B.L.E.N.D A W A R D

 The B.L.E.N.D. Award encourages and rewards builders, architects, and home owners to blend newly remodeled or constructed homes and businesses into the fabric of southwest Minneapolis neighborhoods. A jury of industry professionals and neighborhood residents will select projects for recognition.

The B.L.E.N.D. Award organization recognizes that redevelopment of the residential parts of the neighborhood is both a given and a positive indicator for the neighborhood. Our goals are to 1) ensure that the redevelopment builds upon the qualities that have made Southwest Mpls a place where people have chosen to live for so many years, 2) ensure redevelopments respect the privacy, light access, private views of neighboring properties and maintain a human scale, and 3) encourage redevelopment and construction of homes that are diverse and innovative in design but still compatible with the neighborhood.

In crafting these guidelines, our organization recognizes that the type of buildings that are appropriate on one block would not necessarily be appropriate if they were built on another block. For this reason, we are not recommending inflexible measures, but instead that the designers consider the homes in the immediate vicinity of their home when building or remodeling.