Q&A: Architect Mohammed Lawal builds legacy in Minneapolis

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Growing up in north Minneapolis, Mohammed Lawal didn’t exactly dream of working in the design profession. He didn’t know any architects. However, he had a knack for drawing, and that led to a long and successful career as a licensed architect.

“We moved to Nigeria in 1976, and my father thought I should choose a vocation that supports my art,” Lawal said. “So I thought architecture sounded pretty good. I really hadn’t met an architect, so I kind of fell into it that way.”

In his role as an architect, and as co-founder and principal of LSE Architects in Minneapolis, Lawal has worked on everything from barbershops to a $1 billion football stadium. Lawal’s career has taken him to jobs as far away as Indonesia, but he has never forgotten his Minneapolis roots. LSE Architects has established a home base in north Minneapolis, just a couple of blocks from Lawal’s childhood home.

In the following interview, Lawal talks about his journey in the architecture profession, some past and current projects, and more. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: Tell us a little more about LSE Architects. How long have you been in business and what types of work do you do?

A: LSE Architects stands for Lawal Scott Erickson Architects. We started it in April of 2011. The line that I use a lot is that we do everything from barber shops to overseeing construction of a $1 billion stadium, in that we are one of the three local architects on U.S. Bank Stadium.

The [other] founders were Quinn Scott — he and I went to college together at the University of Minnesota — and Ron Erickson. We’re the three co-founders, and right now we have four other principals that are part of our corporation.

Q: And you have an office on the North Side of Minneapolis, correct?

A: It is. We do a considerable amount of work on the north side of Minneapolis. We wanted our people and our office to be a part of the community and not apart from it. So we moved our offices right over here on 1401 Glenwood Ave., which is about two blocks from where I grew up as a kid.

We have reciprocal business relationships that I think help build community and also help support each other’s businesses in the neighborhood. So it’s a pretty awesome kind of gig. It goes beyond being an architect in the community. We are part of the neighborhood.

Q: How many employees do you have there?

A: We fluctuate between 45 to 50.

Q: You mentioned that you had moved with your family to Nigeria in 1976. How long were you there and what brought you back to Minneapolis?

A: I was there for nine years. I was there from when I was age nine to 18. My father passed away, unfortunately, when I was 16, right when I was graduating from high school. So I did two years of college at a university called Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria. And then my younger sister decided, when she graduated at 16, that she was going to come back to the United States to go to college, to go to medical school. So I said, ‘Well, we’ll come together.’ We both came together and enrolled at the University of Minnesota.

Q: Where did you work right out of college?

A: I went to work in Baltimore at a firm called Design International, and we were working on projects in Jakarta, Indonesia. Most of the projects were abroad. And then I came back to the Twin Cities and joined Cuningham Group. I think I was their 22nd employee at the time, so that was a long time ago. And then I went to KKE Architects, where I met Ron Erickson. He was one of the founders of LSE Architects. I worked with Ron for a very long time, until we started LSE.

Q: What do you remember about being part of the U.S. Bank Stadium project team?

A: Just being part of the team, and the level of professionalism by the contractor, Mortenson, and working with John Hutchings from HKS and the team, and the pace at which we had to perform, and the … level of quality and the level of professionalism.

I was one of two of the architectural team that was authorized or trained to go up on the roof to inspect the king joist, but my fear of heights and being up 295 feet — let’s just say I didn’t go up there. I also think our insurance company didn’t want me to go up there, but that was a pretty meaningful project for us as a company.

Q: One of the other meaningful projects you’re working on now is “Big Hits at the Gateway,” a planned multisport entertainment complex on a brownfield site in Burnsville. I believe you were hoping to go for a formal application to the city sometime this week.

A: The formal application went in yesterday [June 17], so it’s now in the city process with their planning department in Burnsville. We’ll start getting questions and comments from them, and go through their process coming up. We’re looking forward to that.

Q: I know that LSE was recently awarded the Democracy Center project at 3000 Minnehaha Ave. in Minneapolis. (The building will house election and voter services. Formerly known as the Third Precinct building, the structure has been vacant since the civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd in 2020).

A: That’s really a high honor for us. First of all, there are very few voter centers, voter service centers, in the United States.

We were super excited to be selected for the Democracy Center and honored because it will be a chance for us to talk about policy and architecture together in a very impactful, meaningful place in our community. And I think it’ll be a project that, for many, represents a lot of things.

We’ve just started analyzing the building, trying to go through what damage may have occurred, understanding the structure and DNA of the building that’s there. I’m really hopeful about it.

Q: It must be interesting to work on such a wide range of projects.

A: It is. It’s really invigorating. We go from talking about designing incubator office space for second phase entrepreneurs and what that looks like, to designing a 12-acre homestead in Waterloo, Iowa, to Big Hits at the Gateway in Burnsville.

It keeps our staff on their toes. We have clients that come from all over that want to have dialogue at multiple levels. We take it all in, and we try to really internalize and have very, very deep conversations with clients about the impact of architecture on their business, on their staff and their community.