2025 Edition

Design Awards 2025

Six projects honored at the May 15 gala at Rancho Los Alamitos, judged by Marlon Blackwell, Michael Hsu, Jonathan Moody, and Lauren Rottet.

Announced May 15, 2025 · Rancho Los Alamitos

The 2025 Design Awards were presented May 15, 2025, at a gala held at Rancho Los Alamitos. The jury — Marlon Blackwell, FAIA; Michael Hsu, FAIA; Jonathan Moody, AIA; and Lauren Rottet, FAIA — reviewed entries across eight categories, with COTE recognition juried by Dave Intner, AIA. Six projects were honored.

2025 registration ran January 13 – March 10 ($195–$295 early bird, $295–$395 late), with final submissions due March 14.

2025 Honorees

Presidential Honoree Award

Michael Bohn, AIA

Studio One Eleven · Past President, AIA Long Beach / South Bay

A partner at Studio One Eleven and the chapter’s 2017 president — its longest-serving director — Bohn has spent over 30 years repairing communities through architecture, landscape, and urban design: 200 blocks of downtown Long Beach visioning, more than 3,500 units of housing, Southern California’s first parklets, and a run of office-to-housing conversions. Read the full profile →

Read profile

Community Design Advocate Award

D. J. Waldie

Cultural historian, memoirist, and translator

In books, essays, and online commentary, Waldie frames his suburban experience — often starting from his hometown of Lakewood — as a search for a sense of place. He is the author of Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir and Becoming Los Angeles; the New York Times has called his work “a gorgeous distillation of architectural and social history.” Read the full profile →

Read profile