Surly Brewing Company on Tuesday announced that it has selected HGA Architects and Engineers to design its proposed $20 million “destination brewery”—representing the latest of several steps that the company has taken since first announcing its plans for the project more than a year ago.

Brooklyn Center-based Surly in March began seeking requests for qualifications from architecture firms, and it said at the time that it was seeking firms “with a strong local presence.”

“I have had a picture of what our ‘destination brewery’ will look like in my head for more than a year now, and we’re sure HGA can make that vision a reality,” Surly founder and President Omar Ansari said in a statement. “HGA’s unique designs are helping shape the Twin Cities, and we want our project to have a positive, lasting impression.”

Surly called attention to several of Minneapolis-based HGA’s local projects, including the General Mills headquarters in Golden Valley, The American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis, and the Lakewood Cemetery Garden Mausoleum in Minneapolis. HGA also renovated the Ford Center in Minneapolis’ Warehouse District, and its headquarters are now located in that building.

Following Surly’s February 2011 announcement that it would build a $20 million brewery—complete with a bar, restaurant, event center, beer garden, and roof terrace—the company helped spearhead a change in state liquor laws to allow Minnesota brewers to sell pints of beer from on-site “taprooms.”

While many other breweries—including Fulton Beer, Lift Bridge Brewery, and most recently, Summit Brewing—have opened or announced plans to open taprooms, Surly has yet to take advantage of the law.

But it has taken several steps toward building its new brewery. Surly in August hired Minneapolis-based real estate advisory firm Tegra Group—which was involved in several iconic local projects, including the Walker Art Center and Target Field—to help in its site-selection process.

Surly and Tegra in June narrowed the list of possible locations to four—two in Minneapolis, one in Brooklyn Center, and a fourth in an unnamed “inner-suburban” location. A Surly spokesman said Tuesday that the brewery is not yet releasing additional details about the site-selection process.

HGA has offices in Minneapolis; Rochester; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Washington, D.C.; and Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sacramento, California. It is Minnesota’s third-largest architectural firm based on architectural billings from offices within the state.