2022 COTE® Top Ten Awards
Setting the standard in design excellence

The building provides a flexible, adaptable, “blank slate” backdrop so users are compelled to bring their own ideas and color.
The 2022 COTE® Top Ten program is in its 26th year and highlights projects that meet the AIA Committee on the Environment's rigorous criteria for social, economic, and ecological value. The COTE® Top Ten Plus designation denotes projects with exemplary performance data and post occupancy lessons.
To view previous recipients since 2017, visit the award program page. For program years prior to 2017, visit aiatopten.org.
663 South Cooper
A project that exemplifies Connectivity at all levels became a driving factor for experience: to connect the buildings to the site, and the interior to the exterior.
Edwin M. Lee Apartments
The project provides affordable, low-carbon, supportive housing for underserved communities within a mixed-income neighborhood, while taking a major step towards ending veteran homelessness in San Francisco.
Iowa City Public Works
This project represents the ambitious first phase to consolidate services on a city-owned 14-acre site.
King Open/Cambridge Street Upper Schools & Community Complex
This project showcases an entire complex that provides a safe, inclusive, and equitable environment for its community.
Knox College Whitcomb Art Center
The facility integrates the studio art and art history departments of Knox College in a new, light-filled, cost-effective, modern building anchored by a landscaped event and work courtyard.
Lick-Wilmerding High School Historic Renovation & Expansion
This Top Ten Plus recipient negotiates the physical constraints of a tight urban campus and design constraints of being a historic structure.
Louisiana Children's Museum
This Top Ten Plus recipient re-envisions its mission to holistically address the health and development of children in a state that often ranks 48th in educational outcomes.
Meyer Memorial Trust Headquarters
This project in Portland's Albina neighborhood is a platform for advancing Meyer’s initiatives across the state, supported by a design that expresses the foundation’s commitment to equity and sustainability.
Roxbury Branch of the Boston Public Library Renovation
This project features the grand scale and muscular cast-in-place concrete structure of the original design is balanced with interventions of warm wood accents, new windows for natural light, and comfortable furnishings.
Tufts University Science and Engineering Complex
This project both leverages and strengthens the existing buildings through adaptive reuse, creating a vibrant integrated complex.
Image credits

Andrew Pogue