Photo by Gaffer Photography.

MINNEAPOLIS, October 16, 2026 — The University of Minnesota’s Barbara Barker Center for Dance in Minneapolis, designed by HGA, is the 2026 recipient of the 25 Year Award.

Established in 1981, the annual 25 Year Award celebrates a 25- to 50-year-old building or group of buildings whose architecture has stood the test of time and continues to demonstrate excellence in architectural design and significance—both in its original context and by today’s standards. Projects competing for the award must be designed by firms with architects registered and practicing professionally in Minnesota.

The HGA project team for the Barbara Barker Center for Dance included Joan Soranno, FAIA; John Cook, FAIA; Dan Avchen, FAIA; and Nancy Blankfard, FAIA. Kraus-Anderson was the design-build contractor for the project.

Completed in 1999, the building provided the University of Minnesota’s nationally acclaimed dance program with its first dedicated home—a facility designed exclusively for dance education, rehearsal, performance, and creative inquiry. The design emerged through close collaboration between the design team and dancers. Rather than beginning with preconceived architectural forms, the process began by listening to the language of dance itself. Faculty described movement through ideas such as flow, balance, extension, release, and reach, inspiring an architecture that embodies the discipline, rhythm, and expressive energy of dance.

The 18,200-square-foot building includes two rehearsal studios, a flexible performance theater, classrooms, faculty offices, and a three-story daylit lobby. An outdoor amphitheater extends performances into the landscape, reinforcing the relationship between learning, performance, and public life.

Over the past twenty-seven years, the Barbara Barker Center has fulfilled and expanded its original vision. Together with the Rarig Center, Ted Mann Concert Hall, and the subsequently completed Regis Center for Art, it helps form a thriving arts district where dance, theater, music, and visual arts intersect. Today, the university describes the Barker Center as the “nucleus for dance on campus and the hub for movement research and discovery in the Twin Cities dance community.”

Upon completion, the project was immediately recognized for its architectural quality, receiving a 1999 AIA Minnesota Honor Award. National publications praised its contribution to the campus, and the Star Tribune described it as “a rare public building that shot high and hit its mark.” Faculty offered perhaps the most meaningful assessment, observing that the building speaks to the “heart and soul of dance.”

“‘What is the essence of your art?’ That question—the one posed to the dancers—stayed with us,” the 25 Year Award jury commented. “The language that emerged—flow, reach, takeoff, release—found a compelling expression in the building’s sculptural movement. There is a sense of energy held in its form, of tension and balance poised between stillness and motion. Twenty-seven years later, the building feels just as lively, with a colorful lobby mural now visible from the street.”

Serving on the 2026 25 Year Award jury were AIA Minnesota member leaders Trace Jacques, AIA, Heidi Neumueller, AIA, John Pfluger, FAIA, Mary Springer, AIA, and Angela Wolf Scott, FAIA.

The Barbara Barker Center for Dance and its architectural team will be honored at an awards event at the A’26 MN Conference on Architecture on Monday, November 9, 2026. Learn more about the 25 Year Award here.

The American Institute of Architects Minnesota, founded in 1892, is dedicated to advancing a vital profession, vibrant communities, and architecture that endures. For more information on the organization and Minnesota architectural firms, visit our website and subscribe to ENTER, our digital monthly newsletter that explores the people and ideas shaping a better built environment for Minnesota.