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AIA Minnesota
Announces 2003 Young Architect Award Recipient
  
The American Institute of Architects Minnesota Awards
Committee selected Janis LaDouceur, AIA, Barbour/LaDouceur
Architects, P.A., Minneapolis, as the recipient of the Young
Architect Award for 2003. The award is given to architects who are
members of AIA Minnesota, have been licensed for less than 10 years,
and have shown exceptional leadership in service to the profession,
the community, design, planning and/or education.
The
submissions included letters of recommendation from AIA Minnesota
member architects and their clients; project summaries highlighting
the architects' particular contributions; photos and drawings; and
documentation of other achievements. The jury consisted of Awards
Committee Members Tim Carl, AIA; Paul Neuhaus, AIA; and David
Dimond, AIA, who is also AIA Minnesota's 2003 president.
The
jurors commended LaDouceur for the consistent thoughtfulness and
storytelling reflected in her submission, especially with regard to
how her architectural work reveals her passion for serving small and
underserved clients in an intense, artful and meaningful way. The
jurors were impressed with the social activism reflected in
LaDouceur's work, as she has built a small architectural practice
around intimate projects-such as cultural centers, museums,
memorials and transit stations-that are community-based. Clearly,
the jurors said, she possesses a value system and sense of duty that
resides at the core of her practice.
A spirited commitment
pervades each project as LaDouceur uses her skills as an architect
to manifest her client's vision. LaDouceur's greatest strength, they
added, is how she transforms her clients needs and visions into
architecture, using drawings that engage the client in the process
of design and which later have a life of their own as artifacts of
the design process. In this way, the jurors concluded, her work
combines design, community activism and education in remarkable
ways.
AIA Minnesota Young Architect Award winners are
encouraged to submit their work for the national award, as well.
Since the AIA Young Architect Award's inception in 1993, AIA
Minnesota architects have dominated the winners at a national level.
The seven AIA Minnesota architects who have received an AIA National
Young Architect Awards include: Joan M. Soranno, AIA, 1993; Vicki L.
Hooper, AIA, 1993; William A. Blanski, AIA, 1995; Michael Fischer,
AIA, 1996; Robert Rothman, AIA, 1996; Jeffry Kagermeier, AIA, 2001;
Mohammed Lawal, AIA, 2002; and Paul Neuhaus, 2003.
Staff Liaison: SallyJane Mathias mathias@aia-mn.org
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