School of Architecture Awards

Design Excellence Showcase

At the end of each academic year, faculty nominate student work across all programs and years for Design Excellence awards, which are sponsored by AIA Southern Arizona and judged by leading architects from around the world. View recent Design Excellence project nominations and winners and meet the judges:



All Awards

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Laura Hollengreen

Associate Professor Laura Hollengreen Wins Taubeneck Superior Teaching Award for ‘Localizing the Sacred’ Humanities Seminar

Laura Hollengreen, associate dean for academic affairs at CAPLA, has been awarded the Ted and Shirley Taubeneck Superior Teaching Award for her Humanities Seminar Program course, Localizing the Sacred: Medieval Christian Architecture and Art. The annual award is based solely on student evaluations.

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Casa Verde render

UArizona Architecture Students Make Impact on – and are Impacted by – 2023 Solar Decathlon Design Challenge

Two B.Arch student teams made the finals of this year's Solar Decathlon Design Challenge, while the Casa Verde team took third place in the Attached Housing Division. As much as we tout the students’ success, however, the more significant impact is on the students themselves.

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Beth Weinstein

Prestigious Graham Foundation Grant Supports Architecture Professor Beth Weinstein's Research on Architecture and Choreography

Thanks in part to a 2022 grant from Chicago-based Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Associate Professor of Architecture Beth Weinstein is synthesizing more than a decade of her research on architecture and dance into a book that “establishes a field of practice, raises many critical questions” and also aims to “inspire people interested in interdisciplinary dialogues.”

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UArizona TPEG student members

UArizona Students Take Home Top Honors in International Theme Park Design Competition

The UArizona Theme Park Entertainment Group, comprised of CAPLA and College of Engineering students, received the highest commendation overall—with distinctions for technical skill, feasibility, innovation and communication—at the esteemed Toronto Met Thrill Design Invitational held last fall at Universal Orlando Resort.

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Mary Hardin and architecture students

UArizona Distinguished Professor Mary Hardin Wins ACSA Design-Build Award for Stadium Rowhouses

University Distinguished Professor of Architecture Mary Hardin has been awarded an ACSA 2023 Design-Build Award for Stadium Rowhouses: Macro to Micro. One of just four national Design-Build Award recipients, Hardin leads hands-on design-build projects with undergraduate and graduate architecture students at UArizona.

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Bisbee Center for Jazz section by Sal Arellano

UArizona Undergraduate Architecture Students Focus on Universal Design for Prize Funded by AGM and Ascension Wheelchair Lifts

For the third year in a row, UArizona architecture students participated in a universal design competition that put their creative and analytical skills to the test on a significantly sloped site. Thanks to AGM Container Controls and Ascension Wheelchair Lifts, the winning students received a total of $7,400 in prizes.

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AIA Arizona 2022 Design Awards

UArizona Architecture Faculty Honored for Community Design, Design Pedagogy and Distinguished Architecture by AIA Arizona

School of Architecture faculty members have been honored once again by the Arizona chapter of the American Institute of Architecture: Laura Carr with the Community Design Award, Eric Weber and Trevor Watson with the Design Pedagogy Award and Jesús Edmundo Robles Jr (DUST Architects) and Michael Kothke (HK Associates) with Distinguished Architecture Citations.

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Camp Naco

Award-Winning Heritage Conservation Efforts by CAPLA Faculty and Students Lead to $4.6M in State Restoration Funding for Buffalo Soldier Camp

CAPLA Heritage Conservation Program Project Director Helen Erickson and graduate students Sarah McDowell and Teresa DeKoker have been instrumental in efforts to preserve Camp Naco, a borderlands Buffalo Soldier camp located near Bisbee, Arizona, resulting in awards for their story map and new funding to preserve the site.

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The Avenue Solar Decathlon Design Challenge entry

UArizona Architecture Students Win 2022 U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon Design Challenge Grand Prize

Professor Jonathan Bean and the Solar Decathlon Design Challenge Multifamily Building team of fourth-year B.Arch students Andrew Norris, Jonah Cummins-Mikkalson, Alex Kolodziej and Nhan Vo not only took first place in their division, but also was selected as the 2022 Design Challenge Grand Winner for Commercial Divisions—a first for CAPLA and UArizona.