2026 SARA NY DESIGN AWARDS
JUNE 4th AT THE NEW YORKER HOTEL
SUBMISSIONS NOW OPEN!
SARA NY Council celebrates excellence in architecture and design through the SARA NY Design Awards, which attracts entries from across the country and around the world from individuals, firms, and students of architecture and allied disciplines. Awards are granted for a wide range of categories and project types, and all entrants will be invited to attend the awards ceremony held in New York, New York on June 4th, 2026 at the iconic New Yorker Hotel. SARA NY Design Awards offer awards of Merit, Honor, and Excellence. Submission is open globally. This year SARA NY will be offering a student scholarship of $5000 to an outstanding student project; additional submission requirements required to be considered. Submissions open January 5th, 2026 and run through April 3rd, 2026.
*Please remember to credit ALL participating students, architects, and designers who worked on the submitted project.
SUBMIT YOUR DESIGN PROJECT HERE
*Under CHAPTER, Please Remember to Select SARA NY Council 2026 Design Awards.
Sponsorship
Sponsorship opportunities to the 2026 SARA NY Design Awards are now available. Promote your firm, brand, or celebrate a winning project! Learn more at the link below.
Awards
Awards will be given with the following distinctions: Excellence, Merit, Honor
Entries are judged based upon any or all of the following:
Clarity of Concept, Strength and Uniqueness of Solution, and Accurate
Scope of Work
Response to Project’s Context of Rural, Suburban, Urban, Campus, or Other
Unique Neighboring Conditions
Appropriateness, Applicability, and Function
Overall Design Aesthetics
Creativity, Innovation, Ingenuity, and Invention
Social/Cultural/Community Relevance
Award recipients will be notified by May 2026.
Awards will be presented at the SARA NY Design Awards Celebration, June 4th, 2026 at The New Yorker Hotel.
Entrants and winners will be invited to attend along with their clients, consultants, contractors, fellow students, professors, and families.
Eligibility
Architecture, planning, landscape architecture, and design projects may be submitted by individuals, firms, or students of these disciplines. See Project Categories for a complete list. No project may be submitted which has previously received a SARA NY Council Design Award. Projects must credit ALL participating designers on the project. Projects must be built by June 4th, 2026 unless entered in the Unbuilt category.
*Student Scholarship Eligibility: All currently enrolled students are eligible to submit applications to the 2026 SARA NY Design Awards for their design projects as small groups, duos, or individuals; projects by an entire class will not be eligible this year. If applying for this year’s SARA NY Scholarship, please note that only individual projects, not collaborations with other students, will be considered for scholarship. To apply to this year’s Katherine Marie Firneis Memorial Student Scholarship, students must submit additional material. Read below for further details.
Important Dates
SUBMISSIONS NOW OPEN
for the 2026 SARA NY Design Awards
APRIL 3rd, 2026 - DEADLINE
Deadline for 2026 SARA NY Design Award Submissions
June 4th, 2026
2026 SARA NY Design Awards
The New Yorker - 481 8th Ave, New York, NY 10001
6pm-10pm
Categories
Entries are to be submitted into any one of the categories listed below. Category assignments may be revised at the discretion of the jury. Each project will be judged upon its own merit separate from other submissions, regardless of category.
Single-Family Residential
Multi-Family Residential: Condominiums, Apartments
Multi-Family Residential: Affordable Housing, Low Income Housing, Market Rate Housing (Quantity and Percentage required.)
Commercial: Office, Retail, Industrial, Mixed-Use
Institutional: Educational, Health-Related, Religious
Cultural
Government
Urban Design
Additions and Small Projects
Renovation, Restoration, and Adaptive Re-use
Sustainable Design
Unbuilt and Theoretical Projects
Architectural Interiors
Landscape Architecture (in any of the above categories)
Planning: City and Regional, Urban, Feasibility Studies
Related Arts: Industrial Design, Furniture, Lighting, Hardware, etc.
Graphic Communication: Rendering, Computer Graphics, Modeling, Virtual Reality Imaging
Material Sciences
AI in Architecture (Free category sponsored by ARKDesign.AI)
Student Projects (in any of the above categories)
Entry Fees
SARA Members $225
SARA Non-members $325
Students $30
Venue
The New Yorker Hotel - 481 8th Ave, New York, NY 10001
Stay
The New Yorker Hotel will have 30 rooms available for participants of the 2026 SARA NY DESIGN AWARDS for the evening June 4th, 2026 (5 rooms are available for a 2 night stay). If you anticipate attending, please consider staying at the iconic New Yorker Hotel at a specially discounted rate for SARA NY.
You can book your stay here: SARA NY Reservation Link
Questions?
For any queries, please contact SARA|NY Executive Director, Justin Brown, at webmaster@sarany.org.