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“Bearden Place” Housing Design Competition Winners Announced

The City of Minneapolis and the Builders
Outreach Foundation (BOF), the charitable arm of the Builders
Association of the Twin Cities (BATC), announce the winners of the
housing design competition, “Bearden Place: A Housing Competition in the
Artists’ Core,” part of the strategy and commitment to rebuilding
communities affected by foreclosure. The competition called for the
design of four to seven, live/work units for the site, located at the
northwest corner of Plymouth and Sheridan avenues North.

The design of MSD/WhatWorx Collaboration (Ira A. Keer, Sandra Gay, Tim
Heitman, Gary Lampman, Robert Fischer, Donovan Hart, and Spencer
Finseth) was selected as the first-place winner in the housing design
competition that attracted 47 submissions from across the United States.

The jury also recognized second-place winner Trace Jacques of ESG
Architects and third-place winner 4RM+ULA (Nathan Johnson, James
Garrett, Derek Williamson, Joseph Hang, and Kwadwo Boadi).

The judges also acknowledged three honorable mentions: Shelter
Architecture (John Dwyer, Jackie Millea, Kurt Gough, and Colin Oglesby);
Cuningham Group (John Cuningham, Shawn Olson, Joel Brygger, and Melissa
Lockhart); UrbanWorks Architecture (Jeff Schoeneck, David Miller, and
Christopher Wingate).

“Romare Bearden, famed African American artist for whom the development
is named, left a legacy of individual expression that reflects community
by imbedding diverse times, images and themes with distinctive character
and a physical presence using collage as his primary medium,” said
Roxanne Givens, juror and community member, entrepreneur and
philanthropist. “Bearden Place reflects Romare Bearden’s artistic
sensibility and MSD/WhatWorx Collaboration captured his essence without
fault,” she added.

“There were many projects with exceptional ideas that merited discussion
by the jury, but the winning schemes covered the greatest number of
issues most completely,” said Tom Fisher, juror and Dean of the College
of Design, University of Minnesota. “We looked for projects that were
buildable within the budget, appropriate to the user group and location,
and capable of advancing new ideas about affordable housing,” he added.

First place winner MSD/WhatWorx Collaboration will receive $10,000 in
prize money and will have the first opportunity to negotiate a contract
for project development services. Winning the competition does not
necessarily mean the team will be awarded the commission and contract
for development.

Second place winner Trace Jacques will receive a $5,000 prize.

Third place winner 4RM+ULA will receive a $2,500 prize.