MINNEAPOLIS, October 8, 2025 — AIA Minnesota is pleased to announce that Alliiance is the 2025 AIA Minnesota Firm Award recipient. Given biennially, this prestigious award is among the highest honors bestowed by the association; it recognizes an AIA Minnesota architecture firm that has made outstanding contributions to the advancement of the architecture profession.

The Architectural Alliance (the firm’s original name) was founded in 1970 by Bob Bell, AIA, John Lackens, FAIA, and Herb Ketcham, FAIA, on a collaborative design philosophy that prioritized teamwork, client partnership, and connecting people and place through design. That founding ethos still guides the firm today.

Over the past 55 years, Alliiance has received more than 250 design awards and become an industry leader in aviation design and science and technology environments, among other areas of expertise. The firm’s collaborative approach can be seen in its decades-long partnerships with clients including the Metropolitan Airports Commission—the owner and operator of Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport—and the University of Minnesota.

“As a client of Alliiance, I’ve experienced firsthand the firm’s unwavering commitment to collaboration, design excellence, and meaningful relationships,” wrote Marc Partridge, AIA, University of Minnesota university architect emeritus, in a letter supporting the nomination. “Alliiance has been one of the university’s most successful design firms—with good reason(s). They are a supremely collaborative firm and consistently finds the design ‘sweet spot’—surprisingly creative solutions that fit our campus fabric, future-proof our programmatic needs, and are welcoming to our students and faculty.”

Alliiance’s University of Minnesota projects include the Cargill Building–Microbial and Plant Genomics, the Cancer and Cardiovascular Research Building (with ZGF), Tate Hall School of Physics and Astronomy and Earth and Environmental Science, and the Bee and Pollinator Research Lab. Its nearly 50 years of work at Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport has ranged from the design of concourses A, B, C, and G to MSP’s award-winning next-generation restrooms—and earned Alliiance many other airport commissions around the world. The firm also has an extensive portfolio of workplace and civic design.

A signatory to the 2030 Challenge, Alliiance has had a number of its projects achieve significant energy reductions and sustainability certifications. The firm’s Hennepin County Public Works Facility, completed in 1999, received the 2024 AIA Minnesota 25 Year Award for leading-edge building-performance measures that would help inform the State of Minnesota’s B3 Sustainable Building Guidelines, established in 2004.

The Firm Award jury (see below) was equally impressed with Alliiance’s sustained focus on developing younger staff through an in-house mentorship program, intercultural competence training, and AIA Minnesota’s Leadership Forum (of which the firm has 31 graduates). The jurors also lauded the firm’s commitment to strengthening the profession through volunteer service and leadership in AIA Minnesota. Three Alliiance architects have served as president of AIA Minnesota since 2008, and numerous Alliiance architects and designers have led or co-led AIA Minnesota committees.

Alliiance previously won the Firm Award in 1994. The 2025 jury made special note of the firm’s continual renewal—including successful leadership transitions—in the years since it last received the honor. “Alliiance continues to transform to meet the needs of this industry while also maintaining their foundational commitments to mentorship, service to clients, leadership in the community, and innovative design,” the jury commented. “Their ability to change and adapt while staying true to their core values is worthy of recognition and celebration. This firm inspires and elevates our entire Minnesota design community.”

“We’re honored to be the first firm to receive the AIA Minnesota Firm Award twice,” says Alliiance president Mamie Harvey, AIA. “This recognition reflects our focus on what matters most: our clients, our staff, and our profession, as well as the balance of stability and renewal that propels us forward.”

Serving on the 2025 Firm Award jury were AIA Minnesota president Jennifer Christiaansen, AIA, president-elect Phillip Koski, AIA, and member leaders Meredith Hayes Gordon, AIA, Mohammed Lawal, FAIA, NOMA, and Rosemary McMonigal, FAIA.

Alliiance will be honored at an awards celebration at the AIA Minnesota Conference on Architecture on November 3, 2025. Learn more about the Firm 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.