COTE® Top Ten Award 2026
Explore the COTE® Top Ten Award 2026 recipients—recognized for setting the standard in sustainable design excellence.
Joseph Romeo / Courtesy Perkins Eastman
Setting the standard in design excellence
Now in its 29th year, the COTE® Top Ten Award highlights projects that meet the AIA Framework for Design Excellence's rigorous sustainability criteria for social, economic, and ecological value.
Benjamin Banneker Academic High School
Serving Washington, D.C., this LEED Platinum, net-zero energy high school centers learning in a four-story Commons and achieves zero energy through a district-scale strategy, sharing renewable energy with a nearby school to extend impact beyond its site.
Health Sciences Education Building, University of Washington
Advancing a “Culture of Care” on the University of Washington campus in Seattle, this interdisciplinary health sciences building uses mass timber, biophilic design, and inclusive learning spaces to foster collaboration, wellness, and a new model for health care education.
Kapuso at the Upper Yard
At one of San Francisco’s busiest transit hubs, this all-electric affordable housing community delivers 131 homes alongside a vibrant public plaza, integrating transit, landscape, and social space to advance equity, connection, and low-carbon urban living.
Marie Selby Botanical Gardens – Phase 1
Set along Sarasota Bay in Florida, the world’s first net-positive energy botanical garden integrates architecture, landscape, and ecology into a regenerative campus that restores coastal systems, withstands hurricanes, and offsets nearly 1.9 million pounds of CO₂ annually.
Marion Fire Station No. 1
Serving a growing community in Marion, Iowa, this all-electric fire station uses biophilic design, geothermal systems, and carefully sequenced spaces to reduce toxic exposure, support firefighter well-being, and strengthen resilience through integrated civic and environmental performance.
Marlboro Music Reich Hall
Nestled in the Green Mountains of Marlboro, Vermont, this net-zero, all-electric music hall combines geothermal systems, off-site solar, and timber construction to create an acoustically precise environment that preserves wetlands and manages all stormwater on site.
Seattle Convention Center Summit Building
This LEED Platinum, vertically stacked convention center reimagines a traditionally insular building type as a dense, urban connector—integrating public space, daylight-filled interiors, and community-focused design to stitch together Seattle’s downtown while advancing a new model for sustainable, high-rise civic.
Trinity University Business & Humanities District
On Trinity University’s campus in San Antonio, Texas, this district redefines performance at a systems scale, reducing energy, water, and carbon across multiple buildings through an integrated design process aligning academic use, operations, and environmental performance.
U.S. Embassy Niamey, Niger
Located along the Niger River in Niamey, this LEED Platinum embassy campus integrates passive design, on-site water treatment, and a solar microgrid to reduce reliance on local infrastructure while advancing resilience, cultural connection, and low-resource, climate-responsive design.
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COTE® Top Ten Award
COTE® Top Ten Award 2025
Explore the COTE® Top Ten Award 2025 recipient—recognized for setting the standard in sustainable design excellence.
