AIA Cleveland is pleased to announce the details for the 2026 AIA Cleveland Design Awards, one of the region’s most anticipated annual celebrations of architectural excellence. This year’s event will take place on Friday, November 6, 2026, at the Tinkham Veale University Center on the campus of Case Western Reserve University.

The Design Awards honor outstanding architecture across Northeast Ohio and highlight the designers, firms, clients, students, and partners shaping the built environment of our communities. The evening brings together the region’s architecture and design community for a vibrant celebration of innovation, creativity, and impact.

AIA Cleveland is honored to welcome Tod Williams as the 2026 keynote speaker and jury chair. As founding partner of Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, Williams has spent decades creating architecture rooted in place and enriched by light, materiality, and craftsmanship.

His firm’s celebrated work includes The Barnes Foundation, the David Geffen Hall Public Spaces renovation, the Asia Society Hong Kong Center, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, and the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. The practice has earned some of architecture’s highest distinctions, including the Praemium Imperiale, the National Medal of Arts, and the AIA Architecture Firm Award.