Thriving by Design -- Awards
The Thriving by Design Competition ended with winners announced on May 10 at the Minnesota Rural Summit. Here are the winning entries.
Adult Track
First Place Visionary Awards for outstanding original work – ($1,000)
Fergus Falls “Little City Design”
Team members:
- Ben Scheirer
- Don Westra
- Erik Johnson
- Greg Stumbo
- Jean Bowman
- Kim Embretson
- Lois Josefson
- Mary Mattson
- Maryjane Westra
- Sara Piekarski
- Tessa Schierer
- Tim Bosworth
- Kathy Sporre
Reviewers comments:
- This project had all the elements—great participation in the team, good ideas and well-executed boards.
- The Fergus Falls team had by far the largest and most diverse team. One of the main aims of the competition was to stimulate broad-based community dialog about the issues of design, planning and sustainability of Minnesota’s rural towns. This project achieved that.
- This project was successful and tackling several issues—aging building infrastructure, environment, the aging population (especially in rural communities) and housing needs. All were tied together by the suggestion of re-use of historic structures for high-density, multi-generational housing. This was then played out in terms of the different “environments” that teams were asked to address: natural, social, economic and cultural.
- Good use of existing research.
- The reviewers like the creative approach the team had to the narrative—by literally using a story of hypothetical people in their town, walking through the town of the future and interacting with one another. This was a very successful technique.
- The team put forth a notable and successful effort to organize people to participate in this effort, which included citizens volunteering not only their time but talents and resources to support the effort.
- Innovative to use story-telling not only as a technique in explaining their project to the reviewers, but also to use story-telling as a technique to engage the participants in the visioning process.
- The boards are very attractive and made excellent use of black and white photos of today, juxtaposed with color illustrations of the future.
Board 1: Concept |
Board 2: Illustrations |
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Second Place Visionary Awards for outstanding original work – ($750)
“Connecting Minnesota”
Team members:
- Tom Osaski
- Nathan Nelson
- Andrea Hickle
Reviewers comments:
- The reviewers appreciated the interdisciplinary team that put this project together. One of the aims of the competition was to encourage interdisciplinary dialog and problem-solving around the complex issues that face our state. This team had an architect, an educator and a public health professional which not only was inter-disciplinary, but also which brought together design and non-design professionals.
- Good use of research, evidence-based data in selecting issues to deal with and to give direction to solution.
- Reviewers really liked the innovative approach of realigning governance boundaries to match watershed boundaries.
- Team was credited for effort to include multi-cultural approach by giving attention to Native lands in their scheme.
- Attractive illustrations.
Sustenance Rings Concept |
New County Boundaries Coincide with Watersheds |
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Third Place Visionary Awards for outstanding original work – ($500)
Sibley County “Caught in the Web vs. Sustaining the Web”
Team members:
- Catherine Lorenz
- Dean Pederson
- Denny Schultz
- Pat Pinske
- Paula Geisler
- Sue Bentz
- Timothy Dolan
- Wayne Sanderson
Reviewers comments:
- There was great participation in the team with people from several towns and many backgrounds. Business, county and city employees and other citizens were all represented. This really gets at one of the main aims of the competition which was to encourage broad-based community discussion about the issues of design and planning of rural communities for a sustainable future.
- The play between the concept of a spider’s web, which is treacherous and difficult to escape, and the inter-connected web of life, which is precious and sustaining, is very clever and a good hook to bring your viewers into your ideas.
- The main issue dealt with is transportation which is indisputably one to the major issues that needs to be dealt with in the next 50 years in order to survive as communities and as a planet.
- The idea of being more strategic in our thinking about where we develop industry/jobs and where we develop housing is great.
- The narrative does a good job of making the case for your ideas.
- Liked that you gave some thought to how your ideas might be implemented.
Board 1: Caught in the Web |
Board 2: Sustaining the Web |
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There was no Award for Excellence for outstanding work that came from a professional project given, as there were no submissions of professional work.
Youth Track
Grades 5-8
Award of Excellence ($250)
Marshall 5th graders “Maps of Marshall”
Team members:
- Adam Kovash
- Bryce Johnson
- Cassidy Hilton
- David Booke
- Grant Turner
- Hank Neyens
- Jared Schmidt
- Jordan Prellwitz
- Rachel Landmark
- Sajya Singh
- Sydney Griffin
- Taylor Rasmussen
- Tom Wyatt-Yerka
Reviewers comments:
- The reviewers loved the creativity of this project, both the ideas generated and the innovative way of creating the boards.
- The boards were attractive and drew the viewer in.
- The students did a good job of identifying many places that are important to them and located them geographically on the map in relationship to each other, the major roads and the river.
- The map makers included directional signs orienting the map (north, south, east and west) which a lot of professionals forget to do!
- The ideas for the future were clever, especially the idea for the transporter and cars that run on solar and wind power, since how we travel from place to place is a very important issue in the design of our towns and also in the quality of the environment.
- It looks like you have windmills in 2058 which is a great idea.
- The reviewers were also very pleased to see so many kids participating in this project.
Marshall of the Future |
 Colorful Tree |
 Future Armor |
 Independence Park-Future |
 Map |
Windmills |
 Amusement Park |
Star Bubble |
 Moving House |
 Hover Plane |
Judge’s Choice Award ($100)
Minnesota Center (Isanti) 7th graders “Isanti Present to Future”
Team members:
- Adam Heinen
- Ben Williams
- Jade Thunstrom
- Jessica Christensen
Reviewers comments:
- The team did a good job drawing the map and showing the relationship of the important places to one another and to the roads and railroad.
- The reviewers liked the group process of everyone sharing their ideas, listening to one another, choosing their priorities (in this case, safety) and then using that to decide how they would develop the community in the future.
- Good use of keys with the maps.
- The key for the future map says that there is a bike trail but we couldn’t find it on your map. A bike trail is a great idea for getting around without using a car, for exercise and for fun.
Isanti – Present
Isanti – Future
There was no awards given in the Grade 9-12 category because the review panel felt there were no entries that rose to the award level.