Ottawa Urban Design Awards

On October 11, 2011, the City of Ottawa hosted the fourth edition of the Ottawa Urban Design Awards. The biennial awards program celebrates projects built in the City of Ottawa that exhibit urban design excellence. The next award ceremony will take place in the fall of 2013, recognizing outstanding projects built between September 1, 2011, and September 1, 2013.

Good urban design is how buildings, landscapes and adjacent public spaces function together to enhance the public realm. It includes the art of place making and designing the built environment to be appreciated and enjoyed at the human scale.

The winning team of each category receives an Award of Excellence, which acknowledges a project that achieves urban design excellence and meets the judging criteria. Other entries in each category are eligible to win an Award of Merit.

An important distinction between the two awards is that the winners of the Awards of Excellence are forwarded to compete nationally in the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s Urban Design Awards Program as Ottawa’s submission. Ottawa has won an award each of the three times the RAIC has run their program.