Best in housing design honored at AIA Housing Award 2025 | News

Excerpt: “Located near downtown Vallejo, Blue Oak Landing provides 75 supportive apartments in two four-story buildings linked by open-air circulation across a shared courtyard. A ground-floor services suite includes property management, case management, and social assistance for residents. To speed provision of much-needed housing, this project was built with modules fabricated by a local factory on Mare Island, just three miles from the site in Vallejo. The distinctive sawtooth design is set off by articulated, perforated weathering-steel panels. The resilient design includes measures to mitigate water and energy use, including heat pump heating and cooling and centralized heat pump water heating.”

Dogan-Gaither Flats, Knoxville, TN
Sanders Pace Architecture

Excerpt: “Built in 1963 as the Dogan-Gaither Motor Court, this motel adaptive reuse as supportive housing to parolees plays a redemptive role in an area with a rich African-American history. Today, Dogan-Gaither Flats provides counseling, work placement, and transitional skills training to formally incarcerated individuals in the 16 dual-occupancy one-bedroom units. In serious disrepair prior to the renovation, the design team worked to uncover and utilize the original mid-century design elements while reactivating the space with light filled connections to the exterior landscape. Through strategic interventions, the original efficacy of the building remains while continuing to serve a greater social purpose.”

Life Skills Training Center, Washington State School for the Blind, Vancouver, WA
Mahlum Architects with consulting architects Chris Downey, Architecture for the Blind and Jeffrey Mansfield, MASS Design Group

Excerpt: “With a mission to inspire, empower, and advocate for young adults who are blind or have low vision (BLV), the Life Skills Training Center at the Washington State School for the Blind goes beyond providing tools for independent living. The multi-sensory environment promotes systemic change through advocacy for and by the BLV community. The design process centered around alumni, requiring the development of new engagement techniques to embed their voices in the design. The result is a supportive environment that blends acoustic, lighting, material, and landscape strategies within a layout that fosters social health as a key component of well-being.”

Longbranch, Lakebay, WA
mwworks

Excerpt: “The owners came to the project with a commitment to restore this neglected site. The unfolding of the terrain and the transition from forest to meadow, and finally to Case Inlet itself resonated with our team and our clients and became the basis for a design that elevated this place with a home that responds to landforms, trees and understory, sunlit openings, and framed views. Today the forest and meadow are reintegrated, and together they embrace Longbranch, a family home with the serenity, warmth and timelessness that comes from the layering of authentic materials with attention to craft and detail.”

Manhattan Beach Residence, Manhattan Beach, CA
Olson Kundig

Excerpt: “On a narrow sloping site just blocks from the ocean, Manhattan Beach Residence draws inspiration from the honest expression of structure and utilitarian design approach characterized by California’s mid-century modern architecture, mixed with the client’s active outdoor lifestyle. The design complements the eclectic architectural language of the surrounding stucco, wood-framed and mid-century homes, incorporating large awnings and proportionate massing, while retaining its own distinct expression in the dense urban neighborhood. The residence terraces the hillside in a series of volumes, creating a puzzle of interconnected zones flowing through the topography with varying degrees of opacity and transparency.”

Matt’s Place, Spokane, WA
The Miller Hull Partnership, LLP

Excerpt: “Working with Matt’s Place Foundation, Miller Hull created a sustainable, replicable 1,500-sq-ft home tailored to the needs of ALS patients’ and their family members or caretakers. The carport and covered roof deck provide weather-protected spaces for the patient to move from vehicle to wheelchair safely and benefits from being in nature. Cross-laminated timber walls and ceilings accommodate weather barriers, structural splines, recessed outlets, and accessible plumbing chases, while also providing a warm, biophilic environment for patient well-being. The property is equipped with smart technology tailored for ALS patients, including home control systems operated by the occupant’s eye movements.”

Sendero Verde, New York NY
Handel Architects with landscape architect AECOM

Excerpt: “Sendero Verde was awarded through the City’s SustaiNYC program, which seeks to create affordable housing without compromising design quality. The project integrates 709 affordable homes with essential services, including social programs, educational facilities, retail, and wellness activities, all with the goal of supporting residents and promoting long-term stability. Sendero Verde is arranged around a central courtyard full of spaces for active and passive activities. A landscaped path meanders through the courtyard and spills onto the adjacent streets, creating opportunities for connectivity to the neighborhood. Sendero Verde is the largest Passive House residential building in the world.”

The Victor, St. Louis, MO 

Trivers 

Excerpt: “Before Costco and Amazon, the 1906 Butler Brothers distribution warehouse was the modern wholesaler of its day. After years of vacancy, the 735,000 SF building was transformed into 384 units with in-building parking, retail, coworking, and amenities including interior courtyard, rooftop lounge with pool, dog park, fire pits, and pickleball court. The interior weaves in the rich history of the historic Washington Avenue garment district, a major source of fashion goods in the first half of the 20th century. Each area was intentionally programmed to reawaken this sleeping giant and contribute to the revitalization of downtown west St. Louis.”