2025 Design Awards Gala

What Are The Awards?
Project Submission Portal
2025 Design Awards Jury
Nominate a Winner

What are the AIA East Tennessee Design Awards?

To recognize excellence in architecture, AIA East Tennessee conducts an annual juried Design Awards program. This program seeks to honor built and unbuilt works of distinction designed by AIA East TN members and to serve as a catalyst for local participation in the AIA Tennessee Awards program. The program also brings public attention to outstanding examples of architecture, cultivating an ongoing public interest in architectural excellence. This year’s award winners will be announced and celebrated at our 2025 Design Awards Gala on Thursday, October 2nd. All AIA East Tennessee members are eligible to submit a project for an award.

Rules, Timeline and Submission Form

2025 Design Awards Gala

Join AIA East Tennessee on Thursday, October 2nd in the heart of the Old City as we honor and celebrate built and unbuilt works of architecture designed by our members during our annual Design Awards Gala – presented by SESCO Lighting – at Jackson Terminal.

5:30 PM – 6:30 PM | Check-in & Cocktail Hour
Mingle with fellow professionals and enjoy crafted drinks in a relaxed atmosphere.

6:30 PM – 7:15 PM | Seated Dinner
Indulge in a thoughtfully curated meal as we gather to celebrate the evening’s honorees.

7:15 PM – 8:30 PM | Awards Ceremony
Join us as we recognize and celebrate the remarkable achievements of the design community.

9:00 PM – 11:00 PM | SESCO After Party at Jig and Reel
Keep the celebration going! Join us for drinks and live music, open to all guests.

Ticket Prices:
$35 – Student or Associate AIA Member
$60 – AIA Member (includes Allied)
$80 – Non-AIA Member
$500 – AIA Member, Full Table
$600 – Non-Member, Full Table

Purchase Tickets Here

2025 Jury

Kim's Bio
Hilary's Bio
Arthi's Bio
Mark's Bio

2025 Design Awards Jury Coordinator

Andrew Newman, AIA – BarberMcMurry Architects

Gold Medal and Friend of Architecture Awards

Brandon Pace, FAIA- 2024 Gold Medal Winner

John Sanders, FAIA- 2024 Gold Medal Winner

Gold Medal Award

The Gold Medal is the AIA East Tennessee Chapter’s highest honor.

The award recognizes individuals whose work has had a lasting influence on the theory or practice of architecture. The Gold Medal is open to an architect (living or deceased), or architects, who have created a body of distinguished work.

The Board of Directors evaluates candidates based on how well they meet this criterion, which includes how their contributions have:

  • Demonstrated great depth and breadth
  • Having a cumulative effect on the profession
  • Addressed the future of architecture while honoring its tradition
  • Transcended or united specific areas of expertise
  • Become widely known—by architects, designers, educators, and the public—for the quality of their work

CLICK HERE to learn more about and nominate someone for the Gold Medal Award.

We are no longer accepting nominations for this award. Check back in 2026!

Dr. Robert ‘Bob’ J. Booker- 2024 Friend of Architecture Winner (posthumously)

Friend of Architecture Award

The Friend of Architecture Award is bestowed on an individual or organization that has demonstrated significant support to architecture but is not a practitioner or architectural firm.

The Board evaluates candidates based on how well they meet this criterion, which includes how their contributions have:

  • Demonstrated great support of architecture an/or architects in the public realm.
  • Had a positive, cumulative effect if the profession.
  • Supported the future of architecture, while honoring its tradition.
  • Is or was widely known by architects for their role in contributing to the profession.

CLICK HERE to learn more about and nominate someone for the Friend of Architecture Award. We are no longer accepting nominations for this award. Check back in 2026!

2025 Design Awards Gala Sponsors

Sponsors like the fantastic folks below have signed up to help create an amazing atmosphere for our 2025 Design Awards Gala and to get their business out in front of sought-after firms throughout East Tennessee. Please browse our sponsorship opportunities via our Partnership Shop or contact Dustin Durham at dustin@aiaetn.org if you have any questions.

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Kim Yao, FAIA
Jury Chair

Kim Yao, FAIA, is Principal of Architecture Research Office (ARO). She has taught at Cornell University, MIT, Columbia University, Parsons the New School for Design, and Barnard College. Kim was elected to the National Academy of Design (NAD) and serves as a member of the NAD Board of Governors. She was President of AIA New York (AIANY) in 2020, serves on the Board and Executive Committee of the Center for Architecture, and has been recognized with the AIANY Medal of Honor and the Beverly Willis Foundation Mentorship Award. She holds an undergraduate degree in architecture from Columbia College: Columbia University and a Master of Architecture from Princeton University.

Architecture Research Office is the New York City firm united by their collaborative process, commitment to accountable action, and social and environmental responsibility. Research gives their work purpose and intention. Their architecture unites beauty and form with strategy and intelligence. ARO designs spaces that inspire people, further institutional missions, and advance equity and resilience. This philosophy has earned the firm over one hundred design awards including the 2020 AIA Architecture Firm Award, the AIA New York State Firm of the Year Award, and the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Architecture. Published in October 2024, Architecture. Research. Office. presents ARO’s diverse body of work, its ethos, and the people behind its projects.

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Hilary Sample, FAIA
Jury Member
Hilary Sample, FAIA, is an architect, co-founder of MOS – an architecture and design studio based in Harlem—and a Columbia University GSAPP Professor of Architecture.
Photo credit: Michael Vahrenwald.
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Arthi Krishnamoorthy, AIA
Jury Member

Arthi Krishnamoorthy is an architect and Principal at TenBerke, where she leads transformative work for educational, cultural, philanthropic, and mission-driven institutions. Her practice is centered on architecture’s capacity to help organizations expand their reach, clarify who they are, and deepen relationships with their communities.

Arthi has led all the firm’s work for foundations, including for The Wallace Foundation and The Women’s Building. Most recently, she led the design and construction of two residential colleges at Princeton University to house over a thousand students, as well as a mass-timber and net-zero-ready career and leadership development center at Smith College. Her work is grounded in the belief that spaces should invite engagement and discovery, with craft and detail that reveal themselves over time. In doing so, she creates environments that people come to know intimately, fostering a sense of familiarity and enduring connection.

Raised in Singapore, Arthi’s outlook is global, sustained by unending inquisitiveness. In New York, she serves on the board of the Queens Museum, an institution dedicated to presenting the highest quality visual arts and educational programming for people in the New York metropolitan area, and particularly for the residents of Queens. Arthi also serves on the board of AIANY.

 

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Mark Gardner, AIA
Jury Member

Mark has led many of Jaklitsch / Gardner’s design initiatives and works to best understand the role of design as a social practice. He is the Associate Professor of Architectural Practice and Society at the School of the Constructed Environments, Parsons the New School. He was Director of the M.Arch Program from 2017-2020. Mark served on the Board of Advisors for the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design, where he advocates for issues of diversity and inclusion. Currently, he is helping support the Julian Abele Fellowship at Weitzman, which honors the first Black Architecture graduate from UPenn. Mark also served on the Board of Youth Design Center (YDC), a nonprofit on a mission to reduce the number of disconnected youth in Brownsville, Brooklyn by lowering their barriers to entry to the STEAM professions and increasing their relevant experience in the innovation economy.

Mark is the 2026 President-Elect of the American Institute of Architects, New York Chapter (AIANY), past Secretary AIANY, current member of the Exhibition Committee, and past Co-Chair and current member of the AIANY Diversity & Inclusion Committee, which he helped to restart with Venesa Alicea in 2012. He is a Past President and past Advocacy Chair for nycobaNOMA, the New York Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects. Mark is a Member of the Van Alen Institute’s Board of Trustees and a Fellow of the Urban Design Forum. Mark received his Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the Georgia Institute of Technology and his Master of Architecture Degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a Registered Architect in Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Mark currently resides in Brooklyn, New York with his wife, Margit Detweiler.

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