Design Awards Gala
17th Annual Design Awards Gala
November 6th, 2025 | 6-9:30pm | David Brower Center
Submissions Close September 15th, 2025 at 11:59pm PT
AIA East Bay recognizes outstanding achievements in architecture and design. This prestigious competition is designed to recognize the contributions of teams of architects, contractors, and developers in creating and implementing outstanding building projects.
This honor is given to architects and firms for projects that demonstrate exemplary design skill of formal, functional and technical requirements, including ecological and environmental sustainability, social responsibility, and a strong sense of place.
This Year’s Theme
“Beyond: Celebrating design that honors the seen and the unseen.”
Excellent design creates ripple effects far beyond the project itself. A small space may influence a global discussion, and a single structure may facilitate healing in a community.
Meet Our Jurors!
Michael Pyatok, FAIA | Pyatok, Principal Emeritus
Michael Pyatok has been an activist, architect, and professor of architectural design for more than 50 years. Since opening his office in 1984 in Oakland, California, Mike has designed over 50,000 units of housing for lower-income households, students, seniors, and market-rate renters and owners in the United States and abroad. His participatory design approach has brought clients, users, and community members into collaboration, and has helped participants visualize ideas and evaluate choices. Mike has built a legacy of helping communities plan, design, and execute new housing, neighborhood plans, and community facilities.
Isabel Fermoso Thompson | Turner Construction Company, Design Manager
Eric J. Cesal | Design for Adaptation, Co-Founder
Eric J. Cesal is a designer, educator, writer, and noted post-disaster expert, having led on-the-ground reconstruction programs after the Haiti earthquake, the Great East Japan Tsunami, and Superstorm Sandy. Cesal’s formal training is as an architect, with international development, economics and design futurism among his areas of expertise.
Cesal has been called “Architecture’s First Responder” by The Daily Beast for his work leading Architecture for Humanity’s post-disaster programs from 2010 to 2014. He has been interviewed widely on the subjects of disaster and resilience by publications such as The New Yorker, Architectural Record, Design Intelligence Quarterly, Architect Magazine, Foreign Policy Magazine and Monocle.
Matthew Bunza, AIA, RA, NCARB, NOMA | Metaamo, Founding Principal
Matthew Bunza is an Architect, designer and educator who is dedicated to the creation of meaningful environments and unique spatial experience. he co-founded Metaamo as an international platform for bridging oppositions – across practice and theory; east and west; and high-end with high-impact – where design centers on uplifting people, cultures, and diverse communities.
Thank You To Our Sponsors!
