AIA San Diego Design Awards
Design Excellence in San Diego: Serving the AIA San Diego Design Awards
Each year, AIA San Diego's Design Awards, known regionally as DxSD (Design Excellence in San Diego), recognize the best architecture and design across the region. Michael Cintron has been involved with the program since 2018, in a range of roles over the years, from helping run the event, to volunteering, to serving on the Design Awards Committee, the working group that plans and organizes the competition from submissions through deliberation to the reception itself.
Photo by Alberto Garcia, agarcias.com
What the Design Awards recognize
The Design Awards are among the highest honors in the local architecture and design community. Each year the program draws more than 100 submissions across a range of categories, from single-family homes and multifamily housing to interior architecture, preservation, urban design, unbuilt work, and student projects, along with a dedicated Tijuana category that reflects the binational character of the region. Winning projects are chosen through a rigorous review by a jury recruited from outside San Diego, a deliberate choice that keeps the process fair and the bar high.
The awards are anchored in the AIA Framework for Design Excellence, the profession's shared definition of what good design should do in the twenty-first century. The Framework sets out ten principles, spanning integration, equitable communities, ecosystems, water, economy, energy, well-being, resources, change, and discovery, that together point toward a zero-carbon, healthy, just, resilient, and equitable built environment. These principles apply to every architect, client, and project, regardless of size or type, and they give the jury a consistent lens for evaluating work. Design excellence, in this framing, is not beauty alone. It is beauty joined to performance, responsibility, and a strong sense of place.
Photo by Alberto Garcia, agarcias.com
Behind the scenes
Much of Michael's contribution has come behind the scenes, in an advisory capacity that supports the committee and AIA San Diego staff in putting on a successful program. That has meant lending a hand with event production and offering some institutional memory: how the awards have operated in past years, what has worked well, and where small refinements might help this year's program run even more smoothly. The credit for the Design Awards belongs to the staff and volunteers who carry the heaviest load, and it has been a privilege to support their work.
Photo by Alberto Garcia, agarcias.com
Why it matters
Design awards are easy to read as a night of trophies. At their best they are something more: a way for a profession to say what it values, in public, through the work it chooses to elevate. Recognizing the right projects helps set the standard for what comes next.
If you are an architect or designer in the region, the Design Awards are worth entering, and the ceremony is worth attending. The work San Diego and Tijuana produce deserves the spotlight, and the region is better for celebrating it.
Learn more about the AIA SD Design Awards…