VJAA Receives Three 2026 AIA National Awards

VJAA is happy to announce three 2026 AIA National Awards. Congratulations to our clients 825 Arts and Upper Canada College and our collaborators and project teams on these recognitions!

Lindsay Boathouse at Upper Canada College in Toronto, Canada received two awards: a 2026 AIA Honor Award for Architecture (1 of 10 recipients) and a 2026 AIA Education Facility Design Award (1 of 8 awarded). The 825 Arts community arts center in Saint Paul, Minnesota’s Frogtown neighborhood received a 2026 AIA Honor Award for Interior Architecture (1 of 9 recipients).

LINDSAY BOATHOUSE — Toronto, Canada

Awards: Honor Award for Architecture

Education Facility Design Award

Client: Upper Canada College

Architects: VJAA (Lead Design Architect), RDHA (Architect of Record),

Technical Consultants: Blackwell, Smith & Andersen, Valdor Engineering, NAK Design Strategies

Photography: DoubleSpace Photography

825 ARTS — Saint Paul, Minnesota

Award: Honor Award for Interior Architecture

Client: 825 Arts and NEOO Partners (Owner’s Rep)

Architects: VJAA

Technical Consultants: MBJ, MCE, Schuler Shook, and Kirkegaard

Photography: Corey Gaffer Photography

Dyani White Hawk's Chemistry Building Art Installation Featured in Metropolis

Follow this link to Metropolis Magazine to learn more about Dyani White Hawk’s process and her permanent art work, Through the Pursuit of Understanding Our Connectivity, We Care for Our World. The 65-foot tall installation was integrated into the exterior curtain wall system of the main circulation stair at the University of Minnesota’s Undergraduate Chemistry Teaching Laboratory Facility at Fraser Hall.

Photo: Jasper Lazor

Minnesota Welcome Center I-94

VJAA’s new Minnesota Welcome Center and Rest Stop at St. Croix on I-94 with MnDOT and Landscape Architects Damon Farber. A few favorite corrugated steel details from our scouting photography. Tourism info and some great spaces for picnics. Stop by if you are on the road this summer!

2025 AIA Minnesota Honor Award Recipient North Island Retreat

This is a belated posting for VJAA’s 2025 AIA Minnesota Honor Award. The North Island Retreat in northern Minnesota received an Honor Award this past winter in two AIA Framework for Design Excellence categories: Design for Well-Being and Design for Economy.

The rugged site formed on the Canadian Shield’s semi-exposed bedrock covered with thin layers of soil provides a unique building challenge. Concrete pier foundations bear directly on rock, avoiding excavation, and minimally touching the site’s sensitive habitats and drainage flows. The cabin design supports social use, while discreetly integrating with and framing the immediate natural landscape.

Minnesota Museum of American Art is the recipient of 2026 Architizer A+Awards Special Mention

We are happy to share that the Minnesota Museum of American Art (The M) received a Special Mention in the Museum category of this year’s Architizer A+ Awards.

VJAA is grateful to The M for its ambitious vision and to the many collaborators who helped realize this multi-phased project over the past decade plus in downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Photo: Pete Sieger

WOMEN IN NORDIC DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE: CRAFT MEETS INDUSTRY

Jennifer Yoos, FAIA, will be speaking at Scandinavia House in New York as a part of their four-part series Nordic American Connections: Conversations on Architecture and Design. The series invites prominent architects, critics, and scholars to reflect on Scandinavian and Nordic design’s enduring impact in shaping modern American design since the 19th century.

The third panel of the series, Women in Nordic Design and Architecture: Craft Meets Industry on Thursday, March 19th at 6:30 PM, will focus on women in Nordic design.

Follow this link to learn more and purchase tickets to the event!

In the News: Reimagining Fraser Hall

“Fraser Hall’s reopening this Fall represented more than the renovation of a historic building; it embodied a rethinking of how students at the University of Minnesota learn science. Designed by the award-winning Minneapolis-based architecture firm VJAA, in collaboration with BWBR, executive architects, the project has transformed the 1928 law library into a modern hub for undergraduate chemistry. The reimagined Fraser Hall supports active, inquiry-based learning and will provide a welcoming, collaborative environment for thousands of students from nearly every college on campus.”

This past fall, 2025, the University of Minnesota Undergraduate Chemistry Teaching Laboratory Facility opened. Jennifer Yoos shares how VJAA transformed the historic building into a collaborative, sustainable space for student learning.

Follow this link for the full article.

Photos: Jasper Lazor