Healthcare Design Award
Recognizes projects in health care design & planning from hospitals to outpatient centers, community clinics, & wellness facilities.
For more information on opening and deadline dates, please see the AIA Awards FAQ.
Honoring the best in healthcare building design
The Healthcare Design Award recognizes innovative projects that help solve aesthetic, civic, urban, and social problems while also being functional and sustainable. Project types include outpatient centers, hospital expansions, diagnostic and treatment facilities, community-based clinics, children’s hospitals, and wellness centers.
Questions? Email AIA Awards
Projects submitted must have been completed after January 1, 2019.
Projects that have previously received a Healthcare Design award are not eligible for resubmission in the same category. Projects may be re-submitted in future year's competitions, as long as they still meet the submission requirements.
Projects may be located anywhere in the world but must have been designed by an architect licensed in the United States or one of its territories at the time of the project's completion. “Completion” is synonymous with “substantial completion” as defined in the standard AIA documents governing construction.
The submitting architect may qualify as a member of a design team, whether or not serving as the head of the team. When one architect is not the sole author, all other participants contributing substantially to the design of the project must be given credit as part of the submission, regardless of professional discipline.
- Category A: Built: Less than $25 million (construction cost)
- Category B: Built: More than $25 million (construction cost)
- Category C: Renovations/Remodeled: Primarily built within existing hospital or clinical space or adaptive reuse of an existing building to a health care use.
- Category D: Unbuilt: Must be commissioned for compensation by a client with the authority and intention to build.
- Category E: Innovations in planning and design research, built and unbuilt.
- Category F: Master planning urban design for health care settings.
Guidelines
This PDF is a helpful preview of the submission form. It contains the full award guidelines, information about judging criteria, release forms, and more.
Please note: Some components of the sample application are subject to change from the final version and are merely here to allow a submitter to view the major criteria prior to logging on to the awards platform. Please rely on the online awards platform for the final criteria.
Schedule
For more information on opening and deadline dates, please see AIA Awards FAQ.
The submission deadline is strictly observed; unfortunately, we cannot make exceptions. Entry fees are not refunded for disqualified, late, or incomplete entries.
Rights to photos, digital images, and plans must be cleared for publication by the entrant. Entrants are responsible for any royalties or copyright photography fees. Before entering, entrants must have the owner’s approval to submit the project. Owners must be informed of potential site visits and the significant recognition in the media should the project receive an award.
Entry fees
Single project submissions are $450 each. Submitting the same project to additional award categories costs an extra $100 per category.
Award winners are announced via AIA press release and email. Winning entries will be published on the AIA website and in the AAH Supplement for the Healthcare Design Conference in the fall. Selected projects may also be featured in presentations and at conferences. AAH is committed to continuing to expand coverage of the winning entries in 2024 and beyond.
Additionally, winning entries will be published in the case study database developed and updated by the AAH Research Committee and will be accessible from the website. Case studies will include previous winners and updated with future winners to serve for research and promote best practices. Recipients will be requested to assist AAH in helping populate the case study template with the appropriate project information. This is an opportunity to gain exposure well beyond the awards program rollout.
Please be advised that the jury, at its discretion, may select additional non-recipient projects to be included in the case study program. Firms will be requested to assist AAH in helping to populate the case study template with the appropriate project information. Peruse the Case Study Library.
Michael Kang, FAIA, Jury Chair
Douglas Erickson, AIA
Alison Leonard, AIA
Benjamin R. Patterson, Assoc. AIA
Nicole Voss, AIA
Healthcare Design Award 2024
Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU’s Children’s Tower, HKS, Richmond, Va.
Emory Executive Park Musculoskeletal Institute (EMSK), HKS, Atlanta
Essentia Health St. Mary’s Medical Center, EwingCole, Duluth, Minn.
Howard Brown Health Halsted, Eckenhoff Saunders, Chicago
Montage Health Ohana Campus, NBBJ, Monterey, Calif.
Nixon Forensic Center at Fulton State Hospital, Page, Fulton, Mo.
River People Health Center, SmithGroup, Scottsdale, Az.
The Massachusetts General Hospital Phillip and Susan Ragon Building, NBBJ, Boston
The University of California, Davis Medical Center, California Tower, SmithGroup, Sacramento, Calif.
VA Palo Alto Medical Center, Radiology Center, SmithGroup, Palo Alto, Calif.
Winship Cancer Institute at Emory Midtown, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Atlanta
Past winners
The award-winning design for Winship Cancer Institute at Emory Midtown in Atlanta personalizes the cancer treatment experience, providing top-notch care while remembering the humanity of patients and
