The Montgomery County Planning Department’s Design Excellence Awards have returned for 2021, according to an announcement on the department’s website.
“The Montgomery County Planning Department is seeking to recognize exceptional architecture, landscape architecture and urbanism that makes a difference in people’s lives and represents the county’s highest quality of design to the region, state and nation,” the announcement reads. “This year, Montgomery Planning will hold its fifth Design Excellence Awards competition to honor this work.”
Awards will be given for the following categories:
- Buildings, Site and/or Urbanism Design Excellence Award: “The top award recognizes an exceptional building, urban design and/or landscape that represents built excellence which enhances the public realm and promotes a stronger and sustainable community through physical design.”
- Exceptional Multi-Family Housing Award: “Another top award will be given to honor extraordinary multi-family housing that impacts the larger community through greater human connections, health, resilience, and accessibility to all. This multi-family housing winner will exemplify design excellence by making lives better for those who live there now and into the future.”
- Public Project Award: “A third top award will be given to a public project that exemplifies the best qualities of design that support the public realm, community-building, and place-making. This winning public project design will bring beauty as well as social, economic, and environmental value to its community. All winning designs will help promote great urbanism no matter where their location is within the County.”
The criteria for project eligibility are:
- Private or Public projects built within Montgomery County.
- Built/completed within the last ten years.
- Exceptional high-quality design that has a clear relationship to its community context, promotes sustainability and enhances the public realm.
The deadline for submission is 11:59 p.m. on Monday, July 19. According to the announcement, the selection of the three winners will be made by an outside independent jury with expertise in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, planning, and urban design.
This year’s jury consists of:
- Matt Bell, FAIA – Principal at Perkins Eastman, Washington, DC
- Tom Canfield, AIA – City Architect, City of Alexandria, VA
- Luanne Greene, FAIA – President of Ayers Saint Gross, Baltimore, MD
- Jair Lynch – President of Jair Lynch Real Estate Partners, Washington, DC
- Trini Rodriguez, AICP, AIA, ASLA – Principal at Parker Rodriguez, Alexandria, VA
The Design Excellence Awards will be presented on the evening of October 21 at Celebrate Design 2021, which will be held at the M-NCPPC’s new Wheaton headquarters at 2425 Reedie Drive. The event is open to the public.
Graphic courtesy Montgomery Planning
Apply now for our Design Excellence Awards! This year’s categories are:
✔️Buildings, Site and/or Urbanism Design Excellence Award
✔️ Exceptional Multi-Family Housing Award
✔️Public Project AwardApply by July 19! 📆 Learn more: https://t.co/jKNibIaQC0 pic.twitter.com/5xuF42Ss55
— Montgomery Planning (@montgomeryplans) July 9, 2021