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Seattle projects and Seattle-based architects once again made their mark in the AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE)’s annual Top Ten Awards. Winning Emerald City projects in the 2026 AIA Cote Top Ten include a hybrid mass-timber healthcare education building and a sprawling, stacked LEED Platinum convention center that ranks as the largest of its kind in the U.S. Now in its 29th year, the COTE Top Ten Awards, which showcases buildings that set a high bar for “social, economic, and ecological value” were announced along with a slew of other project-based honors—the Healthcare Design Award, Education Facility Award, Small Project Award, and the multi-typology Architecture Award among them—during an awards gala held during this year’s AIA Conference on Architecture & Design in San Diego.

In addition to Seattle firms that have returned to the COTE Top Ten for a second consecutive year (LMN Architects, Mithun) or after a brief absence (double-winner The Miller Hull Partnership) is another familiar name to this awards program: perennial Top Ten-er Lake Flato Architects. The Texas firm did not win in 2025 but was recognized this year for its Trinity University Business & Humanities District in San Antonio. Another 2025 winner, Perkins Eastman DC, was also honored this year, similar to the year before, for a high-performance school project in Washington, D.C. Other winners include a landscape-integrated Vermont music hall, a warehouse-turned-community art space in Portland, Oregon, and an all-electric fire station in Iowa. 

 Below is a list of the 2026 COTE Top Ten winners. You can learn more about each of the projects here.

Benjamin Banneker Academic High School
Prime architect: Perkins Eastman DC; associate architects: Perkins Eastman Architects (interiors, FF&E); Moody Nolan (interiors); Don Curry Architects | Washington, D.C.

Benjamin Banneker Academic High School. Photo © Joseph Romeo, courtesy Perkins Eastman

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens – Phase 1
Overland Partners, Sweet Sparkman | Sarasota, Florida

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens – Phase 1. Photo © Yoshihiro Makino

Marlboro Music Reich Hall
HGA | Marlboro, Vermont

Marlboro Music Reich Hall. Photo © Albert Vecerka/Esto

Seattle Convention Center Summit Building
LMN Architects in association with Graham Baba Architects, Scharrer AD, Rolluda Architects, and Tiscareno Associates | Seattle 

Seattle Convention Center Summit Building. Photo © Adam Hunter/LMN Architects

Health Sciences Education Building, University of Washington
The Miller Hull Partnership (architect and interior design) with SLAM Collaborative (medical education architect) | Seattle

Health Sciences Education Building, University of Washington. Photo © Moris Moreno

Trinity University Business & Humanities District
Lake Flato Architects | San Antonio

Trinity University Business & Humanities District. Photo © Robert Benson

Volta Studio
Bora Architecture and Interiors | Portland, Oregon

Volta Studio. Photo © Josh Partee

Marion Fire Station No. 1
OPN Architects | Marion, Iowa

Marion Fire Station No. 1. Photo © Cameron Campbell

Kapuso at the Upper Yard
Mithun | San Francisco

Kapuso at the Upper Yard. Photo © Tom Fitzgerald/Mithun

U.S. Embassy Niamey, Niger
The Miller Hull Partnership (design architect); Page Southerland Page (architect of record) | Seattle

U.S. Embassy Niamey, Niger. Photo © Kevin Scott

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