AIA COTE Top Ten Award

AIA COTE Top Ten Award
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Presented by
Formerly called	Earth Day Top Ten Award
First awarded	April 22, 1997
Last awarded	2022
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The AIA COTE Top Ten is an award developed by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment (COTE) in 1997 to recognize ten projects annually that innovate in sustainable design practices. The COTE Top Ten is a rating system that specifically rewards architects in integrating design with environmental performance.

History and Background

AIA COTE defines sustainability and sustainable design separately, saying sustainability “envisions the enduring prosperity of all living things,” and sustainable design “seeks to create communities, buildings, and products that contribute to this vision.”

The AIA COTE was preceded by the AIA Energy Committee in 1973, which included many of the members who founded COTE. In 1990, an understanding was reached among architects in the industry that the scope of sustainability in buildings extends beyond energy performance to include raw material extraction and building product safety, among other metrics. The AIA COTE Top Ten was launched on Earth Day, 1997, originally titled the “Earth Day Top Ten” to reward sustainable design practices. The initial launch of the COTE Top Ten preceded the original version of LEED, which was released by the US Green Building Council in 2000. Former chairwoman Gail Lindsey, who pioneered the COTE Top Ten, stated in 2007 that “we all needed to see and study the best practices. We needed to learn from the exemplars.” The first awards in 1997 only had fourteen entries, of which ten were selected. In recent years, the COTE Top Ten has expanded to dozens of entries per year ranging from corporate offices and headquarters to private residential developments. As design performance has continued to improve, AIA COTE has introduced a series of additional awards, including the AIA COTE Top Ten Plus in 2013 and the Top Ten for Students in 2015.

The 226-232 Highland Street Townhouses were built in 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts, and received the COTE Top Ten award in 2015.

Criteria

The AIA COTE Top Ten relies on ten Measures or dimensions to judge each application. The Measures are based on design excellence in sustainability, and are evaluated “on a broad and inclusive definition of design quality that includes performance, aesthetics, community connection, resilience, and stewardship of the natural environment” per the AIA website. The ten Measures are inspired by the ten facets of sustainability, which include the following: energy, water, health, carbon footprint, social equity, land use, materials, food, and cost. These facets define a broad definition on sustainability which include both qualitative and quantitative spectra, as well as known and unknown entities within a project. The facets of sustainability are an extension of the triple bottom line, which weighs the impact of people, profit, and planet towards achieving sustainability. The AIA COTE Top Ten Measures follow the facets very directly, leading to a diverse set of criteria that judge whether a project is sustainable going further than simply measuring energy performance or CO₂ emissions.

Measures

The ten Measures are as follows, per the AIA website:

• Measure 1: Design for Integration - What's the big idea? How does the project demonstrate the intersection of design excellence and sustainable performance?
• Measure 2: Design for Equitable Communities - How does this project make the most of its surrounding community, integrate with it. and give back?
• Measure 3: Design for Ecosystems - How does this project respond, connect, and contribute to the surrounding ecosystem?
• Measure 4: Design for Water - How does the project use water wisely and handle rainfall responsibly?
• Measure 5: Design for Economy - How does the design show that higher performance can be cost-effective?
• Measure 6: Design for Energy - How much energy does the project use, is any of that energy generated on-site from renewable sources, and what's the net carbon impact?
• Measure 7: Design for Well-being - How does the design promote the comfort and health of those who spend time in it?
• Measure 8: Design for Resources - How were the decisions about the materials used based on an understanding of their impact. especially carbon impact?
• Measure 9: Design for Change - How does the project design anticipate adapting to new uses, adapt to climate change, and support resilient recovery from disasters?
• Measure 10: Design for Discovery - What lessons for better design have been learned through the process of project design, construction, and occupancy?

The Measures can be divided into a spectrum, with Design for Water, Economy, Energy, and Resources representing quantitative measures and Design for Integration, Equitable Communities, Ecosystems, Well-being, Change, and Discovery representing qualitative measures. A study performed by the Korea Institute of Ecological Architecture and Development evaluated the AIA COTE Top Ten Measures, projects which have received Top Ten awards, and their own rating system to develop a blueprint for an effective rating system for environmental sustainability. The results of the study suggest that optimal performance is achieved when standards of evaluation reflect economy, environmental, and social aspects of sustainability. In addition, qualitative measures and submissions should be directly comparable to the leading green building certification system, which in AIA COTE Top Ten’s case is LEED. Finally, submission requirements should be balanced to proceed systematic evaluation of the buildings, or in other words criteria for meeting each Measure should evolve as the capacity for buildings to perform sustainably increases over time. This paper provides key insight into the core theory that went into developing the COTE Top Ten.

In 2017, the criteria were modified to place an increased emphasis on performance. In previous iterations of the COTE Top Ten, predictions of performance using energy and emissions models were sufficient to win an award. Recognition of post-occupancy performance was treated separately and served as grounds for projects to win other accolades. In Top Ten competitions since 2017, AIA COTE increasingly recognizes that performance predicted through computer models does not necessarily accurately assess how a building will perform, prompting additional incentives to provide post-occupancy measurements. Buildings which continue to show strong performance in the first year after completion are eligible for the COTE Top Ten Plus award, which is an addition to being nominated to the COTE Top Ten. Any number of the COTE Top Ten winners are eligible for a COTE Top Ten Plus award.

Application

To apply for the AIA COTE Top Ten, entrants must be an architect based out of the United States. The architect whose name appears on the submission does not need to be the project lead, but must be noted as a major contributor. Architecture firms that submit projects must also sign the AIA 2030 Commitment, which is a pledge to follow standards and practices that contribute to designing carbon-neutral buildings by 2030. Projects that qualify include single building scale work, such as completed new construction and renovations. In addition, the scope can be widened to urban or regional plans or reduced to interior architecture. Although the entering architect must be based out of the US, the project can be located globally. Any project that is submitted must have been completed at least one year before the submission deadline. There must be performance and occupant satisfaction data with at least 75% occupancy over that span. A single firm may also submit multiple projects for the award.

Submitting an application requires six different deliverables. The first is an entry fee, which is $500 per project for AIA members, or $850 per project for non-members. Second is a client authorization, which is signed consent from the owner of the building that the project may be submitted for review. Next is the main component, which are the project materials. In the submission, a project team must show at least one image for each measure. They must also produce a site plan, typical floor plan, and rendering. Architects are encouraged to select visuals which prioritize the specific sustainable innovations within the project and indicate the credit which the visual corresponds to. Beyond the Measures, images or graphics must be provided for each functional space of the building and each exposed side of the building. If the project is a restoration, additional commentary must be provided on what changes in the overall vision were made and what the intent of the original architect was. The other key component is the Super Spreadsheet, which is a spreadsheet compiled by AIA COTE where applicants provide data for the following key metrics:

• Introduction (all sections)
• 3-Ecosystems (sections 3.1 and 3.2)
• 4-Water (all sections)
• 6-Energy (sections 6.3 and 6.4)
• 7-Well-being (sections 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3)
• 8-Resources (sections 8.2, 8.3, 8.4 and 8.7)
• 9-Change (sections 9.1 and 9.2)
• 10-Discovery (section 10.2).

Since the Super Spreadsheet calculations are based on the 2003 Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey conducted by the US Energy Information Administration were only performed for the continental US, international projects have an international location to US equivalent ZIP code table which depends on the climate zone the international project is located in.

Since the intent of the AIA COTE Top Ten is both in performance as it is design intent, applicants are strongly encouraged to provide performance and modeling reports. Energy and carbon modeling reports should be prepared after the building has been occupied to depict realistic conditions of the building in use. Finally, for each of the ten Measures, architects must provide a written statement on how the project meets the criteria. AIA COTE provides a series of guiding questions for applicants. The combined body of work between the visuals, Super Spreadsheet, and written responses provides quantitative and qualitative metrics on the performance of the building which can be fairly judged by the AIA COTE jury.

The AIA COTE jury changes every year, and consists of five members. The members are the AIA chair, as well as four prominent senior academics and/or practitioners from around the US.

Performance Studies

AIA COTE researchers in 2016 compiled data on each of the Top Ten winners from 1997 to 2015, which includes performance in energy savings, water savings, recycled material content, and indoor environmental quality.

Statistics from the aggregate study are provided below:

• Number of Living Building Challenge projects: 3 (2%)
• Number of LEED Platinum projects: 40 (21%)
• Average energy reduction: 56%
  • Since 2011: 64%
• Number of net-zero projects: 9
• Average potable water reduction: 52%
• Average rain water managed on site: 80%
• Average percent local materials: 36%
• Average recycled content: 29%
• Average construction waste diverted: 82%
• Spaces with daylight autonomy: 81%
• Spaces with views of the outdoors: 91%
• Spaces with operable windows: 58%

In addition, the same study evaluated the uses of each Top Ten winning building. The breakdown is as follows: First are office buildings, which carry the largest share of projects at 27%. Initial iterations of the COTE Top Ten had a greater share of office buildings, with up to 40% of the winners. The second-most frequent type is public at 23%, which is defined by a project built for a government agency of any level. Next is education at 22%, followed by residential at 12%, retail and sales at 7%, laboratories and research at 6%, healthcare at 3%, and religious meeting centers at 1%. The median size of COTE Top Ten winners is 40,000 square feet, and the average is 211,065 square feet, raised by a handful of outliers over one million square feet. COTE Top Ten winners have predominantly been located in the West Coast of the United States, with 41 out of 189 winners until 2015 being located in California alone.

One of the points of emphasis for the COTE Top Ten is alternative modes of transportation, in other words encouraging walking, biking, public transit, and carpooling to travel back and forth to the building over driving an individual vehicle. Of past winners from 2007 to 2015, the average percentage of occupants that used alternative transportation increased in a linear trend from roughly 50% to 58%. These numbers are largely influenced by the building’s location, with buildings in urban areas trending much closer to 100% and suburban or rural located buildings coming in below the average, but the general trend is towards sustainable modes of transportation.

Indoor environmental quality trends have largely followed the prescribed thresholds from LEED. In LEED v3 for New Construction, which was published in 2009, the threshold for daylight autonomy was 75%. Daylight autonomy is the share of the building which has sufficient lighting during the day using purely sunlight. COTE Top Ten buildings average approximately 81%. Similarly, the LEED v3 thresholds for percentage of the building with outdoor views and proximity to an operable window are 90% and 50%, respectively. COTE Top Ten buildings average 91% and 58% in these metrics.

Five previous winners of the COTE Top Ten have reported a 100% reduction in potable water use, with two occurring in 2014 alone.

In a 2009 AIA COTE-funded study that compared the energy performance of COTE Top Ten projects to that of typical buildings of similar use constructed in the same year, the COTE Top Ten awarded projects performed better 91% of the time. The study used a sample size of 28 different projects. Despite 91% of buildings performing better than the national average, they typically fell short in the Architecture 2030 goal of reducing energy use by 50%. Only roughly one-third met that goal, and none were carbon neutral for energy. Worth noting also is that in a vast majority of cases from the study, the true measured energy use intensity was greater than the design energy use intensity. This led to the recommendation in more recent COTE Top Ten applications to include first-year energy performance data as part of the submission to prove the actual performance is in line with the estimates from models.

Reception

The award has been lauded by the architectural community as a meaningful driver of sustainable design in the industry. Upon the release of the 2022 winners, Matt Hickman of The Architect’s Newspaper, stated how “the 2022 AIA COTE Top Ten winners elevate the standards for superlatively sustainable building”.  Anjulie Rao of Architect Magazine states that “ The 2022 COTE Top Ten Award winners showcase why prioritizing care in design—rather than tech innovations or green metrics—will lay foundations for more sustainable communities”.  She details how the inclusion of several public projects indicates a growing desire for public care in the form of greater equitable transit, community connections and social programs.  

In 2011, members of the AIA jury announced that the program would like to see more projects to emphasize how they can integrate within a community. Juror Joshua Aidlin, stated ”There were a lot of good projects that would have been award winners five years ago, but the bar has been raised. Now we want to see diverse project types, projects that resolve urban issues or social issues, and projects that change occupant behavior”.

Although the AIA has publicly supported the 2030 Challenge, some have criticized the organization for not incorporating that commitment into their award requirements. Although the AIA has required its members and award entrants to sign the 2030 commitment, it does not require firms report their energy performance numbers. It was reported that “fewer than 55% of the COTE winners from 2016 through 2020 have been found to meet their 2030 Commitment target of a 70 percent energy reduction”.

The AIA COTE Top Ten awards have also been criticized because their continued existence implies that sustainable design practices are an exception, rather than the standard, as noted by esteemed architect Hattie Hartman. She argues that the standard to which buildings need to meet to win the award should be typical for the industry, and should not receive special treatment.

An Australian study highlights that the rhetoric in sustainability awards has been increasingly emphasizing social sustainability and community-scale response as shown by the decline in environmental terminology in their criteria. This trend is also evident in recent winners of the AIA COTE Top Ten award, which the study argues have shifted away from previous explicit definitions of a sustainable building.

In addition, critics argue that the award encourages a "smoothing process" to its winners, in that information which does not present the winning building in a favorable light is often censored out. The limited discourse fosters a hive mind mentality towards what is considered "best" architectural practice.

Past Winners

The following table shows the winners of the COTE Top Ten from 2022. Archives of previous winners dating back to 2017 are found on the AIA COTE website. Winners from 1997-2016 are listed on a previous AIA archive.

Year	Project	Architect	Location
2022	663 South Cooper	Archimania	Memphis, TN
2022	Edwin M Lee Apartments	LEDDY MAYTUM STACY Architects Saida+Sullivan Design Partners	San Francisco, CA
2022	Iowa City Public Works	Neumann Monson Architects	Iowa City, IA
2022	King Open/Cambridge Street Upper Schools & Community Complex	Arrowstreet Inc William Rawn Associates	Cambridge, MA
2022	Knox College Whitcomb Art Center	Lake | Flato Architects	Galesburg, IL
2022	Lick-Wilmerding High School Historic Renovation & Expansion	EHDD	San Francisco, CA
2022	Louisiana Children’s Museum`	Waggonner & Ball	New Orleans, LA
2022	Meyer Memorial Trust Headquarters	LEVER Architecture	Portland, OR
2022	Roxbury Branch of the Boston Public Library	Utile, Inc	Roxbury, MA
2022	Tufts University Science and Engineering Complex	Payette	Medford, MA

References

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