Edmonton Urban Design Awards

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2025 Award Submissions are Now Closed

Thank you to everyone who entered the Edmonton Urban Design Awards. Winners will be announced at the awards gala November 20 in City Hall.

Key Dates

July 14, 2025-Competition opens
August 11, 2025-Competition closes at 4pm
November 20, 2025-Winners announced at City Hall

Award Categories

The Edmonton Urban Design Awards celebrate a variety of projects of all scales and types. Projects can be submitted under one of the following categories:

Civic Design
Climate Resilience
Community Projects
Heritage Design
Housing Innovation
Urban Architecture
Urban Design Plans
Urban Fragments
Student Projects

Special Recognition for Accessibility

Accessibility is a core criteria in the evaluation of all projects. In addition to this foundational standard, the jury may also give special recognition to projects that demonstrate exceptional innovation or leadership in creating an accessible built environment.

People’s Choice Award

All projects reviewed by the judges will be automatically eligible for the People’s Choice Award. The People’s Choice Award is chosen by Edmontonians and encourages public conversation about good design while promoting the local design community.

Student Mentoring

This year, Media Art Design Edmonton (MADE) will be supporting students in crafting compelling, well-considered, and visually refined submissions. MADE has compiled a guidebook to help students in preparing their submissions. They are also offering information sessions and individual mentoring to students who would like more feedback before submitting.

To take advantage of this opportunity, please register for a session with MADE.

Jury

This year’s jury includes:

Wanda Dalla Costa, Architect
Marc Hallé, Landscape Architect
Janna Levitt, Architect
Eleanor Mohammed, Urban Planner
Carol Ross Barney, Architect

Judging Process

Submissions will be evaluated in late September 2025. The jury will adjudicate virtually, evaluating submissions collaboratively to arrive at a collective decision.

Judging Details

Submissions which do not meet the evaluation criteria may be excluded from the judging process. Submissions must demonstrate how the evaluation criteria of the respective category have been met (see above). The jury will be responsible for selecting the winning submissions that most completely satisfy all the criteria in each of the categories.

Submissions that do not meet the submission requirements (see above) will not be advanced to the jury; rationale explaining this rejection will be prepared, and available to the entrant upon request. There will be no appeal of this decision.

Awards will be given at the sole discretion of the jury. Decisions formed by the jury are final and may not be appealed. There is no limit to the number of awards that may be given. There is no guarantee that any awards will be given in each category. The jury has the discretion to move a project to a different category, or multiple categories other than the one selected at the time of submission.

Rationale for each of the winners will be explained in the publicized awards booklet. Submissions reviewed by the jury will be publicized and featured on the competition website for an online vote to determine the winner of the People’s Choice Award.