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2023 Design Excellence Awards

Design Excellence Awards logo year 2023

2023 Design Excellence Award Winners

The Design Excellence Awards were presented on the evening of October 19 at Celebrate Design 2023. An independent jury of accomplished design and development professionals honored three developments with Design Excellence Awards and two developments with special citations which exemplify Montgomery County’s best architecture and building design. The event was co-hosted by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Potomac Valley Chapter, which presented its Design + Leadership Awards at the event.

  • urban skyline of tall buildings with The Wilson and The Elm at center
    Winner of the Design Excellence Award for Building and Site Design
    The Wilson and The Elm
    Architects: Shalom Baranes Associates Architects
    Location: Bethesda, Maryland
  • four gray brick town homes each with yellow, white of gray siding on portion of structure
    Winner of the Design Excellence Award for Exceptional Housing
    Artspace Silver Spring
    Architects: BKV Group
    Location: Silver Spring, Maryland
  • two story modern building with glass exterior on first story and flag poles outside
    Award of Merit for Architectural Design
    Good Hope Neighborhood Recreation Center
    Architects: Sorg Design
    Location: Silver Spring, Maryland
  • path through greenspace alongside a glass building with retail at bottom level
    Award of Merit for Architecture and Urban Design
    Marriott International Headquarters & Hotel
    Architects: Gensler
    Location: Bethesda, Maryland
  • paths through greenspace leading up to building entance
    Award of Merit for Urban Design and Landscape
    Pike and Rose Landscape Plan
    Landscape architects: Clinton+Ries Landscape Architects
    Location: North Bethesda, Maryland
four people posed in front of living wall
six people posed in front of living wall
Event attendees on laza outside M-NCPPC Wheaton Headquarters
six people posed in front of living wall
four people posed in front of living wall
man tapes napkin with building sketch on pillar
four people posed in front of living wall
artist creates graphic recording
Cookies printed with Celebrate Design logo
room with large audience; presentation screen at front with Design Excellence Awards logo

2023 Design Excellence Award Jury

Evan Goldman

Evan Goldman – Evan is the Vice President of Land Acquisitions and Development for EYA. He brings more than 20 years of mixed-use and multi-family development experience, not only in sourcing new deals but also shepherding projects through the development process. Prior to joining EYA, he was a Vice President of Development at Federal Realty Investment Trust in Rockville, MD, where he was primarily responsible for managing the development of Pike & Rose, a 24-acre, 3.4 million–square foot, award-winning, mixed-use neighborhood in North Bethesda. He was previously a partner at the Holladay Corporation, an urban infill mixed-use development company in Washington, DC, and an associate for Tishman Speyer Properties in New York City. Evan holds an MBA in Real Estate and Finance from the Wharton Business School and a B.S. in Design and Environmental Analysis from Cornell University.  He has guest-lectured at Cornell University, Georgetown University, the Catholic University of America, and the University of Maryland College Park. He currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Urban Land Institute Washington and was a founding board member of Friends of White Flint. He received the 2012 Livable Communities Leadership Award from the Washington, DC–based Coalition for Smarter Growth.

Marina Khoury

Marina Khoury, RA, LEED AP, CNU – Marina is an expert in sustainable urban redevelopment, regional and master planning, transit-oriented developments, and form-based codes. As a partner at DPZ CoDesign, she has been Director of its Washington, DC–area office since 2007. A licensed architect and fluent in several languages, she has worked on the design and implementation of projects in the United States, Canada, Australia, Europe, and the Middle East, including ground-breaking new codes around the world to mandate resilient urbanism. She speaks widely on issues related to Smart Growth and to affordable, sustain­able, and walkable communities, including at the United Nations. She co-led the development of the successful Miami21 code, the country’s first form-based zoning code, and her strong track-record of getting such codes adopted has created a predictable framework for resilient places.  Marina is one of 20 members on the Expert Committee of Global Forum on Human Settlements (UNEP-GFHS) International Green Model City (IGMC) Initiative under the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). She served as a board member of the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) DC chapter from 2007 to 2012, and she was made a CNU fellow in 2022. She served as chair of the executive board of Smart Growth America’s Form-Based Code Institute (FBCI) from 2018 to 2021 and is a member of the Lambda Alpha International George Washington Chapter, a member of the Urban Guild, and a LEED Accredited professional.

Georgeanne Matthews

Georgeanne Matthews, PhD – Georgeanne specializes in public design and her portfolio comprises the institutional architecture that fortifies a community’s identity and sense of place. She joined the University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation in 2022 as an assistant professor of architecture to focus on her research in spatializing memory, community development, and design of the public realm. Her passion for designing resilient communities is informed by a diverse professional and pedagogical resume, including having previously served as interim Director of Urban Practice at the Catholic University of America. She began her architecture career at Grimm and Parker Architects and later at Moody Nolan Architects, in both the Nashville and Washington, DC, offices, and has since managed several real estate development projects.  In addition, Georgeanne is the founder and director of the City Lab Urban Design Collective in Washington, DC, a nonprofit group that assists neighborhood design projects to support underserved residents. Georgeanne is committed to research and architectural projects that focus on creating just and resilient communities for 21st century living, while preserving the history and character of place.

Mark McInturff

Mark McInturff, FAIA – Mark is a native of Washington, DC, and received his bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Maryland School of Architecture in 1972, as part of its first graduating class, and has taught at the University of Maryland since 1980. Currently an annual visiting critic with a focus on design competitions, he was a visiting critic at the Catholic University of America’s School of Architecture and Planning from 1995 to 2004, and he was elevated to the College of Fellows of the AIA in 2000 and made a University of Maryland Kea Professor in 2003.  Today, his five-person firm McInturff Architects works on residential, commercial, and small institutional projects; its work has been frequently published, both locally and nationally, and received more than 200 regional and national design awards.  It has been the subject of three monographs, Mark McInturff: House Design (2006), In House: McInturff Architects (2013), and HomeWork: New Houses | Changed Houses (2022).

Lee Quill

Lee Quill, FAIA – Lee is a founding principal of Cunningham | Quill Architects in Washington, D.C. and has over 35 years of experience in urban design and master planning and in higher education, residential, infill mixed-use, commercial, and institutional architecture. A nationally recognized leader in community engagement and design, he has served on the DC Mayoral Task Force on Transit-Oriented Development, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Government’s 2050 Initiative (Region Forward and Metropolitan Development Policy Committee), and the Urban Design Advisory Committee, and the Carlyle-East Eisenhower Design Review Board in the City of Alexandria, Virginia. He also served as the Design Team Lead for national AIA Sustainable Design Assessment Teams in Colorado (2011) and Washington (2012) and has been a juror for the EPA National Awards for Smart Growth Achievement, the URBAN LAB, and the 2022 APA National Capital Area Chapter Planning Awards, among others. Lee has received numerous design awards including from the AIA, the Congress for the New Urbanism, the Washington Architectural Foundation, and the APA Virginia.

Staff Contact

Paul Mortensen
301-495-4523
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