2025 AIA CHESAPEAKE BAY STUDENT DESIGN AWARDS
CALL FOR ENTRIES
Deadline: Monday, August 4, 2025 11:59:59 PM ET
Please read the instructions below and then click here to enter a project to the 2025 AIA Chesapeake Bay Excellence in Design Student Awards Program!
THE PROGRAM
The purpose of the AIA Chesapeake Bay Chapter (AIA CBC) Student Design Awards Program is to recognize excellence in architectural design, promote architecture in the Chapter’s region, and to build a relationship between AIA CBC and the local community college architecture program at Anne Arundel Community College. This program is conducted in conjunction with the AIA Chesapeake Bay Excellence in Design Awards Program.
ELIGIBILITY
§ The awards program is open to students enrolled in Anne Arundel Community College’s Department of Architecture and Interior Design. Architectural students who attended and were enrolled during the 2024-2025 school year are eligible to submit; entries must have been completed during this same time period.
§ Participation is open to all eligible students at no charge.
§ The student must be the sole author of the work which has been realized exclusively in an academic setting and is derived from the previous two semesters’ work.
§ A submittal may be from a student team, provided all the members of the team meet the eligibility requirements.
§ Students may enter projects as an individual entry or team entry without limit.
§ Designs completed in a professional office are not eligible.
§ The work can be a studio project or a departmentally sanctioned competition.
FACULTY SPONSORSHIP
Faculty sponsorship is required for all submissions. The student is to be identified and encouraged by a faculty sponsor who will attest that the student has met all eligibility requirements listed above.
Schedule
§ Monday, August 4, 2025: Submission Forms and Material Uploads are due by 11:59:59pm ET.
§ Week of August 11 – 15, 2025: Jury Review
§ Week of September 1-5, 2025: Award Winners Notified
§ Week of October 30, 2025 Design Awards Celebration (tentative)
JUDGING
Student submissions will be judged by the same jury reviewing the AIA Chesapeake Bay Excellence in Design Awards. Submissions will be judged individually for their design excellence and for the success with which the project has met its individual requirements.
PUBLICITY RECOGNITION
The drawings, photographs, and digital images may be used for unrestricted publicity. Therefore, it is the entrant's responsibility to clear all drawings, photographs, and digital images included in the submission for future re-use and reproduction by AIA CBC.
WINNING SUBMISSIONS
Award winners will be announced during AIA CBC annual awards celebration scheduled for October.
SUBMISSION CATEGORIES
There are two submission categories:
§ HAND DELINEATION
Award winners for student entries that embody and celebrate the art of architecture as a tool for communication through hand delineations, sketches, and renderings. Submissions must relate to a real, proposed, or visionary architectural project. Hand Delineation submissions will be comprised of formal and informal hand drawings, including travel sketches, concept sketches, presentation drawings, renderings, elevations, sections, perspectives, and technical drawings. Media may be any hand drawing technique used to portray or refine an architectural project. This includes pencil, marker, ink, water color, and collage.
§ DESIGN PROJECT
Award winners for student entries that demonstrate excellence in design. Submissions must be from a studio assignment completed within the last year and should clearly delineate a design proposal based on a concept. Submissions should include graphics that indicate the process of design and how the final design solution was determined. Submissions may include, but are not limited to, concept statements, parti diagrams, analysis, hand sketches, hand or digital renderings, images of physical or digital models, presentation drawings, renderings, elevations, sections, perspectives and technical drawings or documentation.
The Jury will consider the following:
· Contextual relationship
· Sustainability
· Purpose
· Accessibility
· Clarity of the parti. Does it further our understanding of the proposed design?
· Overall design excellence: Does the presentation and the proposed design offer a successful solution to the concept, parti, program, needs, challenges, and setting?
AWARD LEVELS
Two levels of awards shall be given in each of the two student categories: Merit, and Citation, of which Merit is the higher distinction. Merit awards recognize projects that clearly demonstrate a level of design that exemplifies superior achievements. The jury or a jury member may also choose to award a Citation to projects of notable accomplishment in a specific area, like an Honorable Mention.
In addition, an Honor Award will be presented to a student or students who meet eligibility requirements for the most outstanding Hand Delineation OR Design Project student entry. The Honor level of award acknowledges a project with distinctive character and outstanding merit.
Hierarchy of Awards is summarized as follows:
1. Honor — Highest Tier Award Level (one awarded)
2. Merit — Second Tier Award Level
3. Citation — Third Tier Award Level, not required to be issued, but awarded at the jury’s discretion for projects meeting unique or unusual design resolution for projects
WINNING ENTRIES AND PUBLICITY
A Certificate of Award, and one event ticket each, will be awarded to Citation, Merit and Honor Award winners. AIA Chesapeake Bay will promote the winning projects on the AIA Chesapeake Bay Design Awards Celebration Presentation, the Chapter Website, Design Awards Gallery website, and in social media posts and design magazine articles. A press release will be sent to the local media.
DESIGN AWARDS CELEBRATION
The Annual AIA Chesapeake Bay Excellence in Design Awards Celebration is tentatively scheduled for October 30. Please check the AIA CBC website www.aiacbc.org. this Fall for additional information and to register for the Celebration.
SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
To complete your submission, you must do the following by Monday, August 4, 2025:
1. Have your submission reviewed by a faculty member
2. Complete and finalize the SUBMISSION FORM in the awards submission portal
3. Upload the PROJECT PDF, PRESENTATION PDF and IMAGE FILES to the submission portal and finalize your submission
Please complete all requested information in the portal. Required fields are marked with an asterisk. Please be sure the information appears EXACTLY as you wish to see it published and listed on the awards certificates and across all media. Check the spelling of names carefully. You may save your work and return to the submission site as often as needed if you complete and submit all parts of the project submission, along with payment of entry fees, by the due date.
Please direct questions to AIA Chesapeake Bay at camille@aiacbc.org or call 410.268.3534.
ONLINE SUBMISSION WEBSITE
All forms and file uploads will be completed online. You may save your work as you go and return to the site as often as needed, but not after finalizing and submitting the entry. All work must be completed and submitted by the submission deadline.
A completion submission for each project includes the following:
· Completion of the online SUBMISSION FORM with IMAGE FILES (5-7 digital images w/captions and photographer credits for each image)
· JURY PDF (10MB, 16 pages)
· PRESENTATION PDF (6MB, 3 pages max)
UPLOADS:
JURY PDF – HAND DELINEATION SUBMISSIONS ONLY
Submissions must relate to a real, proposed, or visionary architectural project. Hand Delineation submissions may be formal or informal hand drawings, including a travel sketch, concept sketch, presentation drawing, elevation, section, perspective, or technical drawing. Students may use any hand drawing technique used to portray or refine an architectural project. This includes pencil, marker, ink, watercolor and tempera.
Hand Delineation projects should be submitted digitally as a single JPEG image. The format should be at least 1500 pixels x 1000 pixels with a resolution of 300 DPI. One drawing equals one entry. A collage of drawings on one page constitutes a single drawing. Student and School name must not appear anywhere on the image. Label the Jury PDF file in this format:
CC_Drawing_[Name of Project].
JURY PDF – ALL DESIGN ENTRIES
Jury PDF – 10 MB/10 Pages Max, For Jury
Conceal references to student’s name, sponsor’s name, and AACC’s name on any part of the Project PDF. Identification of project authorship or school within the Project PDF will disqualify the submission. The Jury PDF may be in landscape or portrait orientation at the entrant’s discretion. In general, you are creating a presentation of your project. The page size should be 8-1/2” x 11”; may not exceed 16 pages; the file may not exceed 10MB total and, shall be in the following order:
Page 1: Project Description and Introduction
· Combination of Text and Images; 12 pt minimum font size; formatted and designed at entrant's discretion.
· Project Information:
Project Name
Project Location (City, State, Country - if applicable)
Project Category (i.e. Graduate / Upper Level)
Project Synopsis (300 words maximum) stating project description, requirements, and design achievements.
Pages 2 – 16: Visuals
Include images with succinct annotation, if desired. Page design and layout are at the entrant’s discretion – page composition is important. Jurors will be viewing submissions on computer/laptop screens so think about image layout.
· Photographs/Drawings/Diagrams – up to 15 pages of images. Photos may be in color or black & white.
· Submissions must include at least one hand-drawn image – a travel sketch, concept sketch, presentation drawing, elevation, section, perspective, or technical drawing.
· Include any additional descriptive plans, sections, elevations, and images of three-dimensional models to explain the design solution. These may be done by hand or by using computer software. Please add graphic scale to the plans. Submission should clearly depict the relationship of the project to its site context. The goal is to tell a story which will help jurors understand your project. Sketches can be presented in any medium. Drawings and other graphics may be combined with each other along with photographs on a single page, just make sure the images are not too small and crowded on a page.
Naming the Jury PDF – please use the following format:
o Community College Design Project submission: CC_Design_[Name of Project]
PRESENTATION PDF
Select three (3) images from your submission that you feel best represent your project. Winning submissions may be shown in awards announcements and program publicity as outlined above.
Format:
· The total size of the PDF—all three pages combined—may not exceed 6MB of data.
· Three pages maximum, 11” x 8.5”, landscape orientation; formatted and designed at entrant's discretion.
· On each page add project title, student(s) name, AACC’s name, faculty sponsor or other identifiers as desired.
· Name the Presentation PDF file in this format: SPPDF_[Student Name]_[ProjectName].pdf
[i.e., SPPDF_Joe Smith_Center for Sustainable Construction.pdf]
INDIVIDUAL IMAGE FILES
Provide no more than 7 images in JPG format (10MB max per image) for use in the presentation of entrants, awards, and publications. The Jury will not see these files. Provide image file names, captions, and photographer credit for each image. Two of the images must be high resolution images of the best representation of the project. High resolution images should be at least 300 dpi and labeled: 1) [Project Name]_high res image1 and, 2) [Project Name]_high res image2. Subsequent images must be at a maximum of 6” x 9” at 150 dpi for horizontal images, and a maximum of 6” x 7.5” at 150 dpi for vertical images. Entrants will be required to reduce individual images that exceed the 10MB maximum.
Click here to enter a project to the 2025 AIA Chesapeake Bay Student Design Awards Program
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