Each year, AIA Pennsylvania celebrates the great work that Pennsylvania’s architects are doing to affect positive social, environmental, and economic outcomes for their clients and communities.

The 2022 AIA Pennsylvania Architectural Excellence Design & COTE Awards program is accepting submissions now through 11:59 pm Thursday, September 8, 2022.
The AIA Pennsylvania Architectural Excellence Design Awards celebrate the exemplary design achievements of members and the impact of architecture regardless of budget, size, style, or type. Projects selected for COTE honors will have exhibited excellence in the AIA Framework for Design Excellence measures that indicate how buildings perform for the health and wellness of the occupants, communities, and the environment they serve.

Download and review the 2022 Architectural Excellence Design & COTE Awards Call for Submissions before starting your submission(s) for complete details including the submission process and required and optional jury review materials for submission to the Design and COTE Awards programs.




Hear from Kim Yao, FAIA, 2021 AIA Pennsylvania Architectural Excellence Design Awards Jury Chair, on why the practice of submitting to architecture awards programs matters to your work/the profession, why resubmitting is a worthwhile effort, and what your fellow architect jurors are looking for in a submission.

All entries will be featured in the 2022 Architectural Excellence Design & COTE Award Submissions Gallery. Finalists will be tagged in the submissions gallery and featured in the Year in Review & Architectural Excellence Showcase publication.


Recipients will be recognized in the recipients’ gallery housed on aiapa.org, in a nationally distributed press release recapping the awards broadcast highlights, local market press releases, and in the Year in Review & Architectural Excellence Showcase publication.


The chapter will be celebrating this year’s Design Awards, COTE Awards, Special Awards, Student Awards, and EPiC Firms with the 2022 Architectural Excellence Awards broadcast debut and the return of viewing parties popping up around the state set for Thursday, November 17th.


Recap the honors from last year with a replay of the 2021 broadcast as well as the 2021 recipient and finalist features in the Year in Review & Architectural Excellence Showcase publication.

The 2022 Design Awards Jury
In 2022, the Design Awards jury will be chaired by Elizabeth (Beth) Whittaker, AIA, Founder and Principal of Boston-based MERGE Architects.

There have been no changes to the award programs’ eligibility or requirements in 2022. However, we want to take this opportunity to highlight opportunities that could influence how and if you decide to enter your work in the award programs.


Project Completion Date Eligibility | Lacking recently completed projects in your portfolio that rise to your standard for entry in the awards program? Use this opportunity to take stock of your body of work going back five (5) years or repurpose and refine past submissions. Projects that meet the criteria outlined in the call for submissions documentation and have been completed (occupied) or commissioned (unbuilt category) after January 1, 2017, are eligible for entry.


Small Project Category | Project submissions in the small projects category are limited to small firms of nine (9) or fewer full-time or full-time equivalent employees at the time of the project’s completion.

Additionally, projects must meet the following criteria:
Small project construction up to $1.5 million in construction cost and/or
Small project construction, object, work of environmental art or architectural design under 5,000 square feet

Project Binder Page Count | Flexible minimum and maximum page count for the “Digital Project Binder” upload give applicants greater ease and the opportunity to repurpose local chapter award submissions. The Digital Project Binder (PDF) must include a minimum of nine (9) pages and a maximum of twenty (20) pages (11 x 8.5 inches letter OR 13.33​​ x 7.5 inch​es​ widescreen) at 25 MB max. Entries in the “Small Project” category are the exception and may include a minimum of (5) pages.

COTE Awards Opt-In & the Framework for Design Excellence Assessment | The COTE Awards remains an opt-in program with a separate jury review and assessment. To be eligible for the Architectural Excellence COTE Awards, a project(s) must meet the eligibility criteria for the 2022 Architectural Excellence Design Awards and must be submitted to the 2022 Architectural Excellence Design Awards program. If you intend to submit your projects to the Architectural Excellence COTE Awards, you must opt to do so simultaneously with submission to the Architectural Excellence Design Awards in the submission platform.


The Framework for Design Excellence Assessment, the criteria for the awards program, is based on the AIA’s Framework for Design Excellence. The assessment criteria are identical to AIA Philadelphia Design Awards “Framework to Design Excellence/Sustainability Form” required for entry in the 2022 AIA Philadelphia Design Awards. If you are a Philadelphia firm participating in the AIA Philadelphia Design Awards in 2022 or have participated in Philadelphia’s Design Awards in previous years and have collected the assessment criteria from the “Framework to Design Excellence/Sustainability Form”, we strongly encourage you to transcribe the identical assessment criteria into the state chapter assessment to enter your project in the COTE Awards program.


If you opt to enter your project into the COTE Awards program by completing the assessment, you will also be required to add the completed framework assessment to the “Digital Project Binder” upload. This will give the Design Awards jury the opportunity to review your project in the context of the framework measures. The assessment pages do not count toward the maximum page count.
Please reference the call for submissions documentation for full details on project eligibility and the process for opting-in to the COTE Awards.

Stream the review of the 2022 COTE Awards Framework for Design Excellence Assessment for a step-by-step walkthrough of the assessment on the AIA Philadelphia COTE channel.