I am one that loves reflecting on the past year and looking at what is ahead to plan for the year to come. It has always brought me a sense of peace and joy personally and professionally, and this year is no different. We had a year of learning and growing together as a team, pushing ourselves to dive deeper into our mission and hold true to our values and how that is reflected, not only in our culture as a team, but in how we approach and conduct our projects.
The heartbeat of our business revolves around our amazing team members, clients, and partners, and we are proud of how far we have all come together this past year. We look forward to continuing to achieve new milestones together on this remarkable journey ahead in 2025!
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
We kicked off the year with a bang, hosting design charrettes and putting initial design concepts together for the Lot D Revitalization and Redevelopment on the harbor of Lake Superior in Duluth, MN. Our team worked closely with Inland Development and the City of Duluth to generate excitement around the project at the Duluth & St. Louis County Days at the Capitol during the legislative session. Additional details about the project can be found here. We continue to be a part of the momentum building around this tremendous project!
One of our higher education projects that has been under construction this past year is the Lake Superior College Manufacturing Addition and Renovation. This has been a very rewarding project, bringing the vital programs of welding, machine tools, and robotics back onto campus after having been in a leased space downtown for many years. AIA Northern Minnesota hosted a hardhat tour of this project this fall with great participation. The project team is nearing the finish line with completion expected in the first part of 2025. To hear more about another higher education project at Metro State University that was completed – take a look at this article.
A project theme as we move into 2025 is the revitalization of projects that have been paused for a variety of reasons. We are thrilled to be moving forward on the Spirit Mountain Chalet project in Duluth, led by our partner Alliiance. 2025 will be full speed ahead on the design of this much needed renovation and addition for the continued success of Spirit Mountain. In addition, we are seeing great strides on our All Saints Catholic Church project in Holdingford, MN, designing a new facility for two parishes coming together that have buildings that are failing them.
FIRM ACHIEVEMENTS
This entire past year, our team put in a tremendous, focused effort to complete our application to seek a Just label through the International Living Future Institute (ILFI). This has been a valuable tool for our organization to advance our mission, vision, and commitment to the work that we do as a woman-owned architecture and interior design firm. Please take a moment to read all about these efforts here. We are so proud to share this with you and are looking forward to our third annual team workshop in Braham later this month to share with our full team all of the details of our submittal and what we will be working toward for our re-certification in two years.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND SOCIAL IMPACT
Our 7th annual Design Expo continued with our intentional shift toward themes that connect to our commitment and that invoke the framework for real change in the architecture and design community. Our 2024 theme was Buildings + Beyond: Regenerative Architecture. We started with a presentation by Amber Sausen (Alliiance) and myself, followed by an engaging and informative panel discussion including Amber Sausen (Alliiance), Mindy Granley (City of Duluth), Jerry Hall (St. Louis County), Benjamin Bahr (Emanuelson-Podas), and Lora Wedge (Ecolibrium3). It was our highest attended event thus far, and we hope to continue that trend into 2025 with our theme of Buildings + Belonging: Connecting People to Place.
Actively engaging in the communities where we live and work will always be an essential aspect of our team and shapes how we approach our projects. By contributing our strengths and efforts, we can support one another and continue to learn and grow together. We were fortunate to be able to donate our time as a team to Ecolibrium3’s Legacy House while many team members supported other local organizations throughout the year.
TEAM AND CULTURE
In 2024, our team grew adding Natalie as Technician and Deino as an Architectural Intern. This summer we also had the pleasure of celebrating the wedding of Natalie and Max at Jay Cooke State Park with an amazing Ukrainian picnic!
We started 2024 with our second annual team workshop day, uniting our Duluth and St. Paul offices at the Braham Event Center. The event was a meaningful opportunity to celebrate our achievements and set purposeful goals for the year ahead. During our team workshop day, we took part of our time together to conduct an exercise where we identified our ‘Three Uniques’.
As a business that runs on EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) it was important to us to identify our Three Uniques to help focus our efforts in all aspects of the business. It was a great exercise and will allow us to bring in the right clients who will choose our services over the competition because only we offer this combination of services with our projects. As I write this, we are eagerly putting the finishing touches on preparations for our third annual team workshop day!
Authentic
We are a woman owned firm that has a culture grounded in mindfulness and genuine relationships, reflecting our compassion and commitment to personalized service, quality, and openness to working together.
Accessible
We prioritize our clients by listening to understand their needs. Our client approach involves everyone on the team, embedding diverse perspectives and passions to create a design experience filled with creativity and care.
Advocates
Our team advocates for our clients and community, by actively listening to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard. This allows us to embed collective passions and creativity into every aspect of our business, with a focus on equity, diversity, and inclusion, to deliver an exceptional client experience.
LOOKING AHEAD TO 2025
I cannot close out the year and look ahead to 2025 without again acknowledging the significant loss of my mentor and co-founder of Architecture Advantage this past year, Raymond Blesener. When we started the business in 2005, Ray immersed me in EVERY aspect of the business and did so with continual grace, patience, and a reminder to love what you are doing and have fun doing it. I still carry this with me today and know he is smiling down on all that we are doing, especially as we look to celebrate 20 years later this year.
Our team is eager to dive into 2025 with fresh and exciting projects on the horizon. We invite you to explore our website and follow us on social media to stay updated on our latest news and developments. If you have questions or are interested in collaborating, we’d be thrilled to connect with you. Wishing you a happy, healthy, and opportunity-filled 2025!
