Introducing the 2025 Best of Design Editors’ Picks

The end of the year is fast approaching, which means it’s time to reveal the results of AN’s annual Best of Design Awards! Now in its 13th edition, Best of Design reflects on the year’s achievements by recognizing and crowning recent project across typologies and across the globe. Ahead of the forthcoming announcements of this year’s Honorable Mentions, Winners, and Project of the Year, AN is pleased to introduce the 2025 Best of Design Awards Editors’ Picks.

What can this crop of projects, and the submitted entries overall, share about the state of the design? This year, Best of Design had the highest amount of entries in residential categories for both single family homes and multi-unit buildings. Residential projects continue to be a field ripe for young and established architects to make a mark. As such, residential projects are well represented in this roundup and makes these accomplishments that much more impressive.

The following were selected by AN’s editors with insight and input from this year’s jury, as seen below. Take a look at this year’s cohort of jurors, the largest panel for AN’s awards to date, and meet the projects that deserve a special spotlight this year.

Adaptive Reuse—Education

Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center

Architectural Lighting

Torrey Heights by Breakthrough

Building Renovation—Commercial

Building Renovation—Education

Harvard Medical School, Francis A. Countway Library

Building Renovation—Hospitality

Commercial–Hospitality

Commercial–Office (Large)

NBCUniversal Campus Project

Commercial–Office (Small)

East Seattle Partners Office Building

Commercial–Retail

Commercial–Sports & Entertainment

Victory Capital Performance Center

Cultural

Education—Kindergartens, Primary & High School

Khalil Gibran International Academy and P.S. 456

The Branch School, Hightower Middle School

Exhibition Design

Charles Darwin – A Life in Letters

Facades

University of Florida, Malachowsky Hall

Healthcare

Stanford University School of Medicine Center for Academic Medicine

Higher Education—Instructional

University of Toronto Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus

Interior—Institutional

Small Business Innovation Hub

Interior—Residential (Renovation)

Interior—Restaurant & Bar

Interior—Retail

Interior—Workplace (Large)

Interior—Workplace (Small)

Landscape

Helios Education Foundation

Residential—Mixed-use

VooDoo Affordable Housing

Residential–Multi-unit (Large)

Residential–Multi-unit (Small)

Residential–Single-unit (Large)

Residential–Single-unit (Small)

Restoration & Preservation

Social Impact

Anduhyaun Women’s Shelter

Make the Road New York Community Center

Student Work

Temporary Installation

Unbuilt–Cultural & Civic

Mercat del Peix Research Center

Unbuilt–Landscape, Urban Design & Master Plan

Greater Greenways: The New York City Greenway Plan

Unbuilt–Residential—Multi-unit

A Building Hugging a Breezeway

Unbuilt–Residential—Single-unit