Litchfield Opera House
A Star Tribune story reports that the Litchfield City Council isn't interested in saving its historic opera house. The city refused state matching funds for a renovation. The Litchfield City Council has voted to "move toward demolition," according to the Strib. The 106-year-old building was designed by William T. Towner of St. Paul. The Preservation Alliance of Minnesota listed the building as one of the state's most endangered in 2003. Also on the list that year: Guthrie Theater designed by Ralph Rapson of Minneapolis. The Preservation Alliance is taking nominations for its 2007 list through January 26.

Architecture pol wins Minnesota House seat
It's not unusual for lawyers to get elected to office. Jeremy Kalin, a student at William Mitchell College of Law, recently won election to the Minnesota House of Representatives and is on his way to becoming an attorney. But Kalin also "has had graduate training in architecture and planning," according to a press release from the St. Paul law school. Kalin will represent District 17B, which includes Chisago County north of the Twin Cities.

Fresh From the Factory
That's the headline on a New York Times story published today on prefab homes. The story notes that "even higher-end modular construction can still undercut the price of similarly designed traditional homes." Reporter Amy Gunderson also mentions less expensive options (very un-New York Times) such as the $69,500 weeHouse from Alchemy Architects in St. Paul. In addition to winning a recent AIA Minnesota award, the weeHouse was featured in the Walker Art Center exhibit Some Assembly Required, which was a Building Minnesota podcast feature as well. If you missed it in Minneapolis, Some Assembly Required is on display at the Yale Architecture School in New Haven, Conn. until February 2.

AIA Awards, Part 2
Another winner was Joan Sorrano of Hammel, Green and Abrahamson. Her design for the University of Alaska Museum of the North Fairbanks, Alaska (above left) also won an award. I interviewed her about another project, Bigelow Chapel in New Brighton, Minnesota. That story can be heard here. In a New York Times story in March, Sorrano says she was thinking about "how when ice moves, it shears off and one plane shifts over to another plane. I wanted to express this notion of something that's been here forever, always changing, always becoming something new."

AIA Awards
AIA Minnesota has announced its 2006 Honor and Divine Detail Awards. One of the winning designs was the Arado weeHouse, picture at right, by Geoffrey Warner and the team at Alchemy Architects in St. Paul. I interviewed Geoffrey in 2005 as part of a story on prefab architecture. "We produced the whole house, finished, in the workshop, had a truck back up to the dock ... and take it out to the site," Warner says. You can listen to that interview here. Congratulations to all the winners.

Why we're here

This blog is an outgrowth of a radio series called "Building Minnesota" that airs on KFAI Radio in Minneapolis. The series examines new creations, refurbished buildings and works by specific architects. I'm Todd Melby and I'm the producer of the series (on left in photo by Scott Theien). In 2005-2006, I interviewed David Salmela, Joan Sorrano, Julie Snow, Thomas Fisher, Geoffrey Warner and others. A podcast of the original radio stories and exclusive interviews is available at the iTunes store and at several places online, including Podcast Lounge and Podcast Directory. I'll use this blog to provide links to podcasts and create links to architecture news in the state.