Committee on the Environment

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ALBION DISTRICT LIBRARY BY PERKINS + WILL IS A 2018 COTE TOP TEN RECIPIENT. IMAGE: DOUBLESPACE PHOTOGRAPHY

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The Committee on the Environment (COTE®) is an AIA Knowledge Community working for architects, allied professionals, and the public to achieve climate action and climate justice through design. We believe that design excellence is the foundation of a healthy, sustainable, and equitable future. Our work promotes design strategies that empower all AIA members to realize the best social and environmental outcomes with the clients and the communities they serve.

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To learn about the Framework for Design Excellence (formerly the COTE Top Ten Measures), click here.

Check out COTE's history and timeline. 

Starting a local COTE or sustainability group and need some guidance? Check out the AIA COTE Network Resources here.

A big thank you to our 2024 sponsors: 
Founding sponsors: Building Green
Premier sponsors: Sherwin-Williams
Sustaining sponsors: GAF Roofing, Milliken, Andersen Windows,
BlueScope Buildings
Green sponsors: EPIC Metals
Allied sponsors: TLC Engineering, Sierra Pacific Windows

Letter from the Chair: May/June 2021

By Elizabeth Rupp del Monte FAIA posted 04-23-2021 05:03 PM

  
On April 22 we celebrated Earth Day. This celebration is near and dear to all COTE members for the obvious reason that it brings world-wide attention to the crucial issues of environmental concerns that are on our minds, always. It’s also important because it’s the day we announce our annual Top Ten winners, for both professional and student competitions!
 
We are very excited to present a great group of winners this year. Each year the winning projects are an excellent example of how brilliant design and brilliant performance are are not separate things. This year the winning entries represent large and small projects, from a single family home to a corporate campus, and diverse locations from Seattle to Cambridge and Tempe to Toronto. The wide diversity of projects continues to show that projects of all sizes, uses and locations can be designed as beautiful, high performing architecture.
And we are thrilled to have some first-time award winners: archimania, Neumann Monson, HGA, and Lord Aeck Sargent, teamed with repeat winner Miller Hull.

Here’s the full list of this year’s winners:
 
Arizona State University Hayden Library Reinvention, Ayers Saint Gross, Tempe, Arizona
Civitas, archimania, Memphis, TN
 
Lafayette College Rockwell Integrated Sciences Center, Payette, Easton, Pennsylvania
 
Market One, Neumann Monson Architects, Des Moines, Iowa
 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology | MIT.nano HGA,  Cambridge, Massachusetts
 
Microsoft Silicon Valley Campus, WRNS Studio, Mountain View, California
 
Rainier Beach Clinic, Mahlum, Seattle, Washington
 
Ryerson University Daphne Cockwell Health Sciences Complex, Perkins&Will, Toronto, Ontario, CA
 
The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design, Lord Aeck Sargent in collaboration with The Miller Hull Partnership, Atlanta, Georgia
 
University of Washington, Life Sciences Building, Perkins&Will, Seattle, Washington
 
 
We hope you will take a look at all of these fantastic projects here, and be sure to offer congratulations to the winners!
 
We want to thank our jury of experts who graciously offered time and expertise:

  • Erica Cochran Hameen, PHD, Assoc. AIA, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Lynn Simon, FAIA, Google
  • Marlon Blackwell, FAIA, Marlon Blackwell Architects
  • Michelle Amt, AIA, VMDO Architects
  • Renee Cheng, FAIA, University of Washington
We also thank the technical reviewers, subject matter experts who review the submittals to provide performance reviews to the jurors. A detailed list of all jurors is here.
 
But that’s just half of the excitement. Every year COTE partners with the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) for the AIA COTE Top Ten for Students Competition. The competition recognizes ten exceptional studio projects that demonstrate designs moving towards carbon-neutral operation through creative and innovative design strategies. This year there were over 800 submittals, from which the winning ten were selected. The winning projects this year ranged from social centers in Arctic locations to research about building reuse. The students displayed both technical expertise and design sophistication.

The winning images and descriptions can be seen here.
The 2021 Student Competition winners are:
 
Direction
Morgan Weber & Robert Conway
Faculty Sponsor: Robin Puttock

The Catholic University of America 

Low Carbon Architecture: New Approach Toward Sustainability in Relation to Existing Buildings
Mahsa Hedayati
Faculty Sponsors: Paul Emmons, Susan Piedmont-Palladino, & Meredith Sattler

Virginia Tech 

Growing Together Under One Roof
Daniel Mecca & Thalia Jimenez Escobar
Faculty Sponsors: Ulrike Heine, David Franco, & George Schafer

Clemson University 

Tupikhaq
Paola Araya-Valdes, Juliette Paget, & Victoria Deslandes-Lyon
Faculty Sponsors: Claude Demers & André Potvin

Université Laval 

The Step
Samuel Nordmeyer & Cody Goedken
Faculty Sponsor: Ayodele Iyanalu

Iowa State University 

Fairmount School of Art and Ecology
Andriani Sugianto
Faculty Sponsor: Caleb Walder

California Baptist University 

Undefined Boundaries
Ana Astiazaran

Faculty Sponsors: Michael Kothke, Laura Carr, Darci Hazelbaker, & Jonathan Bean
University of Arizona
Collaborators: Brian Farling, Shawn Swisher, & Amanda Schwarz

Nags Head Coastal Discovery Museum
Ryan Cooper
Faculty Sponsors: David Hill, Andrew Fox, & Ranji Ranjithan

North Carolina State University

Nuuttuq
Caroline Roux, Guillaume Couture, & Rosemonde Gadoury Salvail

Faculty Sponsors: Claude Demers & André Potvin
Université Laval

Urban Mutualism – A Mushroom Farm in a Factory
Edda Steingrimsdottir & Jonathan Ng

Faculty Sponsor: Jeannette Kuo
Harvard University

We also give deep thanks to the jury for the 2021 AIA COTE Top Ten for Students Competition.  The jurors include:

Anannya Das
Iowa State University

Raymond Huff
Clemson University

Yasemin Kologlu
SOM NY

Kathrina Simonen
University of Washington

Nader Tehrani
The Cooper Union

Thank you to everyone who helped make this great event possible!
We’ll toast all of the Top Ten Awards winners and the Top Ten for Students Competition winners (online) on May 20 -- join us!
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