Competition Details

Perkins+Will - 2016 Unbuilt Design Awards Winner

AIA Dallas Unbuilt Design Awards

Submit Your Unbuilt Design Awards Entry

ELIGIBILITY

  1. Entrant must be an AIA Dallas chapter or AIA Northeast Texas section member and licensed architect or a firm comprised of AIA Dallas members and licensed architects.
  2. The primary design must be originated by a local AIA Dallas chapter or AIA Northeast Texas section member. In the case of joint ventures and design collaborations, appropriate credit must be given in the submission regarding the responsibilities of each firm or individual.
  3. The entry cannot previously have been a winner in the category for which it is being submitted. For example, awarded Unbuilt projects could be submitted for a Built Design Award but cannot be resubmitted to Unbuilt.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

The AIA Dallas Design Awards program is seeking entries responsive to beauty, poetry, context and previous condition, inspiration, process, environmental and social impact, economy and consumption.

The AIA Dallas Design Awards uses a paperless, electronic submission process.

  1. Each submission must recognize all firms and individuals involved in the design process.
  2. An Unbuilt entry may be any building design, conceptual or theory-based design study, interior architecture, restoration, or urban design/planning project for which the documentation has been complete since January 1, 2021.
  3. Release Waiver: By submitting an entry, entrants take full responsibility for the accuracy of all information submitted and warrant that all necessary permissions have been obtained from others who may have rights to the work. Entrants further acknowledge that no royalty or compensation is due to anyone, hold AIA Dallas, its sponsors, staff, consultants and members harmless from all liability and grant to AIA Dallas the non-exclusive right to publish, reproduce and distribute copies of the original entry.
  4. Each submittal must contain RGB JPEG slides (including RGB JPEG text and RGB JPEG plan files).
  5. The slides must have an exact height of 2250 pixels and an exact width of 3300 pixels (vertical views also have an exact height of 2250 pixels) – no exceptions.
  6. The maximum number of slides allowed is 10.
  7. The images should be named with a double-digit numerical sequence for viewing by the jury. Slides will also be on display in sequential order at the awards venue gallery. (i.e. “01.jpg” for the first image, “02.jpg” for the second image, etc.)
  8. Firm and photographer must not be listed on the slides. Entries that violate this requirement are subject to disqualification.
  9. Please consider text size and legibility when composing slides.

Submissions must include the following:

  1. Slides must include a site plan and/or floor plan, and any additional drawings to give the jury a thorough and comprehensive understanding of the entry (in the form of JPEG files).

NOTE: Entrants are no longer required to submit a project information sheet PDF.  This will be generated automatically from your online submission.  The first image of the entry slides will be used as the feature image on the project information sheet for the jurors' reference.  Please consider that when arranging the order of your entry slides.

ENTRY APPLICATION

Each submittal must consist of the following:

  1. Complete all form fields on the AIA Dallas Design Awards submission portal
    1. Entry title, location, and size
    2. Client’s name and address (when applicable)
    3. Names and addresses of the entrant/designer, the consultants, and others to receive credit; each entrant is responsible for giving proper credit where joint ventures, firm name changes or former partnerships are involved; disputes regarding credits may result in disqualification
    4. Date of design completion
  2. Up to 10 slides of project
  3. Complete the Project Narrative

The Design Awards Committee or the jury may make any interpretations that may be necessary to carry out the program’s intent.

ENTRY FEES

The Unbuilt entry fee must be submitted at the time of entry. The early bird submission fee is $180, and it is due by Thursday, July 16, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. The fee for entries submitted after that time is $200. No entry fee will be refunded.

DEADLINES

We will begin accepting entries Monday, June 1, 2026.  Design award submissions are due by 11:59 p.m., Thursday, August 6, 2026. All materials stated above must be submitted at this time. No entries will be accepted after this time. 

Submissions must be entered online: 
Please enter your information, submit your slides and Project Information Sheet through the Design Awards portal. 

QUESTIONS?

Feel free to contact AIA Dallas (214.742.3242) or the Design Awards Committee Leadership:
2026 Chair: Laura Baggett, AIA | laura@ljbstudio.me
2026 Vice Chair:  Yu Xin, AIA| YuXin@beckarchitecture.com

Unbuilt Design Awards Jurors

José Vargas-Hidalgo

José Vargas-Hidalgo

Professor and Researcher at the University of Costa Rica

José Vargas-Hidalgo is an architect, urban designer, educator, and researcher whose work operates at the intersection of drawing practices, ecology, infrastructure, and urban transformation. He holds a Master in Architecture in Urban Design (MAUD) from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and is currently a professor and researcher at the University of Costa Rica.

His professional experience includes work with internationally recognized practices such as Foster + Partners in New York and London, Morphosis Architects and RoTo Architects in Los Angeles, and the Renzo Piano Building Workshop in Paris. Across these experiences, he contributed to projects of varying scales and complexities, developing a particular interest in multidisciplinary design processes, urban systems, and the relationship between architecture, landscape, and place.

José also collaborated with the Michael Sorkin Studio in New York and was part of the team behind House as a Garden, recipient of the Holcim Gold Award for North America, recognized for its innovative integration of environmental thinking, construction methodologies, and social impact.

He is Co-Director of Project for a Regional Landscape and Architecture (P.P.A.R.), an interdisciplinary practice working across architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design. He is also a founding co-proponent and Urban Design Director of the Rutas Naturbanas Foundation, a nationally recognized initiative advancing ecological restoration, public space, and active mobility through a network of river corridors in the Greater Metropolitan Area of San José, Costa Rica.

His teaching, research, and professional work focus on how design can engage contemporary environmental challenges through the integration of infrastructure, ecology, and civic space, with particular attention to the evolving relationships between urbanization, ecology, and modes of representation.