mentorship program.
• AIA South Dakota Executive Director Angela Lammers, of Cetera Services LLC in Sioux Falls, for Exceptional Service and Guidance to AIA South Dakota leadership and for strengthening AIA South Dakota to better serve members.

2017 CHAMPION OF ARCHITECTURE goes to

• Jerry Lohr, president of J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines, for his support of South Dakota's first accredited architecture program

2017 YOUNG ARCHITECT goes to:

• Andrew Eitreim, AIA, CDT, LEEP AP BD+C, vice president and principal architect of Architecture Incorporated

2017 LEGACY AWARD goes to:

• Alan Richard “Dick” Dempster, AIA, LEED AP, founding principal architect and partner of Architecture Incorporated

2016

2016 MERIT AWARDS go to:

• Koch Hazard Architects in the category of Architecture for Prairie Berry East Bank, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
• Department of Architecture, South Dakota State University in the category of Master Planning & Community Design for Wrigley Square, Mobridge, South Dakota

2016 PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD goes to:

• TSP, Inc. for Tall Grass Liquor, Marshall, MN

2016 PRESIDENT'S AWARD goes to:

• Kris Bjerke, AIA for her leadership assembling a team, creating a framework and developing Design in the Hills 2011-2016

2015

2015 HONOR AWARD goes to:

• Koch Hazard Architects for Gil Haugan Construction, Sioux Falls, SD

2015 MERIT AWARDS go to:

• Koch Hazard Architects for the Howard Wood Press Box, Sioux Falls, SD
• Koch Hazard Architects for The Bakery, Sioux Falls, SD

2015 PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD goes to:

• AcV2 for The Garage, Rapid City, SD

2015 PRESIDENT'S AWARDS go to:

• Larry Crane, AIA for his long term tenure 2001-2015, commitment and dedication as a member of the Board of Directors of AIA South Dakota.
• Susie Wiswall, Executive Director for her dedication and leadership from 2013 - 2015.