Regional & Urban Design Award
Recognizes the best in urban design, regional and city planning, and community development.
Questions about program policies, application requirements, or how to submit online? Please see the AIA Awards FAQ for more information on the awards submission process.
Recognizing the best in urban design
Buildings never arise in isolation. The best planning accounts for the entire built environment, local culture, and available resources—modeling architecture’s promise and true value to communities.
The Regional & Urban Design program recognizes the best in urban design, regional and city planning, and community development.
In 2019, AIA adopted the Framework for Design Excellence as the set of guidelines and requirements to assess project performance. Climate action requires a holistic approach addressing the interdependence among people, buildings, infrastructure, and the environment. The Framework for Design Excellence provides the elements that support this vision during project evaluation. While projects submitted do not need to address all the measures included in the framework, they do need to highlight how they perform in this context and highlight relevant narratives and metrics when applicable.
Questions? Email AIA Awards
Entrants
- Owners, individual practitioners, private design firms, public agencies, civic organizations, and public interest groups can nominate projects or programs in which they were involved.
- A U.S.-licensed architect must be the author of the project.
- Submitting architects do not have to be the head of the team.
- Projects must credit every substantial contributor.
Projects
- Urban design projects, planning programs, civic improvements, campus plans, environmental programs, redevelopment projects, or other similar projects and programs may be entered.
- Individual buildings are not eligible.
- Size and location of the project or program are not factors.
- Incomplete or ongoing projects or programs may be entered if a significant portion has been completed, implemented, or adopted by a local jurisdiction or authority.
- If complete, projects must have been finished since January 1, 2019.
2026
Submissions open September 12, 2025.
Specific information regarding program policies (i.e., applicant eligibility, nominator options, etc.), required application components (i.e., letters of reference, candidate/project information fields, etc.), and other elements relevant in the 2026 iteration of the program will be available in the online application portal once the award begins accepting materials. All materials must be submitted via the online portal (i.e., cannot be accepted via email, phone, shared online drive, fax, post, etc.) by the prescribed deadline(s): deadline extension or exception requests will not be granted. Applicants and interested parties are encouraged to seek award assistance well in advance of application deadlines to minimize the risk for ineligibility and/or application noncompliance rendering the entry removed from review.
Fee: Single project submissions are $450 each. Submitting the same project to additional award categories costs an extra $100 per category.
Application Components
Extensive information on the materials required to submit an application is housed in the AIA online application portal. Please reference the information in this portal when the program is receiving materials for the 2026 season.
Review Criteria
Each entry is judged for the success with which the project has met its individual requirements. Entries are weighed individually and not in competition with each other.
Design achievement can be evidenced by the exploration of new approaches to ecological planning, urban form, or sensitive reinforcement of successful historical development patterns.
Entries should integrate the engagement of ecological issues by describing (preferably with graphics) how the design addresses the ‘triple bottom line’—i.e. providing holistic solutions that simultaneously address environmental, social, and economic criteria. These include strategies that capture, collect, store, and distribute resident renewable resources and energies while enhancing the quality of life and promoting social equity.
Entries may also exhibit improvements in the quality of life, the environment, and/or the technical advancement of urban systems.
For information on 2025 recipients of this award program visit our awards management portal.
Recipients of this award from 2024 and 2023 can be found at AIA award winners. For previous recipients please contact AIA Archives.
Explore the projects that won a Regional & Urban Design Award 2025, recognized as the best in urban design, regional and city planning, and community development.
