The American Institute of Architects Los Angeles (AIA|LA) Announces Winners  of its 2022 AIA|LA Design Awards and Next LA Awards

(Los Angeles, CA – November 4, 2022) 

For a full listing of winning projects and architects, along with jury notes on each project, please scroll down.

Three levels of achievement are awarded in each category: Honor, Merit, and/or Citation; Honor being the top ranking. The typology of each building is noted for reference purposes in the Design Awards and Next LA Categories; for instance, Affordable Housing or Single-Family Residential.

To view images of the 2022 AIALA Design Awards winners, the best built projects of the year and the 2022 Next LA Awards, click the following links:

+ Design Award Winners

+ Next LA Award Winners

On Thursday October 27, 2022 at The BroadStage in Santa Monica, AIA Los Angeles Chapter hosted over 500 attendees for its annual Design Awards Ceremony, presented by sponsor Sharpe Interior Systems. There was a noticeably festive mood among the crowd, as people reconnected with friends and colleagues. Awards were presented in three categories: twenty-eight built projects (Design Awards) and fourteen unbuilt projects (Next LA Awards); Certificates were presented to the twelve recipients of the 2022 Presidential Honors Awards, previously announced on July 13. 

+ Presidential Honorees

The AIA|LA Design Awards honor excellence in built work in Los Angeles or by Los Angeles architects; the Next LA Awards honor excellence in unbuilt work in Los Angeles or by Los Angeles architects.

All Design Awards entrants were required to be signatories to the American Institute of Architects’ 2030 Commitment, an actionable climate strategy that issues a set of standards and goals for reaching net zero emissions in the built environment. To be considered for Honor Awards (the highest level of recognition), firms were required to submit energy data and other metrics in order to improve carbon performance. 

AIA|LA’s ongoing work to achieve greater inclusivity within the profession was apparent in the event’s theme of “Elevate: Community”, and was expressed in a variety of ways throughout the evening. 

As AIA|LA Chapter President, Mitra Memari, AIA, noted in her remarks, “‘Elevate’ is a fitting description for our profession’s primary goal. Particularly here in Los Angeles, ‘elevate’ is a concept we aim to actualize through our work. All the awards tonight reflect these efforts to ‘elevate,’ whether through innovative and sustainable design; developing supportive housing; adaptive reuse to preserve our history; reimagining healthcare facilities to improve the patient experience; or working on the frontlines to advocate for equity and inclusion in all forms.” 

The ceremony opened with a lively performance by rapper Mega Ran, who incorporated architecture themes into his musical welcome. Carlo Caccavale, Hon. AIA|LA and Executive Director of AIA|LA, reflected on the increased diversity of the awards that he has witnessed personally over his twenty years with the Chapter. He presented a dynamic video that showcased the new West Adams District home for AIA|LA– currently in construction and slated to open in Spring 2023– and highlighted the organization’s goals of inclusivity. This new home will also be a “Center for Communities”  through which the non-profit spinoff, Architecture for Communities, Los Angeles (ACLA) will offer programming and resources to the community.

The Next LA Awards were co-presented by 11-year-old aspiring architect, Madison Dorsey, and AIA|LA 2023 President-Elect, Leslie Sydnor, AIA, NOMA, LEED AP, who jointly presented the comments of the three-person jury that included Dana Cuff – City Lab Director – UCLA faculty; Georgina Huljich – Principal – P.A.T.T.E.R.N.S.; and Hilary Noll, AIA – Associate Principal – Mithun. 

Click here for Juror bios.

The Design Awards were presented by the three-person jury via pre-recorded video. This jury included Lori Ferriss, AIA, Director of Sustainability and Climate Action at Goody Clancy from Boston; Nina Kinoti-Metz, Principal at Studio Parallel from New York and Jing Liu, Principal at So-IL from New York.

After Board Members presented each Presidential Honoree with a framed certificate onstage, each Honoree was interviewed via Instagram Live by an enthusiastic group of Student Ambassadors, a group of next-generation design professionals representing SCI-Arc, USC Architecture, Cal Poly Pomona, and UCLA.

The highest honor the AIA|LA bestows, the Gold Medal Award, was presented to Gabrielle Bullock, FAIA, NOMAC, IIDA, LEED AP – Principal and Director of Global Diversity, Perkins & Will. After a surprise video of testimonials from her colleagues, friends, and family, Bullock gave a moving acceptance speech. 

Memari personally selected Bullock for the 2022 Gold Medal Award in recognition of her career-long commitment to upholding principles of social justice within the architecture profession, and as a powerful force for EDI initiatives who is sought out around the world for her leadership and expertise in these issues.

Immediately after the awards ceremony, the party continued outdoors with fabulous food representing a variety of cultures from across LA (Korean, Japanese, Ethiopian, Armenian, Mexican, and Filipino), and music by live DJ Tabitha Denholm.

On Thursday, November 3, the AIA|LA hosted “An Inside Look: Virtual Design Awards” via Zoom. The free program featured the winning designers discussing their projects. 

Video of both the live ceremony and the virtual program will be available soon on AIA|LA’s YouTube channel.

JURY NOTES: Next LA

(listed by typology, then award level – Honor being highest)

Affordable Housing 

Honor Award 

LAC + USC Restorative Care Village – Designed by GGA+

“An important aspect for the success of this project is that it acts as a beacon, both in location and for the community it serves. Its complex formal morphology responds beautifully to its adjacent context, and creates spaces for social interaction which are vital in collective housing. It uses a variety of approaches to ensure sustainability and social responsibility, making it a unique example of what the future of multi-family housing could look like.”

Cityscapes 

Merit Award

PLA – Designed by SAW // Spiegel Aihara Workshop, Inc.  

“This is one of the few projects to look to the future with the design of an infill solution that can proliferate, and eventually, plan for its own decommissioning as charging points become ubiquitous. It’s a playful, neighborhood scale intervention that deploys design to effect environmental transformation.”

Cityscapes 

Merit Award

Low Rise – Designed by Bestor Architecture

“This project leverages design for a kind of residential density that many Los Angeles neighborhoods need. A pinwheel plan is extruded up three stories in the backyard, preserving the existing house and streetscape while creating that elusive ‘missing middle’ housing by adding four small homes on single family sites. The colorful massing pops up behind small bungalows, pointing to the next era of suburban good life.”

Commercial/Mixed-Use

Citation Award 

843 N Spring Street – Designed by LEVER Architecture

“This transit-oriented mixed use mass timber design is a hallmark project demonstrating the viability of low-carbon, sustainable building innovation.The simple volumes present a restrained architectural language at the facade which is driven by the logic of the structural system yet inspired by biophilia — while revealing an elegant integration of landscape design at the building’s core.”

Educational 

Merit Award 

UC Riverside Plant Growth Environments – Designed by HKS Architects, Inc.

“This project initially impressed the jury with its lively architectural expression of the research program contained in its greenhouse, as well as for its ambitious sustainable design attributes. Upon closer evaluation, it was the thoughtful details that stood out as an elegant and well crafted building which will add real value to the UC Riverside Campus community.”

Healthcare/Institutional/Civic 

Citation Award 

Philadelphia Neurological Institute – Designed by Yazdani Studio of CannonDesign

“This is a project rooted in simplicity and modesty as its formal and organizational strength. The dichotomic relationship between the three robust volumes and their light, ethereal skin establishes an alluring choreography of effects in the space in between. Beautifully executed.”

Multi-Unit Residential 

Honor Award

One Full House – Designed by Stephen Phillips Architects (SPARCHS)

“This project is a visual landmark in the neighborhood by a bold development of form as well as a smart footprint strategy. It challenges the conventional multi-family housing typology with a configuration of semi-individual dwellings, which offer both intimacy and social interaction at the same time.  The essence of the project rests on the extraordinary quality of its architecture and the intelligent strategy to occupy its site.”

Multi-Unit Residential 

Merit Award 

Echo Park Co-living – West of West

“The Echo Park co-Living scheme is a smart and delightful play of private and shared spaces stepping up the hillside on an infill site. The five separate houses compose a mosaic that is highly livable, and takes advantage of the topography. As we search out design solutions for higher density living, here’s a beautiful model for the hills of Los Angeles and beyond.”

Single-Family Residential 

Citation Award

Dusty Mile – Des8igned by The LADG   

“This project works so well at many levels. Sustainably, it depicts an interesting roof system with crushed quartz to reflect sun and insulation slowing conduction, which is just perfect for its use in the desert.  Materially, the stick built frame and the masonry clad bring an elegant and sophisticated easiness of construction. Ultimately, this proposal suggests a statement of what single-family housing could be.”

Single-Family Residential 

Merit Award

Infill ADU – Designed by Sharif, Lynch: Architecture

“This project uses two strategies to preserve some of the backyard space: first it is lifted off the ground, and second, it is ever-so-slim. The plan is elegantly resolved, inside and out, demonstrating that living in the backyard can be better than in the front when design is capably leveraged.”

Temporary Shelter 

Citation Award 

King Solomon Village – Designed by City Design Studio LLC

“King Solomon Village proposes a prototypical solution to the  widespread crisis of Angelenos living unsheltered. Repurposed from the kind of low-slung industrial shed that is found in various parts of our region, this temporary homeless shelter in South LA deploys simple architectural moves to bring in natural light, prioritize community space, and integrate landscape elements to create a strong sense of dignity in a welcoming environment.”

Adaptive Reuse

Citation Award

Japanese Institute of Sawtelle – Designed by Good Project Company

“This project exemplifies the vision that is so needed for gracefully renovating LA’s existing building stock. This redesign proposes a radical transformation of a humble but historically significant building by introducing a culturally relevant and modern design that honors both the legacy and future of the Japanese American community’s resilience and presence in West Los Angeles.”

Adaptive Reuse

Citation Award

Xantho Workhouse – Designed by Brooks + Scarpa

“This project has a great Los Angeles feel. It inserts a skinny-but-tall residence over the ten-foot wide driveway space next to an industrial building. Rather than maxing out the site, the architects created a beacon that prioritizes views and adds some greenspace to a gray zone of the city. Finding a small infill site and creating livable space within it is an important precedent for our city today.”

Competitions 

Citation Award 

We and Our Mountains – Designed by MNOffice

“The uniqueness of this project lies in its versatility to adapt to the site. While partially embedded in the topography, the project distorts the legibility of the skyline by means of new relationships between ground, nature and sky. It is particularly committed to engage in dialectics with the rich history of the place and the iconic nature of its landscape, which makes this proposal to be a smart and beautiful response to the competition brief.”

JURY NOTES: Design Awards

(listed by typology, then award level – Honor being highest)

Adaptive Reuse / Renovation / Historic Preservation 

Honor Award 

One Westside – Designed by Gensler 

“A bold reconsideration of the hermetic ‘mall’ into an ‘open structure’ connected to its environment, resulting in a burst of new uses and energy. The new design works with, not against, the mundane existing building to unveil a beauty of form, space, and materiality that was indiscernible in the original structure.”

Adaptive Reuse / Renovation / Historic Preservation 

Merit Award

The Press – Designed by Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects 

“Beyond the adaptive reuse of the building, the abundant addition of landscape features to the site results in a generous and regenerative transformation. Revealing the structure in the way the designer does, adds a playful and exciting quality to the building.”

Adaptive Reuse / Renovation / Historic Preservation 

Citation Award

Herald Examiner – Designed by Gensler 

“The project is respectful of the original architectural intention while introducing the most important element of the environment to its interior. As a result, it enlivened the historical building in a radical way and opened it up to a completely new set of possibilities.”

Adaptive Reuse / Renovation / Historic Preservation 

Citation Award

Pritzker Hall Modernization – Designed by CO Architects 

“This is a meticulous preservation and restoration project that gives the past a new outlook.”

Affordable Housing

Honor Award 

La Placita Cinco – Design Architect: City Fabrick; Executive Architect: TCA Architects

“This project innovates within the typology while maintaining the historical reference which makes us want to preserve all the strip malls in America – but with imagination and responsible land-use. A staunchly suburban, car-centric block is utterly transformed into a people-centric, culturally vibrant, environmentally responsive complex.”

Affordable Housing

Merit Award 

Gramercy Senior Housing – Designed by Kevin Daly Architects

“The building delivers a humane and joyful space for the community and particularly for senior living. We commend the comfortable indoor to outdoors spaces whose program is maximized by use of the screening element.”

Affordable Housing

Citation Award 

649 Lofts & Joshua House Health Center – Designed by Abode Communities

“This project brings dignity through design within a very difficult site and a complicated mixed use typology.”

Commercial/Mixed-Use 

Merit Award 

XOMA – Designed by Belzberg Architects

“The sculptural facades take this project to the next level. They speak to local craft and cultural identity and are elegant both from the exterior at an urban scale and from the interior at a human scale.”

Commercial/Mixed-Use 

Merit Award 

Millennium East Village – Designed by Michael W. Folonis Architects 

“A project that makes a strong case for porosity in the urban context by being joyful, efficient and generous.”

Educational 

Merit Award 

John Adams Middle School Performing Arts Center -Designed by HGA

“Elegant formal articulations that preserve the functionality of the programs while inviting the outside inside and vice versa. Reminiscent of the early Paul Rudolph schools in Sarasota FL., similarly imbued with humanity and hope.”

Educational 

Merit Award

California State University, Los Angeles, Student Services Building -Designed by ZGF

“This project gives us hope for the transformative revitalization of tired mid-century buildings everywhere. The renewal infused vitality into the existing building through sharp interior architecture and took advantage of seismic upgrades to introduce new opportunities for collaboration and community.”

Educational 

Citation Award

Ojai Valley School – Designed by Frederick Fisher and Partners (FF&P)

“The project creates an appealing and pleasant grouping of buildings that reinvigorates the campus and creates a sense of place and community.”

Healthcare/Institutional/Civic 

Citation Award 

Cedars-Sinai Los Feliz – Designed by Abramson Architects

“As a vital urban fixture, this project showcases an excellent treatment of detailing from exterior through to the interior. It creates a dignified workspace while being mindful of the patient experience, thus creating a pleasant throughline.”

Healthcare/Institutional/Civic 

Citation Award

First Americans Museum – Designed by Johnson Fain 

“The difficult task of marrying the vernacular, the indigenous and the technological, is executed in this project with clear intentions and thus producing an effective outcome evident in many of the spaces.”

Healthcare/Institutional/Civic 

Merit Award 

Riverside Main Library – Designed by Johnson Favaro 

“Great to see a project that deploys many scales and the splurge of colors to give identity and civic-ness to a piece of public architecture. While the exterior reads as a singular architectural form, the interior spaces exhibit nuance and range to accommodate the broad audience of a library.”

Healthcare/Institutional/Civic 

Honor Award 

BAR Center – Designed by Belzberg Architects 

“A modest project that maximizes its impact in its local community. We appreciated the specificity of architectural interventions throughout. It is a great adaptation of an obsolete structure.”

Architectural Installations

Honor Award 

Leimert Park Community Fridge – Designed by Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects 

“This is smart, community-driven design in its most distilled form. The project exhibited an inclusive process that yielded highly adaptable, practical, and beautiful outcomes. The project is inspirational and aspirational for the future.”

Architectural Installations

Citation Award

Gallery 90220 – Designed by Gensler 

“The benefit of this space for the community and by the community is clear. We loved the use of local sweat equity and craftsmanship.” 

Architectural Installations

Merit Award 

Over View – Designed by FreelandBuck 

“This project brings us sophisticated fabrication, contemporary interpretation of decoration, and intelligent exploration between the 2D and 3D.”

Interior Architecture 

Merit Award 

Psyop – Designed by Vertebrae 

“This was such a fresh, warm and beautiful space that also successfully brings bright light into what could have been a very dark blocky space.” 

Interior Architecture 

Merit Award 

Dropbox Headquarters -Designed by Johnston Marklee 

“The jury really appreciated the attention to details, consistency in the architectural expressions, and clarity of the plan. A thoughtful marriage of the rational and the decorative.” 

Single-Family Residential

Honor Award 

HT Residence – Designed by Laney LA  

“Kudos to a project with plenty of modesty and constraints while sparing no thoughtfulness and whimsy. There is a great sense of character and personality with a warmth that feels intimate and particular to the end user family. This home embodies a comprehensive ethos of environmental sustainability from economy of square footage to harnessing the thermal mass of the water in the pool.”

Single-Family Residential

Merit Award

A+M House – Designed by Eric Owen Moss Architects 

“Masterful geometrical manipulation from the carports to the brownstone, resulting in anything but banal, with a faint shadow of Venturi cast on Santa Monica.”

Single-Family Residential

Citation Award

Desert Palisades – Designed by Woods + Dangaran

“This project is an exciting iteration that fits within its natural environment in an appealing manner. The jury encourages such a project to seek even more rigorous sustainability metrics that can push the overall project success and inspire more design within the genre of arid climate living.”

Multi-Family Residential 

Honor Award

11 NOHO – Designed by Brooks + Scarpa

“When the intentional aggregation of domestic spaces amounts to a civic icon, a public amenity, and an urban sculpture, it can be said to have achieved architectural innovation. This project is an example of that and truly achieves design excellence. It is a marriage of breathtaking architecture with ambitious sustainability metrics that prioritize the health and happiness of residents.”

Multi-Family Residential 

Merit Award 

Canyon Drive – Again, designed by Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects [LOHA]

“Simple yet effective manipulation of geometry that results in porosity on the outside and playfulness on the inside. This project shows us what a few carefully articulated curved lines can do.”

Multi-Family Residential 

Merit Award 

Allen Apartments – Designed by asap/ adam sokol architecture practice

“Beautiful marriage of the existing structure with a substantial new development. This elegant project clearly took energy performance, passive strategies and sustainability seriously. The attention to detail evident throughout is also appreciated.”

Multi-Family Residential 

Citation Award

Granville1500 – Designed by Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects [LOHA]

“The project had a difficult task of making a 150 unit development into a porous urban gesture. It does this in spades while adding a playful formal articulation that is quite appealing.”

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