The 2013 Residential Architectt Design Awards had more than 600 entries, which were recently evaluated by our 4-person jury. This year's jury of prestigious, award-winning architects who specialize in residential design, consisted of E.B. Min of Min/Day, Todd Hansen of Albertsson Hansen, Robert M. Cain, and Brian Messana of Messana O'Rorke.

Each year hundreds of Residential Architect's readers submit their best work to the RA Design Awards competition to be judged by their peers. At the end reviewing entries in 15 categories and selecting those that stand above all of the other gorgeous projects, the jury of architects elevates one of the Grand award winners as the solitary Project of the Year (POY).

These best-of-the-best houses or housing projects vary in style, location, and program yet they all share sensitivity to their sites, programs that often demonstrate responsibility to occupants or environment, and enduring details that propelled them into this elite category. Our design award juries often engage in lengthy discussions about the merits of certain projects over others or philosophical debates on housing in general, but selecting the POY typically is one of their shortest debates. These projects seem to have something special that immediately catches the attention of all types of architects on our juries. POY winners from the past twelve years are gathered in this slideshow.