Architecture Award 2026

June 10, 2026

Explore the AIA Architecture Award 2026 recipients—recognized as the best contemporary architecture regardless of budget, size, style, or type.

Architecture Award

James Dow

Recognizing the best in contemporary architecture

The AIA Architecture Award celebrates the best contemporary architecture regardless of budget, size, style, or type. These stunning projects show the world the range of outstanding work architects create and highlight the many ways buildings and spaces can improve our lives.

Arbour House

Overlooking Cadboro Bay in Victoria, British Columbia, this coastal residence weaves landscape, light, and daily life through a porous wooden arbour and operable skylights, creating a fluid, single-level home that supports aging in place and indoor-outdoor living.

California College of the Arts Campus Expansion

In San Francisco, California, this campus expansion creates a “creative ecosystem” that unites 34 disciplines through a porous indoor–outdoor framework of maker spaces, mass timber pavilions, and landscaped yards to foster interdisciplinary collaboration.

Davis Center, Williams College

At Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, the reimagined Davis Center unites historic campus houses with a contemporary addition, creating an inclusive hub for social justice, cultural engagement, and student life through adaptive reuse, mass timber construction, and a central public plaza.

Evergreen Charter School

In Hempstead, New York, this mass timber K–12 school delivers a LEED Platinum, net-zero learning environment on a constrained budget, serving 650 students while extending its impact to the broader community through flexible, shared spaces.

Franklin Antonio Hall

At the University of California, San Diego, this interdisciplinary research building brings together flexible “collaboratories,” a central atrium, and canyon-connected landscapes to foster innovation, collaboration, and discovery within a high-performance academic environment.

Lindsay Boathouse

Along Toronto’s waterfront, this mass timber boathouse pairs passive design with a sculptural form, creating a light-filled rowing facility that supports athletes while reconnecting the public to a sensitive lakefront ecosystem.

Newhouse Replacement Building

In Seattle, Washington, this reimagined civic facility replaces an aging county jail with a modern, resilient environment that supports behavioral health, rehabilitation, and essential services through humane, community-centered design.

Northlake Commons

On Seattle’s Lake Union, Northlake Commons transforms a former industrial brownfield into a biophilic, mixed-use workplace, layering mass timber office space, light industrial uses, and public amenities to reconnect the city to its waterfront and ecological systems.

Palm Springs Homeless Navigation Center

In Palm Springs, California, this adaptive reuse and modular housing campus transforms a former industrial site into a dignified, service-rich community, where a central promenade, vibrant graphics, and desert landscape foster connection, stability, and belonging.

Yale Peabody Museum

In New Haven, Connecticut, this renovation and expansion reimagines a historic natural history museum through a luminous central gallery, visible research spaces, and new learning environments that integrate preservation, sustainability, and public engagement.

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