The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment (COTE) is awarding 10 design projects with its highest honor—the AIA COTE Top Ten Awards—for their significant achievements in holistic sustainability and advancing climate action and equity.
The COTE Top Ten Awards celebrate design projects that have expertly integrated design excellence with innovative performance in ten key areas. The projects illustrate the solutions architects provide for the health and welfare of our communities and planet.
To be eligible, project submissions are required to demonstrate alignment with COTE’s rigorous criteria, which include social, economic, and ecological values. The four-member jury evaluates each project submission based on the effectiveness of their holistic design solution and metrics associated with the ten principles of AIA’s Framework for Design Excellence.
On the the 2023 COTE Top Ten Awards jury:
- Katie Ackerly, AIA, Chair, David Baker, Oakland, Calif.
- Julian Owens, Assoc. AIA, Jacobs, Arlington, Va.
- Seonhee Kim, AIA, Design Collective, Baltimore
- Avinash Rajagopal, Metropolis, New York
The 2023 COTE Top Ten Awards winners are (project descriptions and images courtesy AIA):
Casa Adelante 2060 Folsom, San Francisco | Mithun with Y.A. Studio
In San Francisco’s Mission District, where 47% of the city’s households are housing-cost burdened, Casa Adelante provides 127 households with permanently affordable housing at no more than one-third of their income. The project takes advantage of its walkable and transit-rich site to bolster social equity and strive for a low-carbon future. Through its massing, the project increases the south-facing perimeter to create the most housing and provides compelling park views for the majority of the building’s units. The team also reimagined a narrow fire easement between the site and the adjacent park to create a pedestrian paseo that delivers much-needed public outdoor space and a permeable area that boosts stormwater management and the region’s biohabitat. Read more on this project. Photo: Bruce Damonte
Confluence Park, San Antonio | Lake|Flato Architects + Matsys
Along the bank of the San Antonio River, Confluence Park is a living laboratory designed to broaden visitors’ understanding of south Texas ecotypes and the impact of urban development on local watersheds. A destination for learning and recreation, the park is part of the country’s largest environmental restoration project and an accessible gateway to outdoor activity. The design reflects the idea of confluence—the park is situated at the junction of the San Antonio River and San Pedro Creek. Grand gestures such as the park’s shaped lands represent the convergence of ecotypes, while the central pavilion’s concrete petal structures draw inspiration from plants that funnel rainwater to their roots. Read more on this project. Photo: Casey Dunn
DPR Sacramento Zero Net Energy Office, Sacramento | SmithGroup
For its new headquarters in Sacramento, DPR Construction envisioned a sustainable work environment that would foster a greater sense of collaboration among its employees and would have strong ties to both nature and the surrounding community. The net zero energy project includes the renovation of an almost 27,000-square-foot building originally constructed in 1940 and a 5,600-square-foot addition built entirely with cross-laminated timber. As a compelling new addition to “The City of Trees,” the office is filled with biophilic design elements, a highlight of which is a seed wall that upends the concept of a living wall. It contains dormant seeds instead of live plants, including a selection of native grassland species that are vital to more than 90% of California’s wildlife. Read more on this project. Photo: © Chad Davies
Harvard University Science and Engineering Complex, Boston | Behnisch Architekten
Among the healthiest and most energy-efficient laboratory buildings in the world, Harvard’s Science and Engineering Complex (SEC) helps shift the typology toward environmental stewardship. It sets a new standard for Harvard and highlights its mission to shape a more sustainable university community and planet. Designed to reflect the leading research taking place inside, the complex also connects users to one another in the spirit of collaboration. It was built just over the bridge from Harvard’s Cambridge campus in Lower Allston, one of 23 neighborhoods that make up the City of Boston. The goal was to create a new sustainably built home for the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) where a robust culture of collaboration and interdisciplinary work could be fostered. The SEC site is also a connector that links the neighborhood and Boston’s park system. Read more on this project. Photo: Brad Feinknopf
John W. Olver Transit Center, Greenfield, Mass. | Charles Rose Architects
The first net zero energy transit center constructed in the United States, the John W. Olver Transit Center is a vital intermodal hub that has introduced high-performance design to Massachusetts. The project, a depot for bus lines, Amtrak, and an office for the county’s government, is testament to Franklin County’s commitment to sustainability and ethical design. Shaped by a continuous process of community engagement, the center’s design pays homage to the city of Greenfield’s past, relying on dark brick, copper, and locally sourced stone that allow it to slip seamlessly into the city’s stately downtown district. The center forges a new paradigm for historically energy-dependent structures of its kind and, in doing so, has generated positive economic impact while spurring sustainable urban revitalization. Read more on this project. Photo: John Edward Linden Photography
RIDC Mill 19: Buildings A & B, Pittsburgh | MSR Design
A vital new addition to Pittsburgh’s post-industrial landscape, Mill 19 is a bold transformation of a former steel mill that now welcomes the sustainable future of advanced manufacturing. Within the decommissioned mill’s steel superstructure, multi-tenant, tech-focused buildings create tension between old and new, while the country’s largest single-slope bifacial glass photovoltaic array crowns the project. In addition to accelerating the city’s future, Mill 19 is a potent catalyst for the development of Hazelwood Green, Pittsburgh’s largest riverfront redevelopment project, which is being built on its final large-scale brownfield site. Read more on this project. Photo: Corey Gaffer
Science and Environmental Center, Hillsborough, Calif. | Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects
The new net zero carbon Science and Environmental Center is the embodiment of The Nueva School’s mission to spark a passion for lifelong learning and foster social acuity and environmental citizenship in the imaginative young minds of its students. The center supports the independent school’s evolving mission that is rooted in sustainability and environmental stewardship as a central tenet of student education. It houses the school’s environmental citizenship program that features eight science labs and associated support spaces that welcome all grades to explore the important connections between humans and the natural environment. Indoor and outdoor learning spaces are linked to shape an “ecology of learning” wherein students practice sustainability, conduct environmental and social studies, and collaboratively explore potential solutions to a broad range of environmental challenges. Read more on this project. Photo: ©richardbarnes
UC San Diego North Torrey Pines Living & Learning Neighborhood, San Diego | HKS, Inc & Safdie Rabines Architects
The largest project in the University of California, San Diego’s history, the North Torrey Pines Living and Learning Neighborhood reflects the school’s reputation as a longtime leaders in climate change research and education and its quest to be carbon neutral by 2025. The neighborhood is a mix of three residence halls, two academic buildings, eight general assignment classrooms, offices, parking, and public amenities that work in concert to foster iterative improvement and innovation among the next generation of environmental stewards. Conceived through evidence-based design, it is the most substantial project in the higher education sector to receive LEED Platinum certification. Read more on this project. Photo: Tom Harris
Watershed, Seattle | Weber Thompson
As one of the few buildings enrolled in Seattle’s Living Building Pilot Program, this building looks to move beyond incremental changes to achieve a better environment. Watershed is a regenerative seven-story office building making a profound positive effect on Seattle’s waterways, which suffer from a significant stormwater runoff problem that is affecting wildlife. Through strategies such as a series of bioswales that step down the site’s hillside, the building cleans more than 400,000 gallons of highly polluted water before it drains into nearby Lake Union. Inside its lobby, which is open to the public, visitors and tenants are kept informed of Watershed’s high performance through a digital dashboard, regular reports, and tours. Read more on this project. Photo: Built Work Photography
Westwood Hills Nature Center, St. Louis Park, Minn. | HGA Architects and Engineers
A new interpretive and accessible gateway to nature for the city of St. Louis Park, Minnesota, the Westwood Hills Nature Center immerses visitors in the surrounding forest full of birdsong and gentle breezes. Its design draws inspiration from the site with an exterior skin that evokes tree bark and a combination of fiber cement panels and window assemblies that subdivide and branch, much like the surrounding trees. The result of a vital partnership that included the design team, civic leaders, exhibit design specialists, and educators, the center is a true teaching tool and a vibrant amenity shaped by the city’s forward-thinking climate action plan that strives to achieve net zero by 2040. Read more on this project. Photo: Peter J. Sieger
Read more about the 2023 COTE Top Ten Awards winners
See past COTE Top Ten Awards winners:
Related Stories
| May 18, 2011
Carnegie Hall vaults into the 21st century with a $200 million renovation
Historic Carnegie Hall in New York City is in the midst of a major $200 million renovation that will bring the building up to contemporary standards, increase educational and backstage space, and target LEED Silver.
| Apr 13, 2011
Southern Illinois park pavilion earns LEED Platinum
Erin’s Pavilion, a welcome and visitors center at the 80-acre Edwin Watts Southwind Park in Springfield, Ill., earned LEED Platinum. The new 16,000-sf facility, a joint project between local firm Walton and Associates Architects and the sustainability consulting firm Vertegy, based in St. Louis, serves as a community center and special needs education center, and is named for Erin Elzea, who struggled with disabilities during her life.
| Apr 13, 2011
Expanded Museum of the Moving Image provides a treat for the eyes
The expansion and renovation of the Museum of the Moving Image in the Astoria section of Queens, N.Y., involved a complete redesign of its first floor and the construction of a three-story 47,000-sf addition.
| Apr 12, 2011
Long-awaited San Francisco center is music to jazz organization’s ears
After 28 years, SFJAZZ is getting its first permanent home. The San Francisco-based nonprofit, which is dedicated to advancing the art of jazz through concerts and educational programs, contracted local design firm Mark Cavagnero Associates and general contractor Hathaway Dinwiddie to create a modern performance center in the city’s Hayes Valley neighborhood
| Apr 12, 2011
Entrance pavilion adds subtle style to Natural History Museum of Los Angeles
A $13 million gift from the Otis Booth Foundation is funding a new entrance pavilion at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. CO Architects, Los Angeles, is designing the frameless structure with an energy-efficient curtain wall, vertical suspension rods, and horizontal knife plates to make it as transparent as possible.
| Apr 5, 2011
Zaha Hadid’s civic center design divides California city
Architect Zaha Hadid is in high demand these days, designing projects in Hong Kong, Milan, and Seoul, not to mention the London Aquatics Center, the swimming arena for the 2012 Olympics. But one of the firm’s smaller clients, the city of Elk Grove, Calif., recently conjured far different kinds of aquatic life when members of the City Council and the public chose words like “squid,” “octopus,” and “starfish” to describe the latest renderings for a proposed civic center.
| Mar 11, 2011
Chicago office building will serve tenants and historic church
The Alter Group is partnering with White Oak Realty Partners to develop a 490,000-sf high-performance office building in Chicago’s West Loop. The tower will be located on land owned by Old St. Patrick’s Church (a neighborhood landmark that survived the Chicago Fire of 1871) that’s currently being used as a parking lot.
| Feb 11, 2011
Sustainable features on the bill for dual-building performing arts center at Soka University of America
The $73 million Soka University of America’s new performing arts center and academic complex recently opened on the school’s Aliso Viejo, Calif., campus. McCarthy Building Companies and Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects collaborated on the two-building project. One is a three-story, 47,836-sf facility with a grand reception lobby, a 1,200-seat auditorium, and supports spaces. The other is a four-story, 48,974-sf facility with 11 classrooms, 29 faculty offices, a 150-seat black box theater, rehearsal/dance studio, and support spaces. The project, which has a green roof, solar panels, operable windows, and sun-shading devices, is going for LEED Silver.
| Feb 11, 2011
BIM-enabled Texas church complex can broadcast services in high-def
After two years of design and construction, members of the Gateway Church in Southland, Texas, were able to attend services in their new 4,000-seat facility in late 2010. Located on a 180-acre site, the 205,000-sf complex has six auditoriums, including a massive 200,000-sf Worship Center, complete with catwalks, top-end audio and video system, and high-definition broadcast capabilities. BIM played a significant role in the building’s design and construction. Balfour Beatty Construction and Beck Architecture formed the nucleus of the Building Team.
| Feb 11, 2011
Kentucky’s first green adaptive reuse project earns Platinum
(FER) studio, Inglewood, Calif., converted a 115-year-old former dry goods store in Louisville, Ky., into a 10,175-sf mixed-use commercial building earned LEED Platinum and holds the distinction of being the state’s first adaptive reuse project to earn any LEED rating. The facility, located in the East Market District, houses a gallery, event space, offices, conference space, and a restaurant. Sustainable elements that helped the building reach its top LEED rating include xeriscaping, a green roof, rainwater collection and reuse, 12 geothermal wells, 81 solar panels, a 1,100-gallon ice storage system (off-grid energy efficiency is 68%) and the reuse and recycling of construction materials. Local firm Peters Construction served as GC.
