California College of the Arts Expansion by Studio Gang, winner of a 2026 AIA Architecture Award.
Joined by honorees in nine other categories including housing, interiors, urban design, anddesign excellence in sustainability are the 10 recipients of the American Institute of Architect’s 2026 Architecture Award, a more all-encompassing program recognizing the best contemporary architecture “regardless of budget, size, style, or type.” All the winners in the AIA’s annual, project-based awards programs were announced the first night of the 2026 AIA Conference on Architecture & Design, which runs through this Saturday in San Diego. The projects honored by the AIA with an Architecture Award are, as usual, an eclectic bunch and, fittingly, a San Diego-area project made the cut: Franklin Antonio Hall, a new addition to the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego designed by Perkins&Will. Demonstrating how truly diverse the category is, the firm took home an Architecture Award last year in the same category for a rapid transit station in Chicago.
In addition to Perkins&Will, other winning firms from the 2025 cycle to be recognized again this year for exceptional work include Studio Gang and The Miller Hull Partnership. Like last year’s winning projects, the new list of awardees is heavily, but not exclusively, West Coast-leaning; only one international project is among the 2026 winners while last year there were four.
The Philip Merrill Environmental Center, winner of the 2026 Twenty-Five Year Award. Photo © Prakash PatelMany of the awardees have been previously featured in the pages of RECORD, including a Record House in British Columbia and a campus expansion in San Francisco that appeared on the cover of the higher-ed-focused November 2024 issue. Other winners published by RECORD are high-performance, net-zero operational buildings at Williams College and at the Washington State Capitol complex. Another 2026 Architecture Award winner, a collegiate boathouse in Toronto built from cross-laminated timber, is a 2025 Record Award recipient that was recognized with an Honorable Mention in the Sports category. Three of the Architecture Award–winning projects were also recognized in the Education Facility Design Award program.
In addition to the AIA’s typology-based project award categories is the Twenty-Five Year Award, which is conferred on a building that has “stood the test of time for 25-35 years and continues to set standards of excellence for its architectural design and significance.” This year’s honoree is SmithGroup’s Philip Merrill Environmental Center in Annapolis, Maryland. Headquarters of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, it was the first building to receive LEED Platinum certification in March 2000.
The full list of 2026 Architecture Award recipients can be found below. More information for each, including full descriptions and project teams, is available on the AIA website.
Evergreen Charter School
Martin Hopp Architect | Hempstead, New York
Evergreen Charter School. Photo © Frank OudemanFranklin Antonio Hall
Perkins&Will | La Jolla, California
Franklin Antonio Hall. Photo © Nick MerrickPalm Springs Homeless Navigation Center
John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects | Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs Homeless Navigation Center. Photo © Benny Chan/FotoworksLindsay Boathouse
VJAA and RDHA (local architect, architect of record) | Toronto
Lindsay Boathouse. Photo © Doublespace PhotographyCalifornia College of the Arts Expansion
Studio Gang | San Francisco
California College of the Arts Expansion. Photo © Jason O’RearNewhouse Replacement Building
The Miller Hull Partnership | Olympia, Washington
Newhouse Replacement Building. Photo © Lara Swimmer / EstoArbour House
Patkau Architects | Victoria, British Columbia
Arbour House. Photo © James DowDavis Center, Williams College
Leers Weinzapfel Associates Architects in association with JGE Architecture + Design | Williamstown, Massachusetts
Davis Center, Williams College. Photo © Albert Vecerka/EstoNorthlake Commons
Weber Thompson | Seattle
Northlake Commons. Photo © Built Work Photography
Yale Peabody Museum
Centerbrook Architects and Planners | New Haven, Connecticut
Yale Peabody Museum. Photo © Peter Aaron/OTTOKaynak: Architectural Record
