“Bearden Place” Housing Design Competition Winners AnnouncedThe 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. |
Since the recent realization of SMAR Architecture’s winning design we have now received images from a professional photo shoot. As an open competition for one of the more important projects in Europe at the time, we feel that full documentation of the process from start to finish was an important page in the history of architecture in the early 21st century. Documentation by us during the 2017 competition, with images from all finalists from the 144 entries is available at: https://competitions.org/2020/11/science-island-design-competition-finalists/ 
See more images… Preparation and Organization of Design Competitions 
[phase 1] Benjamin Hossbach / Christian Lehmhaus / Christine Eichelmann
210 × 230 mm, 192 pp.
over 600 images
softcover
ISBN 978-3-86922-316-2 (English)
ISBN 978-3-86922-240-0 (German)
Dom Publishers
€48 in EU (For price abroad, see below)
Founded in 1998 in Berlin, Phase 1 has been a principal player in the organization and facilitation of design competitions, not only in Germany, but abroad as well. The accomplishments of the firm have been well documented in three volumes—The Architecture of Competitions—beginning in 2i006. Whereas these books mainly focused on the results of the competitions they have administered, the present work, Fundamentals of Competition Management, takes one from the very beginnings of the competition process to its conclusion. The authors envisioned the publication as “three three books in one: one „blue book“ with example projects, one „yellow book“ with statements and the „white book“ with the actual guideline to competition management.”
Although there have been a number of handbooks covering the administration of designcompetitions a study covering the entire process in such detail is a welcome addition to the the literature in this field. As a contribution to this important democratic process that has yielded exceptional design for decades, this volume is not only valid for Europe, but a current overview of the process for those globally who wish to raise the level of design by virtue of a design competition. -Ed Foreign institutions wishing to obtain a copy of the book will recieve a discount to cover the cost of foreign shipping.
To obtain a copy for that offer, go to: [email protected] 
Completed IMEX by Tuck Hinton Architects. Photo courtesy Anecdote
It is not often that we look back to a competition that occurred three decades ago that was also covered in detail by COMPETITIONS (Vol. 4, #4; pp. 14-27). What made the Chattanooga IMAX different back in 1994 was that the article covering that competition was authored by Prof. Marleen Davis, then Dean of the University of Tennessee’s School of Architecture and a member of the jury panel. This was not just a short article, covering the high points of the competition with a few talking points about the winning design. This 4,000+ word document also described in detail the jury’s observations about all the finalists, including the honorable mentions—one of the few times we have gained such a detailed glimpse in this country from the inside of the competition process. Read more… 
Winning entry by Luca Poian Forms Image ©Filippo Bolognese images
Good design seldom happens in a vacuum. And so it was with an international competition for a new mosque in Preston, U.K. A mid-sized city of 95,000, and located in Lancashire near the west coast and almost equally distant from London and Glasgow, Preston has a storied past, going all the way back to the Romans and the late Middle Ages, where it was the site of significant battles. During the Industrial Revolution, the city prospered, and it was not until after World War II that Preston experienced the British version of the U.S. Rust Belt. In the meantime, the city has experienced an upswing in economic activity, with an unemployment rate of only 3%. Aside from the appearance of new industries, the city has benefitted from the establishment of Central Lancashire University (CLU), which employs over 3,000 faculty and staff, and, as such, is one of the regions major employers. Any new university requires new facilities, and one of the most outstanding examples of this at CLU was the new Student Centre and Plaza, a result of a 2016 RIBA-sponsored competition won by Hawkins/Brown
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 Changdong Station winner – image ©D & B Partners Architects
Whereas international competitions for real projects have become a rarity lately, Korea is a welcome exception. Among the plethora of competition announcements we receive almost weekly, several have ended with foreign firms as winners. But the history of welcoming international participants does go back several years. One notable early example was the Incheon Airport competition, won by Fentress Bradburn Architects (1962-70).
Among the more recent successes of foreign firms was the Busan Opera House competition, won by Snøhetta (2013-) and the Sejong Museum Gardens competition, won by Office OU, Toronto (2016-2023).
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1st Place: Zaha Hadid Architects – night view from river – Render by Negativ
Arriving to board a ferry boat or cruise ship used to be a rather mundane experience. If you had luggage, you might be able to drop it off upon boarding, assuming that the boarding operation was sophisticated enough. In any case, the arrival experience was nothing to look forward to. I recall boarding the SS United States for a trip to Europe in the late 1950s. Arriving at the pier in New York, the only thought any traveler had was to board that ocean liner as soon as possible, find one’s cabin, and start exploring. If you were in New York City and arriving early, a nearby restaurant or cafe would be your best bet while passing time before boarding. Read more… 
Helsinki Central Library, by ALA Architects (2012-2018)
The world has experienced a limited number of open competitions over the past three decades, but even with diminishing numbers, some stand out among projects in their categories that can’t be ignored for the high quality and degree of creativity they revealed. Included among those are several invited competitions that were extraordinary in their efforts to explore new avenues of institutional and museum design. Some might ask why the Vietnam Memorial is not mentioned here. Only included in our list are competitions that were covered by us, beginning in 1990 with COMPETITIONS magazine to the present day. As for what category a project under construction (Science Island), might belong to or fundraising still in progress (San Jose’s Urban Confluence or the Cold War Memorial competition, Wisconsin), we would classify the former as “built” and wait and see what happens with the latter—keeping our fingers crossed for a positive outcome. Read More… |
