The design competition focused on a parcel in Boston’s Dudley Square neighborhood that will become available with the removal of the two vacant buildings and the relocation of a police station. Prizes were awarded in four categories that Boston Mayor Tom Menino described as “the components at the heart of the city’s strategy for the revitalization of Dudley.” Teams drafted preliminary designs and then participated in a design workshop, in which they received advice and critiques from neighborhood residents.

Plaza at Dudley Square, Minott’s proposal, “was the most compelling in the sense that we could actually imagine it being built,” said Kairos Shen, Boston’s chief planner and a member of the jury that judged the 14 competition entries. “We all thought that, if you could do this, it would truly make the square a better place,” said Shen.

Minott’s passion for making urban environments better places for people to live, work and play propelled him to enter the competition. Born in Kingston, the capital of Jamaica, Minott lived in Mandeville and attended Belair High School, where he developed his love for art and architecture and completed his bachelor’s degree in architecture in 1997 from The Caribbean School of Architecture--University of Technology, Kingston. He worked as an intern-architect for Lascelles Dixon and Associates in Kingston for a few years before going overseas to further his studies on a full scholarship at NJIT where he received design awards for his projects during his tenure and a Master  of Architecture and Infrastructure Planning in 2002. He has since worked for firms in Manhattan, New York and New Jersey before moving to Boston in 2004, where he now works for Elkus-Manfredi Architects.

For more information and news stories on the competition, visit www.architects.org/2008/press.

Photos are available on request.