2024 GSA Design Awards
Call for entries
Through our Public Buildings Service, we are the largest public real estate organization in the United States. Mandated to set the highest standards of excellence in design and construction, we are also regarded for our principled leadership in the built environment. The GSA Design Awards recognizes the most outstanding demonstrations of our mission, as well as projects that represent the next generation of achievement. Winning entries exemplify the contributions of architects, artists, and other creative professionals to the quality of federal civilian buildings.
The design awards program does not draw distinctions according to projects’ size or location, nor between type of ownership or delivery method. With the exceptions of on the boards and community engagement entries, submissions are categorized by disciplines like landscape, preservation, and conservation. Applicants may submit completed projects in multiple categories, using separate entries. On the boards comprises GSA‐authorized concepts which are not yet realized, while community engagement submissions should highlight collaboration techniques and stakeholder relationships that improved a project’s outcome. Where relevant, projects must have received concept approval from the Commissioner of the Public Buildings Service within the eligible time frame.
Categories for submission are: architecture, art, community engagement, conservation, engineering, landscape architecture, preservation, urban design and planning, workplace, and on the boards.
Eligibility
Projects authorized by our agency that have completed construction or have had their design concept approved between Jan. 1, 2019 and Sept. 18, 2024 are eligible for awards.
Previously submitted projects that did not win a GSA Design Award may be re‐entered, if they fall within the stated dates.
The 2024 GSA Design Awards is open to:
- Contract design professionals, contractors, construction managers, artists, firms, or organizations that have completed or are working on projects for us or under our authority.
- Our employees or former employees who have or had professional responsibility for a GSA‐authorized project.
Entry categories
Architecture includes new construction and modernization of federally owned buildings or of privately owned, federally occupied buildings.
Art comprises visual arts commissioned for new construction and modernization projects through our Art in Architecture Program.
Community Engagement is a new category for the 2024 cycle of the GSA Design Awards. It refers to collaboration techniques and local relationship development, including community outreach, constituent advocacy, and team communications. Equally important, entrants to this category should demonstrate how their submitted projects reflect, and were improved by, community stakeholders’ input. Concept approval is not required for this category. If the community engagement predates the eligibility period, but the associated project has been active within the last five years, then the engagement is eligible for submission in this category.
Conservation encompasses analysis, treatment, and reinstallation of existing works of art.
Engineering includes structural solutions, mechanical systems, electrical systems, and new applications of technology in newly completed or upgraded buildings.
Landscape consists of newly completed or upgraded public outdoor spaces at federally owned buildings or at privately owned, federally occupied buildings. The category also includes limited‐scope outdoor modernizations.
Preservation refers to projects undertaken in historic structures that are consistent with our preservation policy and stewardship goals, as well as the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation.
Urban Design and Planning recognizes that GSA properties shape adjacent public spaces and neighborhoods. The category applies to plans or projects that support local planning initiatives, improve GSA’s engagement with non-federal stakeholders, or address a community’s needs or advance its long-term resilience.
Workplace projects span the many places where federal employees focus, collaborate, and interact with the public: lobbies and other interior common spaces, workplace interiors including labs, and limited-scope interior modernizations.
On the Boards comprises GSA‐authorized concepts in any of the above categories, which are as yet unbuilt.
Evaluation criteria
While jurors reserve the right to emphasize certain priorities or introduce new standards of excellence, Design Awards juries have historically assessed entries using the following criteria:
- Innovation in devising solutions or meeting specific needs.
- Technical and functional proficiency.
- Contribution to local identity.
- Environmental performance that meets or surpasses our goals.
- Cost effectiveness on a life-cycle basis.
- Timely project delivery.
- Ability of the project to serve as a model for our other projects.
Judging and presentation of winners
We will assemble a jury of nationally recognized private‐sector designers, artists, preservationists, and technical experts to select award recipients at two levels: honor award and citation. The jury may choose to make more than one award in any category, make no award in a category, or switch a project to another category.
Winners will be notified by email in early 2025; this message will include more detailed information about public recognition. Certificates will be presented to winning firms and to our regions under whose authority the work was performed.
Submission requirements
- Contact information for the entrant.
- Basic project information.
- Executive summary (100 words max) describes the project and the reasons it merits consideration for an award.
- Narrative summarizes the project, addressing its purpose, results, and significance to the federal workforce and American people. Narratives typically range between 600–1,500 words, and entrants may employ prose or bulleted text as they see fit.
- New precedents (no more than five bullets) that future agency projects might emulate.
- At least 10 high-resolution images of the project.
- All entries in architecture, art, and landscape must include a site plan. On the Boards entries highlighting achievements in architecture, art, or landscape must include a site plan, as well.
- All entries in conservation and preservation, as well as architecture submissions involving modernization projects, must include before and after photographs. These images must be separate individual files, not flattened layered files.
- Signed copyright release form.
We may request additional materials from award winners for publicity and exhibition purposes. All entry materials become the property of our agency and may be used to publicize the GSA Design Awards and other agency activities.
All submissions are due by noon Eastern time on Oct. 30, 2024.
For more information on the 2024 Call for Entries, email GSA Design Awards.