Minnesota Architecture Firms Take Home Seven AIA National Design Awards
June 18, 2026
825 Arts on University Avenue in St. Paul received a 2026 AIA Interior Architecture Award. Photo by Gaffer Photography.
SPOTLIGHT
Last week, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) announced the winners of its annual design awards at the AIA Conference on Architecture & Design in San Diego. Six projects designed by Minnesota architecture firms earned seven awards—an unusually strong showing for a state of Minnesota’s size.
The honored projects, highlighted below, received an Architecture Award for excellence in contemporary design, two COTE Top Ten Awards for sustainable design, two Interior Architecture Awards, an Education Facility Design Award, and a Small Project Award. Five of the six projects had previously been recognized with AIA Minnesota Honor Awards.
All photos by Gaffer Photography.
825 Arts
St. Paul, Minnesota
Firm: VJAA
Client: 825 Arts
Award: Interior Architecture Award
This project revitalized the long-vacant historic Victoria Theater on University Avenue, transforming it into a vibrant arts hub for the Frogtown and Rondo communities. At the street level, the renovation restored the facade’s original terra cotta detailing. Inside, the design reveals and celebrates the building’s layered history as both a silent movie theater and a speakeasy.
Exposed patched masonry, remnants of historic murals, and the ghosted outline of a long-removed staircase offer glimpses into the theater’s past. New interventions—including a finely detailed metal stair, a mezzanine bridge, and bright yellow accents—highlight and complement the building’s raw character.
The reconfigured interior provides accessible, flexible spaces that support a wide range of uses, including music and dance performances, theater and film presentations, gallery exhibitions, educational programs, and community gatherings.
All photos by Albert Vecerka.
Jackson Hole History Museum
Jackson, Wyoming
Firms: HGA + Prospect Studio
Client: History Jackson Hole
Award: Interior Architecture Award
This new 13,300-square-foot cultural destination weaves itself into the historic Van Vleck block in downtown Jackson with a welcoming storefront-like presence, natural materials, terraces, covered boardwalks, and seamless integration with an adjoining park. Its rooftop terrace and light-filled public interiors—flexible spaces for gatherings, and for exhibits and workshops that explore 11,000 years of Indigenous history—capture views of the community surroundings and the hills and mountains beyond.
All photos by Younes Bounhar, DoubleSpace Photography.
Lindsay Boathouse
Toronto, Ontario
Firms: VJAA + RDH Architects
Client: Upper Canada College
Awards: Architecture Award + Education Facility Design Award
Located on Toronto’s Outer Harbor waterfront, this project advances the public-facing mission of a long-established K–12 rowing program. Situated on a man-made peninsula, the 9,400-square-foot facility is designed to frame dramatic views of the downtown skyline across the channel. The building includes boat storage bays, locker rooms, and a rowing training room that can be converted into a flexible community space for events and gatherings.
The project incorporates several sustainable design strategies, including a low-carbon, cross-laminated-timber (CLT) structure assembled on site, extensive bird-safe glazing that maximizes natural daylight, passive ventilation, and green roofs that help reduce heat gain and manage stormwater. The boathouse, along with its launch area and crew docks, also supports Ports Toronto’s broader master plan to improve public access to the adjacent nature preserve.
All photos by Cameron Campbell.
Marion Fire Station #1
Marion, Iowa
Firm: OPN Architects
Client: City of Marion, Iowa
Award: COTE Top Ten Award
Commissioned by the City of Marion to create a fire station that could serve as a national benchmark for reducing PTSD among firefighters through biophilic design, this all-electric facility integrates biophilic principles, geothermal systems, and thoughtfully sequenced spaces. Designed to meet the AIA Framework for Design Excellence’s rigorous sustainability criteria, the station delivers social, economic, and ecological value. By combining civic purpose with high environmental performance, it reduces harmful exposures, supports firefighter well-being, and strengthens resilience within the growing community.
The project previously received a 2024 AIA Architecture Award and a 2023 AIA Justice Facilities Review Award.
All photos by Albert Vecerka/ESTO.
Marlboro Music Reich Hall
Marlboro, Vermont
Firm: HGA
Client: Marlboro School of Music
Award: COTE Top Ten Award
Reich Hall creates new rehearsal spaces, a music library, staff offices, and gathering spaces for Marlboro Music, a renowned seven-week summer retreat for advanced classical training and musicianship. Inspired by both the Cape Cod cottage and the campus’s 19th-century farm structures, the new building is composed of four gabled forms clad in white-washed cedar siding, arranged around a courtyard green. In the wood-lined rehearsal rooms, sections of the walls tilt inward to prevent flutter echoes. The archive library features a similarly rural-modern simplicity with its wood ceiling, walls, cabinetry, and floor.
The project previously received a 2023 AIA Architecture Award.
All photos by Gaffer Photography.
River Hub at Graco Park
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Firm: Snow Kreilich Architects
Client: Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board
Award: Small Project Award
The recently developed Graco Park is the restoration of a brownfield site on the Mississippi into habitat for river-corridor wildlife, and the River Hub is a shed-like building that supports community-led programming and a creative technology space for young people. The designers note that “the building’s modular wood construction and utilitarian form are low in embodied carbon and resonate with the site’s lumber industry past while pointing toward a future of greater ecological balance.”
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