The AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) has selected its 2016 Top Ten Green Project award winners. The COTE Top Ten awards program, now in its 20th year, recognizes the exemplary sustainable architecture and design with projects that enhance the environment. The program also bestows upon a single past winner its COTE Top Ten Plus Award for demonstrated impact of sustainable design based on post-occupancy performance data. Honorees will receive their awards at the 2016 AIA Convention to be held in Philadelphia in May.

Firms entering into this year's program were required to be signatories of the AIA 2030 Commitment, with submitted projects encouraged to meet the 2030 Commitment's energy reduction goals with a minimum of 60% improvement over baselines established in the 2003 Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey.

We spoke with each member of the jury and asked them to discuss emerging trends from this year's winning projects:

 
The jury for the 2016 AIA COTE Top Ten Green Projects included Larry Strain, FAIA, principal of Siegel & Strain Architects; Luke Leung, LEED Fellow, director of sustainable engineering for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM); Judith Heerwagen, Ph.D, a program expert in the Office of Federal High Performance Green Buildings in the U.S. General Services Administration; Margaret Montgomery, FAIA, principal and sustainable design leader of NBBJ; and Anne Fougeron, FAIA, principal of Fougeron Architecture.

For jury comments and a breakdown of sustainable measures for each of the 10 winning projects, please click on the project name below, or skip directly to the COTE Top Ten Plus Winner.


The Dixon Water Foundation Josey Pavilion - Lake|Flato Architects

Photo Credit Casey Dunn
Photo Credit Casey Dunn

Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation - Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects

Photo Credit © Tim Griffith
Tim Griffith Photo Credit © Tim Griffith

The J. Craig Venter Institute - ZGF Architects LLP

Nick Merrick © Hedrich Blessing Photographers
Nick Merrick Nick Merrick © Hedrich Blessing Photographers

University of Wyoming Visual Arts Facility - Hacker Malone Belton Able PC

Photo Credit © Lara Swimmer
Lara Swimmer Photo Credit © Lara Swimmer

H-E-B at Mueller - H-E-B Design + Construction, Lake|Flato Architects, Selser Schaefer Architects

image via Ray Briggs
image via Ray Briggs

Exploratorium at Pier 15 - EHDD

Photo Credit: Bruce Damonte Photography
Bruce Damonte Photo Credit: Bruce Damonte Photography

Center for Sustainable Landscapes - The Design Alliance Architects

Photo Credit: Walter Tien/The Design Alliance Architects
The Design Alliance Architects Photo Credit: Walter Tien/The Design Alliance Architects

Biosciences Research Building - Payette Reddy Architecture + Urbanism

Photography © Warren Jagger
Photography © Warren Jagger

West Branch of the Berkeley Public Library - Harley Ellis Devereaux

Photo Credit: © David Wakely Photography
Photo Credit: © David Wakely Photography

Rene Cazenave Apartments - Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects and Saida + Sullivan Design Partners, Associated Architect

Photo Credit © Tim Griffith
Tim Griffith Photo Credit © Tim Griffith

AIA COTE Top Ten Plus

The AIA recognizes one past COTE Top Ten Winner every year with the COTE Top Ten Plus award, which is based off post occupancy performance data for a minimum of one year. This year, the jurors have selected The Edith Green – Wendell Wyatt Federal Building for the "precedent [the project sets] for re-use and upgrade, and the potential for creative, green reuse projects" it has demonstrated for other designers.

The Edith Green – Wendell Wyatt Federal Building - SERA Architects / Cutler Anderson Architects

Credit: Nic Lehoux
Credit: Nic Lehoux

Click here to see past COTE Top Ten winners >>