Welcome to Blueprint South Dakota

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.


South Dakota Architect named one of National Young Architect Award Recipients 2024

AIA National has announced this year’s 2024 award for the Young Architect Award. These early career architects have been recognized with the Young Architects Award for their exceptional leadership and significant contributions to the architecture profession, including environmental advocacy, increasing access to great design, and mentoring future architects. Of this year’s recipients, one South Dakota architect was …

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AIA SD leaders visit with all 3 members of SD’s delegation

Cover image: AIA SD President Jeff Nelson, AIA, and AIA SD President-elect Justin Oleson, AIA, meet with U.S. Sen. John Thune to discuss federal issues that impact our state and country. They are by Lakisha Ann Woods, CAE, EVP and CEO of AIA, AIA President-elect Evelyn Lee, FAIA, NOMA, and AIA President Kimberly Dowdell, AIA, …

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Women in Construction Week

Welcome Women In Construction (WIC) week! Thank you McGough for being the lead sponsor for the important work of removing barriers for women to not only come into architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) fields but to find a successful and thriving career in this industry through our Say It Loud: South Dakota exhibit elevating women …

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The Importance of Ethics and AI

AI can be a tool, but we must respect it, use it properly, and give credit where credit is due.

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A Few of My Favorite Architect-ish Things

Disclaimer: None of these items are sponsored. This list is strictly intended for entertainment and is not the opinion of AIA or AIA SD. Enjoy! Amazon.com: Pantone: The Game – Simple-to-Play Competitive Party Game – Ages 8 and Up – Create Pop Culture Characters Using Only Color Swatches and Your Own Creativity! : Toys & …

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AI’s Role in Design

In short, with the recent advances that promoted this technology to the forefront of many of our minds, I hope this article gave you some perspectives to add to the pros/cons list you have going. If you haven’t given it much thought, I hope this sparks some curiosity in you. Afterall, I think curiosity, integrity and discernment are a few of the qualities that separate, and arguably elevate, us from the machine.

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Reflecting on the Past Year

With the New Year comes a chance to reflect on the past year, and this week’s blog post is no different. We’d like to take a moment to remember significant posts and events from last year and look forward to the next one. It’s also a time to pay tribute to those we lost the past year too. While our resolutions may or may not be successful, we can certainly review our victories over the last 365 +/- days.

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2023 Design Awards: Click Rain & Lemonly Headquarters by CO-OP Architecture

Awarded 2023 AIASD Honor AwardContent and photos provided by CO-OP Architecture Maybe there’s another hiding among the quartzite, but I’m only aware of one sawtooth building in Downtown Sioux Falls. It’s now home to Click Rain + Lemonly Headquarters, but in a past life, it was the Symms-Brownell Spark Plug Factory. More recently, it was …

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2023 Design Awards: Watertown Regional Airport by CO-OP Architecture

Awarded 2023 AIASD Honor AwardContent provided by CO-OP ArchitecturePhotos by Pete VonDeLinde By 2020, the growth of the Watertown area had put serious strain on the Watertown Regional Airport. Space was limited and accessibility, security and logistical issues were widespread. On top of that, the interior environment was dull and dated with few amenities. It …

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2023 Design Awards: Precision Agriculture Center by EAPC

Awarded 2023 AIASD Merit AwardContent and photos provided by EAPC Architects Engineers Innovative Agriculture Meets Modern Architecture at SDSUExploring the Raven Precision Agriculture Center’s Award-Winning Design and Sustainability Features The architectural design of one of the newest buildings on the South Dakota State University (SDSU) campus recently received a Merit Award from the South Dakota …

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