The prize is awarded annually to the winner of a design competition for architectural interns living in Minnesota. The juried competition encourages professional development of young intern architects while showing their design skills on fun and often overlooked elements of the urban landscape. This year’s competition asked participants to design a gazebo in St. Paul’s Hampden Park.

Vogel is an architect at Minneapolis’ Ellerbe Becket, one of the country’s oldest and largest design firms. Her gazebo design earned her a $1,000 first prize and a year’s membership in the St. Paul AIA.

What set her design apart? “I started by trying to understand why people don’t use traditional park structures,” she said. Then a personal experience helped Vogel understand that what park users really want is the ability to customize spaces like gazebos and shelters.

She came to that realization one bright sunny day while sitting–of all places–in her living room. To create an environment just to her liking, she pulled the window shades half-way down and opened the windows for fresh air. After a brief trip to the kitchen, she returned to find that her roommate had changed everything. “We didn’t view the same environment as being comfortable,” she said. “It was eye-opening for me. I realized that people like to customize their environment to maximize enjoyment.”

For her gazebo design, Vogel used operable roof louvers that can be adjusted easily by park users. “In theory, each louver will cover a table or chair in the gazebo and can be adjusted to the conditions the individual user desires,” she said. “It’s like a kit of parts and all the pieces are pretty simple. I thought if this is going to be built I’d really like it to work.”

So would the Saint Anthony Park Community Group. The local citizens hope the gazebo will become the centerpiece for park improvements and they plan to submit a request to the City of St. Paul for future funding.

A Minnesota native, Vogel has worked in Ellerbe Becket’s Minneapolis office since April 2002. She also interned in the firm’s Kansas City office in 2000-2001 while finishing her bachelor’s degree in architecture at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. After graduation, she attended the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

She has worked on both national and international projects since joining Ellerbe. As a team member in the Minneapolis design studio, her project experience includes exterior design for the Khalifa Orthopedic Sports Medicine Hospital in Doha, Qatar. She also is a team member on the new School of Management at the University of California, San Diego.

An innovator since its founding in 1909, Ellerbe Becket is a leader in architecture, engineering and the construction industry with office locations worldwide.

Contact: news@ellerbebecket.com