2024 Honor Awards

Designing a vibrant future.

In this time of transition and possibility, it is more important than ever to ask powerful questions: What kind of world do we want to leave future generations? What is our role in bringing about a thriving future? How can our design solutions address ecological and social needs and what new collaborators bring additional wisdom to the design table?

You play a vital role in showcasing the visionary design and impactful projects in our region and beyond, and we encourage you to share your work by submitting to AIA Seattle’s 2024 Honor Awards for Washington Architecture. Here are some of this year’s highlights:

We encourage submitters to celebrate the people and places that shape their projects by showcasing the role of all collaborators that contribute to the vision and impact of these projects.

You’ll see that we’ve updated the information requested for the Energy, Carbon, and Water measures in the 2024 Common App for Design Excellence as AIA Seattle continues to advocate for and demonstrate solutions to climate change. All BUILT submitters are required to complete the Common App to the best of their ability and convey their approach to sustainable design.

With your feedback, we’ve revamped our approach to Project Tours as part of the Jury Process. Read the Project Tour Guidelines to learn more!

We invite you to join colleagues to celebrate outstanding design and strengthen our amazing community. This year’s Live Event is on Monday, November 4 at Town Hall Seattle, and we can’t wait to start the party at 5:30pm!

Every project is part of a larger interconnected system and provides an opportunity to enhance and improve the whole. As architects, we occupy a unique and powerful position in this effort, shaping the future of our region and participating in the evolution of our communities through the process of design.

On behalf of the Honor Awards Committee and AIA Seattle, we invite you to consider how your project moves us in the direction of designing a vibrant future. Download the 2024 Call for Submissions + Guidelines.

– Rachael Meyer ASLA & Jennifer Barnes AIA | Co-chairs, Honor Awards Committee

HOW TO SUBMIT

After logging into your existing Submittable account or creating a new one, you can start, save, and return to draft submissions at any point until the final deadline (5:00pm September 25).

Submit to one of three categories: BUILT, CONCEPTUAL, or RESEARCH & INNOVATION. Download the 2024 Call for Submissions + Guidelines for details about requirements, submission categories, and submitter eligibility. Refer to the FAQs page as needed!

Reduced rate options are available! Please submit the Scholarship / Reduced Rate Request Form via email by Wednesday, September 11.

WHAT TO SUBMIT (THE OVERVIEW)

For complete details about the submission categories, file requirements, and submitter eligibility, download the 2024 Call for Submissions + Guidelines.

BUILT category submissions: Download and complete the updated 2024 Common App for Design Excellence!

Get inspired by past winners here. Awards are the final determination of the jury.

THE COMMON APP FOR DESIGN EXCELLENCE

Now in its fifth year, AIA Seattle is implementing an updated 2024 Common App for Design Excellence with changes to the Energy, Water, and Carbon measures. All applicable BUILT submitters are required to complete the Common App to the best of their ability. To qualify for the Energy in Design Award, the submitted project must meet the 2030 Challenge criteria or better. The Common App raises awareness of the Framework for Design Excellence and is a revolutionary opportunity to move toward design that supports climate action. Use the Performance Statement to describe how sustainable design strategies elevate design excellence and the impact of your project!

Want direct support with the Common App for Design Excellence? Join the UW Integrated Design Lab and members of the Honor Awards Committee online for Submitter Support Office Hourson Thursday, September 5, 12:00-1:00pm PT. Learn more and register here.

Additionally, the Integrated Design Lab is available by email until September 23 at 5:00pm PT. E-mail Teresa Moroseos (teresafm@uw.edu) with the subject line “AIA Seattle Common App.”

WHY SUBMIT?

Publicize your work—All submitted projects are featured in AIA Seattle’s public-facing Online Gallery, the perfect place for local and national design-hungry writers.

Reach a local and global audience—We will once again be hosting an in-person and livestreamed awards event on November 6, providing an exciting opportunity for our design community to broadly showcase work in and from Washington state.

Build buzz about your firm—Use your firm’s recognition to leverage coverage of you and your projects in magazines and journals that are seen by peers and potential clients throughout the Northwest.

Put your creativity to work twice—Have a great project that never made it out of the design phase? Don’t let it go to waste! Submit to the CONCEPTUAL category. Are you doing research or fabrication to support a project or inform practice? Submit to the RESEARCH & INNOVATION category.

Refine your pitch—Submitting your project is a great way to hone how you communicate about your work. Those who have submitted in the past say that the process helped them speak about their work to clients and to fellow team members in a more coherent and persuasive way.

Build respect from peers and clients—Recognition from a panel of carefully chosen jurors adds to your firm’s credibility. The Awards themselves exhibit the breadth and depth of architectural talent in and from Washington.

Help our profession support climate action—As a part of AIA moving towards design that supports climate action and with the goal to (eventually) centralize project performance data from across the nation, we expect you’ll continue to see the Common App for Design Excellence in other awards programs.

Celebrate the people and places that shape projects—Submitting provides a critical opportunity to celebrate the role of all collaborators that contribute to the vision and impact of these projects.

Advance practice—Widely share your project story and contribute to a more inclusive dialogue about design excellence. What concepts and considerations drove the design? How did the design team creatively address the project parameters and client goals? What benefit or impact does the project create for its occupants and for the larger context?

TELL YOUR PROJECT STORY

Every year, jurors praise submissions that reveal the story behind the marketing images. What concepts and considerations drove the design? How did the design team creatively address the project parameters and client goals? What benefit or impact does the project create for its occupants and for the larger context? Ultimately, what makes this an award-winning project? We encourage submitters to use the project narrative, captions, and the inclusion of process work as opportunities to graphically tell a design story. Submit to start a dialogue with the jury.

JURY CONSIDERATIONS

In addition to the jury’s own criteria, the AIA Seattle community has identified four considerations for the submission review process:

Inspiration | How does the project manifest its stated intent–in form and function–revealing innovation in both thought and practice?
Problem-solving | How does the project creatively address challenges inherent in its site, budget, program, materials, collaboration, and context? What are the organizing principles informing design?
Environmental Sensitivity | How does the project exhibit serious intent to minimize negative environmental impact and enhance its relationship to the environment?
Social Impact | How does the project engage the community in which it is situated? How does it help promote a vibrant, equitable, and just community?

We invite submitters to carefully consider how the jury will interpret one or more of these jury considerations in connection to the project’s design story.

YOUNG VOICES SELECTION

The Young Voices Selection (YVS) program aims to elevate and engage the voices of young designers through direct participation and representation in AIA Seattle’s Honor Awards for Washington Architecture. Three young designers (30 years of age or younger), endorsed by firm/industry leaders and selected by the Honor Awards Committee, will be given the opportunity to review, deliberate, and then select ONE Built project submission recognized as the “Young Voices Selection” at the Live Event.

WHO IS A ‘YOUNG’ VOICE?
The YVS program aims to reinforce the value of young perspectives considering both career experience and generational/lived experience. After leaving the creative hub and intellectual rigor of university, young people often find themselves without clear and direct avenues to participate in serious design discourse, though they are appreciated for their technical expertise. The Young Voices Selection program elevates young designers for their unique perspectives, and the YVS program establishes a sanctioned platform for these perspectives to be widely shared.

ELIGIBILITY + NOMINATION
Nominees for the Young Voices Selection Panel must be 30 years of age or younger and may not currently be enrolled in any undergraduate or graduate education programs.