President Spotlights
2025 Design + Honor Awards: Call for Entries
2025 DESIGN + HONOR AWARDS: CALL FOR ENTRIES
SCHEDULE
July 28: Registration opens at 8 am with the Call to Entries.
September 5: Design & Honor Award submissions are due by 4 pm.
Call for Entries Registration for the projects being submitted are considered complete and accepted only after payment of fees has been paid in full.
Projects must be submitted by September 5, 2025.
NO LATE ENTRIES WILL BE ACCEPTED.
CEREMONY
The awards ceremony will be held on November 20, 2025 from 6 pm to 9:30 pm. Location TBD.
DESIGN AWARDS
AIA Coastal Virginia calls all architects, interior designers, and preservationists to submit to the 2025 Design and Honor Awards. This program is designed to encourage and recognize distinguished architectural achievement and to celebrate and raise public consciousness of the architect’s role in shaping the quality of life through design excellence.
Design Award Categories
Adaptive Reuse
The renovation and possible addition that adapts a building for contemporary purposes, preserving building character but not previous function and where clearly delineated interventions create synergy between old and new construction, improve functionality, energy-efficiency, and meet current standards for comfort and utility.
Historical Preservation
A project which preserves the original design and architectural character of an historic structure while considering excellence in strategies, tactics, and technologies that advance the art, craft, and science of preservation.
Residential
New construction, renovation, remodel, or addition, that beyond aesthetic appeal and functionality exhibits measures of sustainability through exceptional design.
Interior Design
An interior project demonstrating innovative design strategies that celebrate client vision, functionality, material and color palettes, lighting, furnishings, and relevant aspects of sustainability.
Urban Design / Master Planning
Built or unbuilt master plan for a new community, urban redevelopment, or large-scale place making that considers sustainability and resiliency, establishing a compelling narrative of purpose and intended outcomes.
Architecture
Best general built architectural project that exhibits exceptional design through aspirational conceptual strategies, unique problem solving and illuminating aesthetics while considering measures of sustainability.
Place Making
A completed building, landscape design, design intervention, mural, parklet, sign, statue, installation, etc. that helps make a certain place special and unique.
Small Firm Project
Any project in any category completed by a firm of no more than 10 people.
Unbuilt Architecture
This award celebrates unbuilt architecture, landscape, interior design, and also the speculative, theoretical, experimental, academic, and analytical work of the architecture profession. Projects in this category are judged on innovation, solutions to stated design challenges, and overall design excellence.
Evaluation Criteria
The jury will determine the number of awards under each category. Projects should be measured considering context, program, solution, and execution, as well as how the design aligns with the Framework for Design Excellence. The jury also has the freedom to re-assign projects to a different category as they see fit.
Honor will recognize outstanding and exceptional projects satisfying all the jurors’ criteria.
Merit will recognize projects generally satisfying the jurors’ criteria and worthy of recognition for design achievement but not at the highest and most exceptional level.
AIA Framework for Design Excellence
The Framework for Design Excellence represents the defining principles of good design in the 21st century. It’s intended to be accessible and relevant for every architect, every client, and every project — regardless of size, typology, or aspiration. The Framework is comprised of the following 10 principles:
Design for integration
Good design elevates any project, no matter how small, with a thoughtful process that delivers both beauty and function in balance. It is the element that binds all the principles together with a big idea.
Design for equitable communities
Design solutions affect more than the client and current occupants. Good design positively impacts future occupants and the larger community.
Design for ecosystems
Good design mutually benefits human and nonhuman inhabitants.
Design for water
Good design conserves and improves the quality of water as a precious resource.
Design for economy
Good design adds value for owners, occupants, community, and planet, regardless of project size and budget.
Design for energy
Good design reduces energy use and eliminates dependence on fossil fuels while improving building performance, function, comfort, and enjoyment.
Design for well-being
Good design supports health and well-being for all people, considering physical, mental, and emotional effects on building occupants and the surrounding community.
Design for resources
Good design depends on informed material selection, balancing priorities to achieve durable, safe, and healthy projects with an equitable, sustainable supply chain to minimize possible negative impacts to the planet.
Design for change
Adaptability, resilience, and reuse are essential to good design, which seeks to enhance usability, functionality, and value over time.
Design for discovery
Every project presents a unique opportunity to apply lessons learned from previous projects and gather information to refine the design process.
Submission Requirements
This program is not a competition, but a recognition of projects deemed worthy of acknowledgement by an independent jury. As in past years, jurors will determine the number of projects to recognize, and in which manner. Recognition for excellence and achievement in design will be announced at the Design + Honor Awards Ceremony on November 20, 2025.
- All projects must be the work of a licensed architect of an Architectural Firm of Record in the domain of the Coastal Virginia Chapter. In the case of work submissions by a federal agency, the work must have been performed by an office of the agency located within the domain of the Coastal Virginia Chapter. In the case of student and intern submissions, the work must have been performed under the supervision of a licensed architect in the domain of the Coastal Virginia Chapter.
- Built Projects can be anywhere and are not restricted to Coastal Virginia.
- Architectural renderings used in submissions must accurately reflect the built work. All formats of rendering (traditional media, computer, etcetera) are permitted.
- The submitting designer shall clear all photographs and drawings for restricted release and reproduction in connection with publicity of the program including, but not limited to, print media, web media, and exhibition. Any entry, which is not the sole design responsibility of the submitting architect, must be properly credited.
- Entries previously receiving an AIACoVA Design Award may not be resubmitted in the same category. However, projects previously receiving an award may be considered for another category.
- There is no limit to the number of projects that may be entered by a firm and all materials included in submissions must be cleared for public reproduction. It is the submitter’s responsibility to verify that a project is eligible.
- Categories are at the discretion of the submitter, must be clearly identified when submitted, and must be an architectural work. Each entry will be judged on its own merit and not in competition with other submissions.
- Project authorship will remain concealed throughout the jury’s deliberation.
- All projects submitted must have been completed within the last six years, as in 2019 or later.
Entry Process
For DESIGN AWARDS, assemble the Concealed Identification PDF and the Project PDF. Upload them when filling out the Design Award submission form on aiacova.org. Submissions are due by 4 pm, September 5.
Concealed Identification PDF
Title “concealedid.pdf”
INCLUDE:
● Project name and address
● Owner’s name, address, E-mail address, and phone number
● Designer’s name, address, E-mail address, and phone number
● Contractor’s name, address, E-mail address, and phone number
● Photographer’s name, address, E-mail address, and phone number
Project PDF
Title “project.pdf”
Please format pages to be in a 16:9 ratio. Do not exceed 30MB for each submission. Additionally, the completed Framework for Design Excellence Project Information Form (provided) is required and shall precede page 1 of the submission. Additional Framework information can be found below.
INCLUDE:
● Page 1: while the project narrative may be carried across the entire submittal, page 1 should introduce the primary intent of the project, factors informing the design, and thecategory in which it is being submitted. Visuals - photos and graphics - are also permitted on this page.
● Pages 2 through 6: photographs, renderings, and/or plans/sections that provide a clear understanding of the project. Concept sketches and diagrams that communicate the development of the project and/or its method of construction are also encouraged along with narrative text deemed necessary.
● The Framework for Design Excellence icons can be used throughout the submittal to visually identify or highlight aspects of sustainable design described within the Framework Form
ALL SUBMITTALS DISPLAYED:
● AIACoVA is planning to celebrate the work of Chapter firms with the broader public. All Design Awards entries will be part of an exhibition at the Design+Honor Awards Celebration, and also leading up to and potentially following the event at various locations in Coastal Virginia.
● Each submission will be captured on a single banner or a banner shared with another entry or other entries in the same category.
● In order to create high resolution exhibit banners please use print resolution images in your submittal. While the intent is to display each entry in full, if banners space is limited the number of images and information will be equal for each project and AIACoVA will determine the final composition of all banners.
● Please indicate if you would prefer to opt out of the planned exhibit.
Fees
$150 for each project. Collected upon completion of online submission.
CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT FOR THE DESIGN AWARDS
HONOR AWARDS
The AIA Coastal Virginia Honor Awards recognize individuals or firms who have risen above or beyond the standard practice of architecture. The following narratives describe the criteria for each category. Only one award will be bestowed per category.
Honor Award Categories
Honor Award for Distinguished Achievement
Established in 1979 this award recognizes individual achievement and service to the profession. The Distinguished Achievement Award recognizes achievements by an Architect in any one of the following categories: design, practice, education, service to the profession. This award is intended for individuals who have exhibited outstanding levels of professional influence and activity over a sustained period of time.
AIA Coastal Virginia President's Award
The President's Award recognizes an Architect who has made outstanding contributions to the profession and service to the community, through education or corporate practice. This distinguished award honors a member of the American Institute of Architects who has made asignificant contribution to the built environment and transcends the scope of normal professional activities.
Leadership & Service Award
This award is given in recognition of exemplary conduct by an Architect, Associate, or Affiliate member in the service of the AIA Coastal Virginia. This award may serve to recognize a long history of service, or a single notable contribution exhibiting the highest personal and professional standards. Current AIA Coastal Virginia Board Members are not eligible.
Young Architect Award
This award recognizes proficiency and exceptional accomplishments by Emerging Professionals. Eligible applicants will have been a member of AIA Coastal Virginia for a minimum of five years and are 40 years old or younger during the calendar year of the award. The award recognizes exceptional professional accomplishments and contributions by a young Architect. Applicant submissions shall include nominee’s biography, examples of work, and two letters of recommendation.
Associate Member Award
Associate Members are those not yet licensed but are on the path to becoming a licensed Architect. This award highlights the tremendous impact Associates have on AIA Coastal Virginia. It recognizes the exceptional accomplishments and contributions to the profession by an Associate Member who has been a member of AIA Coastal Virginia for a minimum of two years. Applicant submissions shall include nominee’s biography, examples of work, and two letters of recommendation
Firm Award
As the highest honor bestowed by the Chapter to a Coastal Virginia based architecture firm, the Firm Award recognizes a local firm that has consistently produced distinguished architecture for at least ten years. The jury will focus on the quality of the firm’s architecture and not on the principals of the firm. Required submittal - a letter of nomination summarizing the firm’s contributions, a brief biography of all current firm principals, a history of the firm, and descriptive statements & photographs of early, middle and recent work of the firm. The submission should focus on the quality of the firm's work.
Allied Member Award
This award recognizes an Affiliate Partner of AIA Coastal Virginia who has given distinguished service to the chapter, the profession of architecture or the allied arts and sciences.
Chapter Honor Award
May be bestowed by the Chapter on non-member individuals or organizations who havesupported, influenced, or complemented the architecture profession in Coastal Virginia through the practice of an allied profession, research education, planning, legislation, architectural writing and the arts and crafts.
Entry Process
For HONOR AWARDS, assemble the Honor Awards PDF. Upload it when filling out the Design
Award submission form on aiacova.org. Submissions are due by 4 pm, August 31.
Honor Nomination PDF
Title “honornomination.pdf”
Do not exceed 1 page (narrative) in length, minimum 10-point font, 1 inch margins all sides.
INCLUDE:
● Name of nominee and category to which nominee is being submitted and a one-page narrative that supports how the nominee meets the criteria of the category.
Fees
$100 for each Honor nomination. Collected upon completion of online submission.
CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT FOR THE HONOR AWARDS
F.A.Q.
Q: I’m not a member of the AIAHR, but someone on my project team is. Can I submit my project?
A: Yes. But, please indicate the name of the AIACoVA Member on the design team.
Q: Can Allied Members of the AIACoVA submit?
A: Yes.
Q: Is check or credit card preferable?
A: Online payment through aiacova.org using VISA, MasterCard, and American Express is preferable.
Q: I will be submitting multiple projects—do I register all of them separately?
A: Yes, each project will require a seperate submission form.
Q: Can I include the name of our project on the introductory page of our Project PDF?
A: Yes, just as long as it doesn’t identify the submitting firm in any way.
Q: What if my Project PDF exceeds six pages?
A: Anything beyond 6 pages will be excluded from the jury’s deliberations.
Q: Is there a limit to the number of images that we include?
A: No, as long as the entire file does not exceed 30MB.
Q: Can we include text on our Project PDF?
A: Yes, as much as you’d like.
Q: Does my Project PDF have to be in a 16:9 format?
A: All pages will be viewed electronically. In order to best show and deliver your submission to the jury, it should conform to this 16:9 format.
Q: Can I sneak-in a few extra images on the Concealed Identification PDF?
A: No, please leave that page unadorned. The jury will never see it; this is a 'blind' jury process.
Q: Our submission will be a few days late—can we have an extension?
A: No, the submission deadline is firm.
Q: Will I receive a confirmation E-mail once I submit my firm’s projects?
A: No, unfortunately, AIA CoVA's platform will not automatically generate an email when the submission has been received. Please email [email protected] if you would like to confirm submission.
Q: When will the jury review the submissions? When will the winners be announced?
A: The jury will be held at a date and location at the discretion of the jury chair, and winners will be announced at the awards ceremony.
Q: Can a project previously receiving an award be recognized a second time?
A: A project previously receiving an award may be recognized only in a different category. If you are unsure about past recognition, contact AIA Coastal Virginia prior to submission.
