Excellence in Design Awards

THE PROGRAM

Through its Annual Design Awards Program, AIA Chesapeake Bay Chapter recognizes excellence in architecture throughout the Chesapeake Bay Region.  The purpose of the awards program is to encourage and recognize distinguished architectural achievement and to honor the architects, clients, and consultants who work together to improve the built environment, and for their role in shaping the quality of life through design excellence.

Framework for Design Excellence

The AIA Maryland Chapters utilize AIA’s Framework for Design Excellence as part of the entry and judging process for their Design Award Programs. In the submission portal, we provide prompts for all ten measures from the AIA Framework for Design Excellence:  this includes Designing for Integration, Designing for Equitable Communities, Designing for Ecosystems, Designing for Water, Designing for Economy, Designing for Energy, Designing for Well-Being, Designing for Resources, Design for Change and Design for Discovery. 

When you submit a project, you will be given open-ended prompts to describe in a few sentences how your design achieves outcomes for each of the above measures. Projects are not required to address every measure; you should only address those measures that are relevant to your project. We do not use the Framework for Design as our sole criterion for evaluating projects. The goal is to promote the sustainable design work of our members and to support AIA’s Resolution for Urgent and Sustained Climate Action