The 2021 COTE Top Ten
John Hill
23. April 2021
The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design at Georgia Institute of Technology by Lord Aeck Sargent in collaboration with The Miller Hull Partnership. (Photo: Jonathan Hillyer)
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and its Committee on the Environment (COTE) have revealed the ten winning projects for 2021 that meet the committee's "rigorous criteria" and are making "significant achievements in advancing climate action."
The ten winners were announced yesterday, coinciding with Earth Day. This year marks the 25th iteration of the awards that were created in 1997 by the AIA and COTE. As noted in recent award years, with sustainable design trends firmly rooted in architectural practice the metrics for the COTE Top Ten have shifted from "predicted performance" to "actual performance," while still maintaining design quality as a determining factor. That change happened in 2017, when a Top Ten Plus designation, for "projects with exemplary actual performance and post-occupancy lessons" was added; no such Plus winner is highlighted this year.
Civitas in Memphis, Tennessee, by archimania. (Photo: Alan Karchmer/OTTO)
The 2021 COTE Top Ten- Arizona State University Hayden Library Reinvention, Tempe, Arizona | Ayers Saint Gross
- Civitas, Memphis, Tennessee | archimania
- Lafayette College Rockwell Integrated Sciences Center, Easton, Pennsylvania | Payette
- Market One, Des Moines, Iowa | Neumann Monson Architects
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology | MIT.nano, Cambridge, Massachusetts | HGA
- Microsoft Silicon Valley Campus, Mountain View, California | WRNS Studio
- Rainier Beach Clinic, Seattle | Mahlum Architects
- Ryerson University Daphne Cockwell Health Sciences Complex, Toronto | Perkins & Will
- The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design, Atlanta | Lord Aeck Sargent in collaboration with The Miller Hull Partnership
- University of Washington, Life Sciences Building, Seattle | Perkins & Will
