Celebrating the best of the best in design excellence through the lens of sustainability, inclusion and resilience.
Our legacy as a profession stands on our ability to rise to today’s challenges, to support our local communities through design and to inspire others through our artful response to today’s complexities. Design excellence is about climate and social response, about beauty and invention, about inspiration and craft. We are proud of the design legacy in San Diego, and continue to look for work that embodies our values and pushes design forward in our region. Show us your best work, and let us celebrate and amplify your voice and add you to San Diego’s legacy of design!
Tickets are now on sale!
This year’s gala will be held on August 20, 2026 at the New Children’s Museum, an iconic downtown landmark designed by San Diego's Rob Wellington Quigley, FAIA. With its bold structural expression, soaring interior volumes, and art‑driven atmosphere, the museum offers a dynamic setting that reflects the creativity and innovation at the heart of our profession.
Earlybird pricing is available until July 30, 2026. Get your tickets now!
2026 AWARDS PROGRAM
To provide a fair and equitable review, a jury is recruited from esteemed architect members from non-local metropolitan areas. The recruitment of a non-local jury of highly distinguished architects ensures that the work awarded embodies design excellence to the highest extent.
2026 AIA San Diego Design Awards Jury
Jury Chair: Anne Marie Duvall Decker, FAIA
Anne Marie Duvall Decker is a founding principal of Duvall Decker, an expanded practice in Jackson, Mississippi that provides architecture, development consulting, and facilities maintenance services.
Anne Marie sees architecture as instrument, engaging the material phenomena of our environment and culture to create the potential for education and growth. She leads the studio in creating elusive forms and engaging spaces, no matter the type, size, or budget of projects. She has served the profession in many capacities, as a long-term board member and past president of AIA Mississippi and as a Trustee and 2021 Chair of the AIA Trust. Anne Marie is often invited to share her experience as a lecturer, critic, visiting professor, and design juror. She was appointed to serve the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations as a 2021-2023 Industry Advisory Group peer and was awarded the 2023 Mississippi State University College of Architecture, Art, & Design Alumna of the Year Recipient. In 2023, Anne Marie Duvall Decker was a recipient of Architectural Record’s Women in Architecture Design Leadership Award. Duvall Decker was profoundly honored to be named the 2026 recipient of the AIA Architecture Firm Award.
Amanda Loper, FAIA, LEED AP
Amanda Loper, FAIA, LEED AP, advances architecture and urban design with originality, pragmatism, and joy. As a tenacious design leader and advocate, she champions the human experience and connection to place while empowering collaborators and communities. She is a principal with David Baker Architects, a nationally recognized and locally oriented architecture firm. Amanda leads the firm’s Southeast studio, in Birmingham, Alabama. She has led the design and realization of dozens of award-winning projects throughout California, the Southeast and beyond.
Scott Magic, AIA, NCARB
Scott Magic, AIA is the principal of Magic Architecture located in Austin, Texas in 2016. The firm was established on a single commitment: to make beautiful everyday spaces. Large and small, interior and exterior, public and private without exception. There is a genuine shortage of great rooms in current architecture — places people are drawn to, linger in, and love. That absence is what drives his practice. Through thoughtful material choices, considered detailing, and a spirit of curiosity, Scott seeks to bring meaning to the spaces he shapes with his clients Scott built his career alongside some of the most respected names in architecture and design, including Michael Hsu Office of Architecture, Architects Hanna Gabriel Wells, and architect-developer Jonathan Segal. His breadth of experience spans an exceptional range of scales and typologies — from custom light fixtures, corporate interiors to scrappy old buildings, hospitality spaces, and large-scale master planning. A rigorous attention to detail informs his work at every level. A native of Lake Bluff, Illinois, Scott pursued his architectural education at the University of Oregon, where he earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree. The Pacific Northwest left a lasting impression, instilling in him a sensibility rooted in optimism, restraint, and a deep appreciation for the natural environment. During his decade on the West Coast, he developed a passion for architectural education, leading weekly tours of Louis Kahn's iconic Salk Institute and teaching studio at the NewSchool of Architecture. Upon licensure, he relocated to Texas to establish a family and establish his practice. Scott lives in central Austin with his two sons and border terrier. He is a licensed architect in Texas, Colorado, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, and Oregon.
Michael Cotton
Raised by a power tool designer and preschool teacher, nested in construction paper and saw dust, Michael has followed his passion in Architecture with a sense of playfulness and invention. Since joining Snøhetta in 2009, he has led a variety of arts and campus-related projects, believing strongly in architecture’s ability to shape community and improve lives.
Michael holds a Masters in Architecture from the University of California at Berkeley and double-majored in Architecture and Industrial Design at North Carolina State University. An optimist by nature, Michael leads projects with positivity and the belief that challenges are best overcome with collaborative teamwork and a can-do attitude.
Javier Sánchez
Javier Sánchez, HFAIA is an architect with an honorable mention from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) (1996), and Master of Science in Sciences and Development of Real Estate Projects from Columbia University, New York (1998).
In 1996 he founded JSa, a leading architectural practice in the renewal of Mexico City, focused on comprehensive architectural interventions that transcend their contemporary context, and reinterpret the city’s heritage to contribute towards a continuos reconversion, rehabilitation and restoration of the urban fabric. Since then, and throughout the past three decades, JSa’s practice has designed and built over 190 projects in Mexico, South America and Europe. Encompassing five cross complementary axes around: the recovery of heritage and promotion of culture; the conception of unique hospitality experiences; the design of versatile community and workspaces; the integration and development of sustainable solutions; and the continuous exploration of housing as the foundation of the urban ecosystem.
Awarded with more than 130 national and international awards, some of his accolades include: the Golden Lion of the Venice Architecture Biennale (2006), the Best New Global Design Citation by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design (2007), the First International Prize of the Pan-American Architecture Biennial of Quito (2012), the Gold Medal of the National Architecture Biennial of Mexico (2020), and the Housing Award of the American Institute of Architects (2022). In 2008 he was elected Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA); in 2009 he became a member of the National Endowment for Culture and Arts of Mexico; and in 2014, he was invited to head the Federico E. Mariscal Lectureship at the School of Architecture of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Since 2011 he is a member of the National Academy of Architecture of Mexico, and in 2023 he was named Emeritus Academician of the same institution in recognition of his prominent contributions to the practice. Recently in 2024, Sánchez was endowed as the 2024 BarberMcMurry Endowed Professor of the Knoxville’s College of Architecture and Design at The University of Tennessee.
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The best of the best in San Diego/Tijuana
The annual design awards shine a light on projects that are pushing innovation, growth, sustainability and renewal in San Diego and Tijuana. Celebrate groundbreaking architectural projects, treasured icons, and exceptional design concepts that have redefined the boundaries of creativity and design in our region.
Distinguished work
Gain inspiration from the remarkable achievements of the award winners, groundbreaking architectural projects and exceptional design concepts. These exemplary projects are selected through a rigorous process and demonstrate sustainability, social responsibility, and a strong sense of place.
Legendary design pros
Every year the Design Awards Ceremony attracts over 250+ architects, design experts and advocates as we gather in celebration of the places, spaces, and people that make our region unique, making this a tremendous opportunity for fraternizing and networking.
Awards Archives
Project Information and credit to project partners is provided by the architectural firm or entrant of record in AIA San Diego's Design Awards Call for Entries. AIA San Diego, its Design Awards Committee/Representatives, and its Design Awards Jury (Juries) are not the authors of this content, nor are they responsible for verifying its accuracy. Companies/consultants/contractors should contact the firm of record to address discrepancies. To be eligible for consideration and receipt of award in AIA San Diego's Design Awards, entries must be made by AIA members in good standing who abide by the Ethical Standards of Attribution of Credit set forth by the American Institute of Architects.
