October 8, 2025
AIA Toledo’s biennial Design Awards program seeks to recognize design excellence in private and public projects and to honor works of distinction by designers based within AIA Toledo’s boundaries. The awards stand as an affirmation of the diversity and quality of our contemporary regional architecture.
The 2025 Design Awards Jury Chair was Andrew Frontini, principal at Perkins&Will and design director of the global firm’s Toronto and Ottawa studios. Andrew’s work is characterized by a strong social agenda, bold material expressions, and considered responses to context. In addition to his role at Perkins&Will, Frontini has taught at the University of Waterloo, the University of Toronto, and the Toronto Metropolitan University School of Architecture.
Joining Andrew on the jury were John Potter, Chair of the Design Excellence Panel at Metrolinx; Jon Loewen, Principal at Perkins&Will Toronto; Dan McTavish, Associate Principal at Perkins&Will Toronto; Aimee Drmic, Senior Associate at Perkins&Will Toronto; and Chris Pommer, Partner at PLANT Architect Inc.
Updated categories brought in forty-one submissions from eleven firms, including two new participants this year. There were 8 Categories in this year’s Design Awards program.
Architecture: New Construction
Honor Award
Project: Ambassador Crawford College of Business & Entrepreneurship
Architect of Record: The Collaborative | Design Architect: Perkins&Will, Minneapolis
Client: Kent State University
Location: Kent, Ohio
Photographer: Corey Gaffer
Description: The Ambassador Crawford College of Business and Entrepreneurship at Kent State University is designed to facilitate interaction between students, faculty, and the broader business community. Located along main street at the northern edge of campus, the project provides an iconic campus gateway from downtown Kent and its residential neighborhoods. From this strategic location, the new school acts as a connector that engages students, faculty, and visitors through themes of visual and phenomenal transparency.
The 145,000sf facility is home to the Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation, the Global Management Center, the Business Analytics Lab, and the Student Success Center. In addition to these interdisciplinary functions, the building includes faculty offices, active learning classrooms, video labs, videoconferencing studios, analytics labs, a behavioral lab, and a high-tech trading lab. The robust programing is connected through an uninterrupted void of public space which cascades, folds, and meanders through each floor of the building. This phenomenal transparency of interconnected spaces is further supported through framed openings which visually connect programs across internal atriums, streets, and external courts.
Jury Comments: This project featured a clear organizational strategy with bold volumetric expression and clever planning. The jury was taken by the creation of “an uninterrupted void of public space which cascades, folds, and meanders through each floor of the building” – effectively an “agora” for business learning. The jury commended the restraint and rigor used in composing both the interior and exterior volumes.
Architecture: New Construction
Citation Award
Project: Silver Creek Elementary School
Firm: The Collaborative
Client: Washington Local Schools
Location: Toledo, OH
Photographer: Matthew McNulty
Description: Washington Local School District serves a diverse student population, where emotional, physical, and economic challenges are not seen as barriers but as calls to action. Following the passage of a successful community-supported levy, the district sought a design partner to translate their mission into transformative built form. This vision began with the construction of two new elementary schools and a series of future moves to reinvigorate the district’s facilities over the coming years.
Strategically sited directly alongside the existing Jackman Elementary, which maintained full operation throughout the duration of construction, Silver Creek’s design had to carefully negotiate a compact site while preserving functionality and safety. The building consolidates two former elementary schools into one unified, forward-looking environment. While the design responds to the histories and identities of both former schools, it also looks ahead, creating a new shared identity for a combined community.
Silver Creek supports roughly 700 K-5 students (and short-term accommodations for grade 6) organized into a series of grade-specific neighborhood pods that serve as micro-communities within the larger school. These pods are anchored by generous extended learning areas designed to support a variety of teaching modalities, from direct instruction to project-based learning and student-led collaboration. The spatial hierarchy reinforces a sense of scale and belonging, making the building feel both expansive and intimate.
Jury Comments: This project focuses on creating a variety of learning environments and a sense of community and belonging for students with a wide range of learning needs. The jury admired the variety of spatial and interior finish responses that are used to break the scale of the school down and instill a sense of play and discovery while responding to the neuro diversity of the population. The high atrium with its playful yellow stairs was a jury favorite for the way it animates and invites.
Architecture: Renovation and Addition
Honor Award
Project: Louella Hodges Reese Hall
Firm: The Collaborative
Client: Central Ohio Technical College / The Ohio State University at Newark
Location: Newark, OH
Photographer: Maconochie Photography
Description: Hodges Hall is a complete renovation and restoration of Founders Hall at the shared campus of The Ohio State University at Newark and Central Ohio Technical College. Built in1968, Founders Hall was the first building on the campus and functioned as a microcosm of the college under one roof. Over 50 years later, the transformation of Founders Hall into Hodges Hall celebrates the building’s unique history on campus while confidently moving into the future.
The 90,000sf renovation includes reprogramming the building to house offices for campus leadership, administration, faculty, and counseling, along with general classrooms, research labs, an auditorium, and an art gallery. This complex mixture of programs is held together by a sequence of public spaces on each level that are linked through a new triple height atrium and monumental stair. Four bays at the core of the structure were demolished to create this interior void which connects underground spaces back to the sky. At the lowest level, a tiered auditorium was repurposed into a large sunken conversation pit for students to lounge. Above the sunken lounge, the atrium is wrapped in salvaged brick, wood slats, and large picture framed windows which visually connect the diverse programs across each floor.
The renovation of Founders Hall resists conventional practices of historic preservation which dictate that architects clearly distinguish between old and new elements. Instead, the detailing and character of the renovated elements were designed not to be embarrassed by, but rather, embrace the original brutalist architecture. Elements such as heavy butcher block guardrails, exposed concrete floors and ceilings, and repetitive grids of light fixtures create a quality of robustness which simultaneously maintains and enhances the existing architecture.
Jury Comments: The jury was impressed by the restraint and sophistication displayed in the transformation of a brutalist era academic building. The surgical incisions in the plan and section, the skillful reuse and reimagining of details and materials and the recreation of the landscape and surrounding public realm all add up to a wonderful transformation. The jury appreciated the team’s approach to the interventions which favored artful integration rather than conspicuous contrast between old and new. The result is a building which feels fresh yet authentic – as if the original building has been allowed to be it best self for a new generation. This approach to renovation takes skill, sensitivity and humility and serves as a model for others who care about our climate and the cultural memory to be found in the legacy architecture of any era.
Architecture: Renovation and Addition
Honor Award
Project: I-HACK: Institute for Health & Cyber Knowledge
Firm: The Collaborative
Client: Gannon University
Location: Erie, PA
Photographer: Maconochie Photography
Description: On the shores of Lake Erie, Gannon University has become the region’s leader in higher education. Gannon’s Institute for Health and Cyber Knowledge (I-HACK) serves as the global headquarters for academic, industry and business owners to design, integrate and protect cybernetic intelligence and data systems worldwide. Located in a former Verizon communications call-center, phase one of the I-HACK program development absorbs the entry and second level of the 6-story building.
With integrated parking on the entry level of I-HACK, the level one interior is comprised of a glass enclosed student gathering space, elevator lobby, and reinvented entryway. In this space, a newly designed stairwell guides the user up to Pierre McCormick Cyber Learning Center where students will learn to design technology and deploy tactics to prevent and protect against cyber-attacks.
Due to the nature in which the building was originally designed, the building is predominantly an opaque box. The lack of windows provided an opportunity to plan the second level with enclosed spaces, such as classrooms and offices, around a central core. The goal was to create pockets of light around the perimeter with classrooms and offices, and by default, leave a darker center core. The idea was to mimic the effect of sunlight flooded rooms while distracting users from the lack of fenestration. By doing so, the open center core allows for enhanced communal / lounge activities and circulation. Without natural light, it was important to deploy various, specialized lighting techniques within the space. The use of a continuous wrapping light fixture connects the center core and gives visual interest, leading the occupants through the space. In addition, the use of a glossy epoxy floor and interior glazing combine with additional accent lighting to create an active space that feels open and engaging.
Jury Comments: The I-HACK project takes an existing windowless bunker of a building with zero architectural merit and transforms it into a dynamic space for design, learning and research around cyber-intelligence and security. The jury was impressed by the team’s ability to create a strong sense of place through the considered integration of finishes, lighting and branding with layered transparency and volumetric connectivity. The presentation gives a sense of a journey with the key program spaces showcased along the way. The interior communicates a sense of purpose, innovation and ultimately “cool” – this is a place where important, cutting-edge work is happening. The identity of the institute is successfully communicated on the exterior through a very strategic use of graphics, lighting and a modest recladding of the existing stair tower. This project does a lot with a little and transforms an eyesore into a beacon of innovation.
Architecture: Renovation and Addition
Citation Award
Project: Inlands
Firm: Duket Architects Planners
Client: N/A
Location: Village of Ottawa Hills, Ohio
Photographer: Matthew McNulty
Description: Built on a hillside overlooking the Ottawa River, this historic home dates back to 1925 when Toledo's place in the auto industry took a pivotal turn. Ward Canaday, an industrious business man, endeavored to build a home and relocate his family to Toledo amidst a successful career at Willys Overland Motors. Rising to president and chairman, Canaday ushered the company from the aftermath of the Great Depression into the trenches of WWII, where it became a leading manufacturer of military vehicles. While living in this home, Canaday laid the foundation for what is now the Jeep, an icon of Toledo industry.
Mr. Canaday commissioned New York architect Frank Forster to envision a French Norman style farmhouse on what was originally an 80-acre rural estate, now part of the Village of Ottawa Hills. Intentionally built with conspicuous imperfections, the home was designed to look centuries old and featured round stone turrets, a thick slate roof, ornately carved oak doors, and exposed hand-hewn timber.
Nearly 100 years later and after decades of unoccupied neglect, our client pursued a vision to revitalize the structure, honoring the history and charm of the original architecture while introducing a calm contemporary aesthetic.
The home underwent extensive restoration; foundation repairs, numerous structural interventions, a complete window replacement, gutted and reimagined bathrooms, and modern mechanical and electrical systems were installed.
A new kitchen addition with vaulted ceilings and minimalist sliding glass doors were carefully placed to complement the home's volume and leave the existing roofline unobstructed. A custom-blend limestone exterior and pre-patina zinc metal roof were selected to harmonize with adjacent materials. The use of a warm interior palette, herringbone flooring, and an elongated kitchen island enhance the many features of the old home’s interior.
Jury Comments: The jury appreciated the rigor, restraint and sensitivity of this small addition to a rambling heritage home built in the Norman style in 1925. In it its proportion, materiality and detailing this addition strikes just the right balance – it is obviously contemporary but blends beautifully into the articulated composition of the original house. The Jury noted the thoughtful siting, simple but effective landscape treatment and the well detailed linkage that allow this little jewel to sing in harmony with the main house.
Architecture: Renovation and Addition
Citation Award
Project: The Dumont Building
Firm: Technicon Design Group
Client: Dumont Revitalization
Location: Ottawa, Ohio
Photographer: Liz Weddington
Description: Construction of the DuMont Hotel began in 1900, led by Jacob DuMont. At the time, the building was a significant milestone for the region, becoming the first hotel in Putnam County to have indoor plumbing. It also featured amenities like steam heat, electricity, a ladies’ reception room, a bar, and a wine room. For over a century, the building stood as a downtown landmark and a gathering place for the Ottawa community.
Before its full renovation in 2024, the building had been sporadically used as a bar known as “The Schnipke Inn.” However, the upper two floors had fallen into disrepair and were condemned by a local judge in the late 1980s. The 18,000-square-foot masonry structure was on the brink of becoming unusable until four local small business owners came together to purchase and restore it. Their goal was to revitalize the building and provide a home for other small businesses in the community. A Vibrant Communities Grant from Jobs Ohio helped bridge the financial gap and made the renovation feasible.
The building owners also served as the professional design team and were tasked with designing a project that reflected the history of the building, served a new mixed-use program, and balanced a budget and project proforma. Attention to detail, quality, and cost were paramount. Negotiating lease rates and writing grant proposals were skills acquired along the journey. Today, the Dumont Building is once again a hub in the heart of downtown Ottawa.
Jury Comments: The renovation of the Dumont Building was the strongest of several renovation/transformations to 19th century brick commercial buildings submitted in this category. What differentiated this project amongst its peers was the holistic approach that the design team and client took to creating a renewed mix used hub in downtown Ottawa. By taking advantage of available grants for small business incubation and partnering with the town, the project achieves a vitality of programming that spreads beyond the building into the surrounding streetscape. The jury could imagine the transformative impact that this project could have on its community, serving as a magnet for future, like-minded development. The brew pub was particularly well handled with a nice sense of finish detail that opens to the street.
Small Project
Citation Award
Project: Toledo Parklets
Firm: mADE LLC
Client: ConnecToledo
Location: Toledo, Ohio
Photographer: mADE LLC
Description: From the ephemeral joy of Toledo Design Collective’s Park(ing) Day, a more enduring vision for urban reprieve was born. Our firm, fresh from that spirited endeavor, received acommission from ConnecToledo: to conceive and construct two permanent, yet wonderfully mobile, parklets for the City of Toledo.
Our design philosophy for this project centered on transforming a mere street parking space into an exterior functional sculpture. Through the artful duplication of elements, wecrafted a sense of intimate enclosure, an urban sanctuary amidst the city's pulse. To cocoon visitors from the ceaseless flow of traffic, a slatted structure gracefully extends andcurves, enveloping those within. These slats, more than just a visual flourish, offer dappled shade, while strategically placed Corten steel planters bursting with tall grasses providean additional layer of privacy, imbuing the space with an undeniable park-like serenity.
The very essence of the primary structure speaks to a commitment to sustainable innovation. Milled from 4’x8’ sheets of 100% post-consumer recycled plastic, the enclosure andfixed seating are testaments to responsible design. The thoughtful spacing of the slats ensures that adjacent businesses retain their vital connection and visibility to the street. Theseingenious parklets are not monolithic structures; rather, each is composed of three interconnected modules, allowing for effortless relocation or seasonal storage, a true embodimentof adaptable urban design.
Jury Comments: The jury applauded the project’s ingenuity and playfulness in creating a vital urban amenity that supports local businesses and public life in its form and function. By creating a kit of parts from post-consumer plastic, the team unsured a design that is sustainable and adaptable to multiple configurations. The curved slats provide some shade and maintain enough permeability to work in concert with local business and the surrounding streetscape. The jury was impressed by the variety of spatial enclosure that the system can provide and noted how well the vaulted shade structures worked in a variety of contexts – whether echoing the arched opening of Toledo’s grand historic structures or proving much needed visual delight to more modest streetscapes.
Interior Design
Honor Award
Project: I-HACK: Institute for Health & Cyber Knowledge
Firm: The Collaborative
Client: Gannon University
Location: Erie, PA
Photographer: Maconochie Photography
Description: On the shores of Lake Erie, Gannon University has become the region’s leader in higher education. Gannon’s Institute for Health and Cyber Knowledge (I-HACK) serves as the global headquarters for academic, industry and business owners to design, integrate and protect cybernetic intelligence and data systems worldwide. Located in a former Verizon communications call-center, phase one of the I-HACK program development absorbs the entry and second level of the 6-story building.
With integrated parking on the entry level of I-HACK, the level one interior is comprised of a glass enclosed student gathering space, elevator lobby, and reinvented entryway. In this space, a newly designed stairwell guides the user up to Pierre McCormick Cyber Learning Center where students will learn to design technology and deploy tactics to prevent and protect against cyber-attacks.
Due to the nature in which the building was originally designed, the building is predominantly an opaque box. The lack of windows provided an opportunity to plan the second level with enclosed spaces, such as classrooms and offices, around a central core. The goal was to create pockets of light around the perimeter with classrooms and offices, and by default, leave a darker center core. The idea was to mimic the effect of sunlight flooded rooms while distracting users from the lack of fenestration. By doing so, the open center core allows for enhanced communal / lounge activities and circulation. Without natural light, it was important to deploy various, specialized lighting techniques within the space. The use of a continuous wrapping light fixture connects the center core and gives visual interest, leading the occupants through the space. In addition, the use of a glossy epoxy floor and interior glazing combine with additional accent lighting to create an active space that feels open and engaging.
Jury Comments: This project stood out for its masterful integration of interior elements to create an immersive interior environment, perfectly expressing the client’s brand and mission. The jury was particularly impressed with the way the design used unique material expressions (the metal mesh ceiling), custom lighting and layered transparency to compensate for the absence of daylight and views afforded by the base building architecture. The project photography conveys a sense of episodic discovery which communicates the program’s innovative nature while giving the space an expansive quality.
Interior Design
Citation Award
Project: The R
Firm: The Collaborative
Client: Rossford Schools
Location: Rossford, OH
Photographer: Matthew McNulty
Description: Located between Rossford Elementary and the Athletic Complex, The R symbolizes Rossford Schools’ commitment to investing in the next generation. The program and future-proofed design of the 79,760 square-foot facility is tailored to help students and student athletes succeed for years to come. The heart of the building is a 49,000 square-foot fieldhouse, included everything needed for athletes, Esports, and STEAM programs to fine tune their preparations for competition. Nestled inside the 200M track are a 40-yard footballand soccer turf field, two tennis courts, and a volleyball court. The entire area is also striped allowing the band to practice their routines for gameday performances. A sleek glassband traces the track's straightaway, flooding the field house with natural light and creating a visual connection between its dynamic activity and passersby.
Sized with the verticality required to kick field goals and practice soccer, the building slopes up to the public-facing side of the building, providing ample space for branding as abillboard for Rossford Schools and establishing a confident sense of placemaking within the Rossford Schools community. To break up the mass of the volume, the building skintransitions between smooth and corrugated textures as the building stretches north. This is punctuated with tall glass openings and celebratory entry facing the drop-off area,allowing daylight to flood the two-story support building, and a block of branded burgundy panel, providing a perfect backdrop for an integrated Rossford ‘R’ logo made of extrudedaluminum profiles and composite panels.
Jury Comments: Pre-engineered structures have an economy and logic that is often considered to limit design opportunity. The designers of The R have managed to work with the inherent constraints of the system to create spaces that are well ordered, adaptable and unique. The jury commended the coordination of building systems (mechanical, lighting and pre-engineered structure) with branding and the graphic nature of the program elements (playing surfaces and running tracks) to create a high bay field house that feels lofty, uncluttered and sophisticated. The complex has a clever set of program augmentations that support a wide range of uses, making the R a hub for social and academic use as well as athletics. The jury noted the skill with which the design team integrated this variety of smaller program spaces with the elements of the pre-engineered structure. The jury noted that the E sports lounge in particular, created a fun, immersive and brand forward destination within this complex.
Special Jury Award for The Future of the Profession
Project: Louella Hodges Reese Hall
Firm: The Collaborative
Client: Central Ohio Technical College / The Ohio State University at Newark
Location: Newark, OH
Photographer: Maconochie Photography
Description: Hodges Hall is a complete renovation and restoration of Founders Hall at the shared campus of The Ohio State University at Newark and Central Ohio Technical College. Built in1968, Founders Hall was the first building on the campus and functioned as a microcosm of the college under one roof. Over 50 years later, the transformation of Founders Hall into Hodges Hall celebrates the building’s unique history on campus while confidently moving into the future.
The 90,000sf renovation includes reprogramming the building to house offices for campus leadership, administration, faculty, and counseling, along with general classrooms, research labs, an auditorium, and an art gallery. This complex mixture of programs is held together by a sequence of public spaces on each level that are linked through a new triple height atrium and monumental stair. Four bays at the core of the structure were demolished to create this interior void which connects underground spaces back to the sky. At the lowest level, a tiered auditorium was repurposed into a large sunken conversation pit for students to lounge. Above the sunken lounge, the atrium is wrapped in salvaged brick, wood slats, and large picture framed windows which visually connect the diverse programs across each floor.
The renovation of Founders Hall resists conventional practices of historic preservation which dictate that architects clearly distinguish between old and new elements. Instead, the detailing and character of the renovated elements were designed not to be embarrassed by, but rather, embrace the original brutalist architecture. Elements such as heavy butcher block guardrails, exposed concrete floors and ceilings, and repetitive grids of light fixtures create a quality of robustness which simultaneously maintains and enhances the existing architecture.
Jury Comments: This project demonstrates a sensitivity to existing structures that in the jury’s opinion points to the future of the profession as north American cities and communities mature. We can’t afford to keep tearing down and rebuilding when there are structures everywhere that represent embodied resources, labor and cultural value. While the use of technology and AI points to the whole transformation of the practice, in this jury’s opinion, architects will need to refocus on the basics to best serve society. Learning to read the bones of an existing structure and optimize its potential – that will be the critical skill needed by tomorrow’s architects.
Student
Citation Award
Project: The Paramount Lot
Student: Cameron Hunt
Location: Toledo, Ohio
Description: Using Toledo's history of art and graffiti, the Paramount lot was transformed to be a center of art and culture. Creating three different building types and styles, art is still the centerpiece of this site. Art is unique, different, and beautiful, and it was pushed to create three different buildings that are still all interconnected through art. The purpose of the site was to revitalize Toledo, creating this vibrant lot where anyone can enjoy the experience.
Jury Comments: The jury was impressed by the visual storytelling and graphic innovation displayed in this project. The narrative behind the transformation of Paramount Lot into a home for living arts is supported by an almost surreal set of images where architecture, landscape and atmosphere immerse the viewer in an imagined future. The painterly use of color in combination with AI generated textures , digitally modeled space and more conventional (but radically colored) architectural graphics is both historically rooted (the jury noted a resonance with Bernard Tschumi’s and OMA’s Park la Vilette competition graphics as well as the furniture, interiors and graphics of Ettore Sottsass and the Memphis Group ) and riffing on current and future trends. (Squid games).
2025 Design Awards Categories
Architecture: New Construction – 11 total project entries
New construction projects of any typology.
Architecture: Renovation & Addition – 12 total project entries
Additions to existing buildings or projects involving extensive remodeling that change the character of the original building.
Interior Design – 7 total project entries
Projects focusing primarily on the design and development of the interior environment. Projects can be new construction or renovations to existing buildings.
Small Project – 2 total project entries
Small project construction, renovation, object, work of environmental art or architectural design element up to 5,000 gsf.
Unbuilt Project – 1 total project entries
Projects that have not been built, but reflect significant design merit or are speculative in nature. Projects submitted in this category may not be submitted for future design awards if the project were to be built at a later date.
Detail Award (new for 2025) – 4 total project entries
This category celebrates smaller features of design where coordination and craft converge. This category seeks to highlight elements that exemplify a high standard in the architecture and design industry
25 Year – 0 total project entries
This award, recognizing architectural design of enduring significance, is conferred on a project that has stood the test of time for 25 to 35 years prior to the current year, that deserves special recognition for its influence, distinctiveness, enhancement of the built environment, and that have contributed meaningfully to American life and architecture.
Student – 4 total project entries
Projects completed by students enrolled in an architectural program and work completed in an architectural design studio or as part of a competition entry. If the project is team-based, all team member names should be included. In addition, the faculty member responsible for the studio should be noted. Project must have been completed in the last 12 months.