Submission Period:
January 16, 2025 – March 5, 2025

Contact

Tangela Monroe
Assistant Director
Email >

2024 HONOR AWARD WINNER: RAMBLIN’ RECK GARAGE, SQUARE FEET STUDIO | PHOTO CREDIT: GAREY GOMEZ

Submissions for this award are now closed

For more information on opening and deadline dates, please see the AIA Georgia Awards FAQ.

The Architecture program celebrates exceptional contemporary architecture, showcasing projects of all budgets, sizes, styles, and types. These works demonstrate the remarkable contributions architects make and the ways buildings and spaces enhance our lives.

In 2019, AIA introduced the Framework for Design Excellence as a guide to assess project performance and AIA Georgia adopted the framework for its awards in 2020. This framework promotes a holistic approach to climate action, emphasizing the interconnectedness of people, buildings, infrastructure, and the environment. While submissions don’t need to address every measure in the framework, they should demonstrate performance within this context, including relevant narratives and metrics when applicable.

For questions, email AIA Georgia Awards.

Entrants

Any registered Georgia Architect who lives or does work in Georgia.

Projects must credit every substantial contributor.

Students must be current or recent 2024 graduates from an accredited Georgia architecture degree program.


Projects

The competition is open to architectural projects of all classifications and sizes.

Projects may be located anywhere in the world.

Any works submitted for consideration must have been completed and occupied between Jan 1, 2019, and Dec 31, 2024.

Built projects that have previously been awarded in the unbuilt category are encouraged to enter.

Schedule 

Deadline to submit: February 28, 2025, by 6 PM
Award notifications: Week of March 17
Awards program: April 26, 2025

Registration cuts off at 5 PM on the day of the submission deadline to allow time to submit.

We encourage submissions that exhibit a strong definition of design excellence. The jury evaluates entries based on how successfully projects have met their individual requirements. All projects must demonstrate design achievement, including a sense of place and purpose, ecology and environmental sustainability, and history.

More specifically, the jury also evaluates entries relative to the AIA Framework for Design Excellence. Submitted projects do not have to adhere to all measures but need to address several of them.

Entry Fee: Single project submissions are $200 for AIA Members, $250 for not-yet members. Submitting the same project to additional award categories costs an extra entry fee.
Early Bird Special: $175 for AIA Members, $225 for not-yet members (Register by January 26, 2025, before 6 PM)
Student Projects: $25 (no early bird special)

The photography consent form can be downloaded here: AIA Georgia Photography Consent
A sample application can be viewed here: Georgia Award Sample Application

Please note: Some components of the sample application are subject to change from the final version and are merely here to allow a submitter to view the major criteria prior to logging on to the awards platform. Please rely on the online awards platform for the final criteria.

All submissions will be reviewed by a common jury of distinguished guests connected to all facets of the design profession. As projects are subject to diverse contexts, programs, budgets, and restraints, each entry is judged for the success with which the project has met its individual requirements. The jury shall be composed 3-4 individuals, one of which will serve as chair and organizer of the group. All jurors must be geographically diverse and represent a diversity of architectural practice.

2025 jurors TBA.

2024

McLendon Avenue House | Robert M. Cain, FAIA
Brevard House | Point Office Architecture & Design
Cantilever House | Sheila Lee Davies Architecture
Whistler | Niles Bolton Associates
Redivivus | Robert M. Cain, FAIA
Tire South Atlanta | Office of Design
Building 500 at The Works | Square Feet Studio
The Historic Lowndes County Courthouse | Gladwin Vaughn Architecture
The Krog District | ASD|SKY
Nami | ASD|SKY
Norfolk Southern Headquarters | HOK
Project Soul: Gensler Atlanta Office | Gensler
USDA Forage Animal Production Research Unit (FAPRU) | Perkins&Will
Wings Over Ruins | HKS, Inc.
FurKids: Cat Shelter | BLUR Workshop
Ramblin’ Reck Garage | Square Feet Studio
Florida Polytechnic University Applied Research Center | HOK
Gathering Place – Lodge | Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects
Nanjing Hexi Mixed-Use Development | TVS
SCAD Atlanta Campus Expansion | Mackey Mitchell Architects/Lamar Johnson Collaborative
A Framed Story | Sean Spencer and Michael Rixom
Chattahoochee River Memorial Museum and Park | Joanna Frauca
Circo Loco | Manthan Hingoo
Degenerate Christina Hand
Passage | Emma Flathouse
Southern Bastion | Denzyl Zhang
The Nexus | Sai Deherkar

2023

La Croix House | Martin Rickles Studio
O4W Bungalow | Studio SOGO
23 Perry | Lightroom, LLC
Crux Retail | studio arcus
Atlanta Montessori International School – Druid Hills | Studio SOGO
Georgia Historical Society Hodgson Hall | Lynch Associates Architects, PC
Le Bon Nosh | Brink Design
Campbellton BRT | Xmetrical
Confidential Birmingham Headquarters | Perkins&Will
First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta Addition | Houser Walker Architecture
Jackson Park | Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects
Morrow High School, Clayton County Public Schools | Perkins&Will
Fibonacci Nook | Ali Nadirah, Bevelle Laia, Del Valle Maria, Drexel Pau, Gonzalez Contreras Camilo, King Corderio, Kucharski Cody, Mceachern, Luke, Valdez Tello Ana
Foster Atlanta | Sophia Rodriguez
Isolation | Alyssa Halloran
Metaphysical Museum of Reality | Daniel Jaraba
RING Habitat | Sanket Gunjal
Symbiotic and Intimate Community Living Paradigm | Xiangyun Mou

Entry Categories

You can review the 2025 submission guidelines and tips on the Call for Entries.

  • Built Project (over and under 5,000 SF):
     Built projects are divided into two entry categories and provides a catch-all opportunity for projects that demonstrate design achievement in architecture regardless of budget, style, or type with gross square footage over or under 5,000 square feet.
  • Unbuilt Project:
    The Unbuilt Project category celebrates the best in yet-to-be-built and speculative/theoretical design. Projects in this category are judged on their innovation, ability to overcome stated design challenges, and overall design excellence.
  • Renovation/Restoration/Adaptive-Reuse (over and under $1 million):
    The Renovation/Restoration/Adaptive-Reuse category honors masterful renovation, preservation, rehabilitation, reconstruction, adaptive-reuse and restoration projects with two gross cost levels of entry, over and under $1 million.
  • Interior Architecture:
    The Interior Architecture category celebrates spectacular interior spaces that demonstrate design achievement, including a sense of place and purpose, ecology and environmental sustainability, and history.
  • Residential/Housing (over and under $1 million):
    Residential projects are honored with a category that celebrates the best in single-family, multi-family, and mixed-use residential design– showing the world how beauty, safety, sustainability, and comfort can come together. This category has two levels of entry for projects over and under $1 Million in gross cost.
  • Student Project:
    Student Project awardees exhibit design excellence in student work including research, installations, conceptual projects, or competitions. The applicant must be a current student or recent 2024 graduate, from an accredited Georgia architecture degree program.