FARGO, N.D. – October 24, 2025 – This month, the American Institute of Architects—AIA North Dakota and AIA South Dakota chapters—held ceremonies to formally celebrate their 2025 Honor, Merit, and Juror’s Choice award winners. Projects by JLG Architects earned a total of seven awards across both states, including all three honors presented by AIA South Dakota and four of five awards presented by AIA North Dakota.
“We are deeply honored to see our projects and clients recognized by our local AIA chapters. As a 100% employee-owned firm, this recognition is especially meaningful — it reflects the passion and commitment our team brings to every community we serve. These awards celebrate not only design excellence but also the power of collaboration and human-centered solutions that are shaping the future of our region. We’re proud to be part of this new era in architecture and excited to continue leading the way forward.”
— Michelle Mongeon Allen, FAIA, LEED AP, CEO, JLG Architects
AIA ND HONOR AWARD
Fargo Parks Sports Complex | Fargo, ND
With Fargo Park District and Sanford Health, JLG designed a nearly 400,000 SF multi-sport facility that includes a 95,000 SF field house, a 25,000 SF Sanford Health Sports Performance center, a 350-meter three-lane walking track, eight hardwood courts, one full-sized collegiate basketball court, two indoor sheets of ice, six indoor pickleball courts, an indoor playground, admin offices, and multi-purpose support/amenity spaces. JLG’s design is based around an open central spine, diffused daylight, campfire-inspired gathering points, and unobstructed views from one end of the facility to the other – offering clear visuals into all activity zones. JLG further ensured the first-floor community space and corridor remained visually open with a ceiling-mounted second floor. This concept eliminates the need for main-level beams, providing athletes and fans with simplified wayfinding that eases circulation. Even with simultaneous soccer, hockey, pickleball, and volleyball tournaments underway, this facility ensures visitors never get lost in the crowds.
AIA ND MERIT AWARD + AIA SD HONOR AWARD
Cankdeska Cikana Community College Cultural Heritage Center | Fort Totten, ND
On the Spirit Lake Dakota Reservation, JLG led a 9,000 SF addition to Candeska Cikana Community College that revitalizes cultural tradition and unites the Tribe’s historic artifact collection for the first time in a permanent home. The unwrapped nomadic design challenged doing more with less while reflecting important Native American tipi and medicine wheel symbolism. Beyond typical artifact exhibits, the addition extends to a 2,740 SF multipurpose space that welcomes both campus and community to connect, learn, and celebrate Tribal tradition together.
AIA ND MERIT AWARD
Dakota State University: Brian Kern Family Stadium on Blankley Field at the Beacom PREMIER Complex| Madison, SD
Designed by JLG, Trojan Athletics’ 54,000 SF new Complex and Stadium kicked off with plans for the 2023 Dan Beacom Track Complex, featuring a full-sized synthetic turf soccer field surrounded by a new eight-lane 400-meter polyurethane track. The 2024 phase delivered the Brian Kern Family Stadium on Blankley Field, which is connected to the new Beacom PREMIER Complex. The Stadium and Complex bring an 1,800-seat grandstand, designated esports space, a team store, concessions, and premium team, training, and locker spaces. The $38 million project is the first new DSU athletics facility since the Fieldhouse was finished in 1960. DSU’s Complex and Stadium help boost student enrollment and athletic performance, expand academic growth, balance distribution of majors, and increase revenue-generating opportunities for both DSU and the greater Madison area.
AIA ND JUROR’S CHOICE
Anne Carlsen Center | Jamestown, ND
The Anne Carlsen Center is a North Dakota-based non-profit serving those with disabilities, behavioral disorders, and other medical acuities. Within a new 110,000-square-foot facility, JLG’s Healthcare Studio helped the Center create a family-friendly, live-learn campus that supports cutting-edge innovation, advanced assistive technologies, indoor/outdoor play with passive supervision, private resident rooms, flexible classrooms, and state-of-the-art therapies. Here, all decisions—including accessible wayfinding and visual definition of living, learning, and therapy zones—were carefully weighed to balance safety, inclusivity, functionality, empathy, and autonomy. Within a uniquely controlled community serving over 400 individuals daily, the Center nurtures independence for life within its walls and beyond.
AIA SD MERIT AWARD
Lake Brophy Welcome Center | Alexandria, MN
The Lake Brophy Welcome Center, on 160 acres near Alexandria, MN, was designed by JLG for Douglas County Public Works Department. The new pavilion bolsters Brophy Park’s status within a year-round, nature-focused recreational hub. The new multi-purpose Welcome Center minimizes impact on park land and creates a cooler micro-climate that protects visitors from the sun. The new durable, low-maintenance structure also provides essential hosting amenities that support a wide range of activities, from family picnics and outings to educational programs, concerts, and cross-country ski rentals. JLG’s holistic design screens roadside traffic and frames the view, connecting visitors to the site’s 9,000 feet of shoreline, mountain biking and hiking trails, and water route connections to the Alexandria Chain of Lakes, Long Prairie State Water Trail, and Central Lakes Trail.
AIA SD MERIT AWARD
JLG Architects Office | Bismarck, ND
Designed by JLG for JLG, this 2,800 SF renovation and fit-up embraced 4th and Main’s existing steel columns, wood plank flooring, and exposed, wood-framed structure. The design delivers the comforts of home to the office, inviting team members to gather at the heart of a daylit kitchen, collaborate in private booth brainstorms, or spend the day exploring an open, flexible workspace that boosts performance and personalizes productivity. The building’s exterior façade replacement optimizes transparency and visibility from the street while mitigating solar heat gain and honoring the historic charm of the existing building.
