Ursa Minor Brewing Interior Renovation

It’s hard to imagine the Lincoln Park Craft District in Duluth without thinking of Ursa Minor Brewing – a welcoming place to gather for beers, artisan-style pizza, and meaningful connections. And that’s what the founders and brothers, Ben and Mark Hugus, had in mind when they came to us to turn their vision into a reality.

Since a handyman construction company occupied the building last, it required several changes to successfully transform the space into a taproom and initial five-barrel brewery – including everything from an occupancy change with an increase in occupant load and sprinkler additions to the design of the unique space itself. The initial buildout was completed while I was employed at DSGW Architects, where I led the design team for this phase of the project.

Once Ursa Minor Brewing purchased the building, we partnered again with the team through BAM to support multiple phases of growth and evolution. This included expanding the kitchen, building out office and back-of-house spaces for loading, receiving, and storage, and later reconfiguring those same areas to create the front taproom experience that exists today. In parallel, I also served as the architect for their production facility located nearby, supporting the continued expansion of their brewing operations. These phased updates ultimately helped scale the brewery from its original system into the fifteen-barrel operation so many know and love today!