Architecture News

The Winners of the AIA’s 2026 Architecture Award Range from Collegiate Rowing Hubs to Housing for the Homeless

CCA, Studio Gang — Photo © Jason O' Rear
California College of the Arts Expansion by Studio Gang, winner of a 2026 AIA Architecture Award.

Joined by honorees in nine other categories including housing, interiors, urban design, and design excellence in sustainability are the 10 recipients of the American Institute of Architect’s 2026 Architecture Award, a more all-encompassing program recognizing the best contemporary architecture “regardless of budget, size, style, or type.” All the winners in the AIA’s annual, project-based awards programs were announced the first night of the 2026 AIA Conference on Architecture & Design, which runs through this Saturday in San Diego. The projects honored by the AIA with an Architecture Award are, as usual, an eclectic bunch and, fittingly, a San Diego-area project made the cut: Franklin Antonio Hall, a new addition to the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego designed by Perkins&Will. Demonstrating how truly diverse the category is, the firm took home an Architecture Award last year in the same category for a rapid transit station in Chicago.

In addition to Perkins&Will, other winning firms from the 2025 cycle to be recognized again this year for exceptional work include Studio Gang and The Miller Hull Partnership. Like last year’s winning projects, the new list of awardees is heavily, but not exclusively, West Coast-leaning; only one international project is among the 2026 winners while last year there were four.

The Philip Merrill Environmental Center, winner of the 2026 Twenty-Five Year Award. Photo © Prakash Patel

Many of the awardees have been previously featured in the pages of RECORD, including a Record House in British Columbia and a campus expansion in San Francisco that appeared on the cover of the higher-ed-focused November 2024 issue. Other winners published by RECORD are high-performance, net-zero operational buildings at Williams College and at the Washington State Capitol complex. Another 2026 Architecture Award winner, a collegiate boathouse in Toronto built from cross-laminated timber, is a 2025 Record Award recipient that was recognized with an Honorable Mention in the Sports category. Three of the Architecture Award–winning projects were also recognized in the Education Facility Design Award program.

In addition to the AIA’s typology-based project award categories is the Twenty-Five Year Award, which is conferred on a building that has “stood the test of time for 25-35 years and continues to set standards of excellence for its architectural design and significance.” This year’s honoree is SmithGroup’s Philip Merrill Environmental Center in Annapolis, Maryland. Headquarters of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, it was the first building to receive LEED Platinum certification in March 2000.

The full list of 2025 Architecture Award recipients can be found below. More information for each, including full descriptions and project teams, is available on the AIA website.

Evergreen Charter School
Martin Hopp Architect | Hempstead, New York

Evergreen Charter School. Photo © Frank Oudeman

Franklin Antonio Hall
Perkins&Will | La Jolla, California

Franklin Antonio Hall. Photo © Nick Merrick

Palm Springs Homeless Navigation Center
John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects | Palm Springs, California

Palm Springs Homeless Navigation Center. Photo © Benny Chan/Fotoworks

Lindsay Boathouse
VJAA and RDHA (local architect, architect of record) | Toronto

Lindsay Boathouse. Photo © Doublespace Photography

California College of the Arts Expansion
Studio Gang | San Francisco

California College of the Arts Expansion. Photo © Jason O'Rear

Newhouse Replacement Building
The Miller Hull Partnership | Olympia, Washington

Newhouse Replacement Building. Photo © Lara Swimmer / Esto

Arbour House
Patkau Architects | Victoria, British Columbia

Davis Center, Williams College
Leers Weinzapfel Associates Architects in association with JGE Architecture + Design | Williamstown, Massachusetts

Northlake Commons
Weber Thompson | Seattle

Yale Peabody Museum
Centerbrook Architects and Planners | New Haven, Connecticut

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Matt Hickman is senior news/digital editor at Architectural Record. Previously, he served as Senior Editor at The Architect’s Newspaper and has over a decade of experience as a freelance writer and editor specializing in historic preservation, public space, and the intersection of the natural world and built environment. A native of the Pacific Northwest, Matt holds an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from The New School.