By Jay Fox

The nine winners of Round Five of New York State’s Buildings of Excellence Competition were announced June 17 at the American Institute of Architecture New York Chapter (AIA New York) Center for Architecture in New York City. The Competition is administered through the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), and the latest cohort of winners was awarded a total of approximately $7 million, with recipients receiving between $500,000 and $1 million each. Each of the nine projects are targeting Passive House certification.

Since launching in 2019, the Buildings of Excellence Competition prioritizes housing and energy affordability, having awarded $83 million to 75 multifamily projects teams from around the state. Of the 75, 41 are located in disadvantaged communities and more than two-thirds of the new construction buildings serve affordable housing markets.

“The Buildings of Excellence Competition continues to inspire replicable and scalable solutions, tapping into cutting-edge technologies that transform the way we design and construct buildings,” said NYSERDA President and CEO Doreen Harris during Tuesday’s event, which was hosted by Passive House Accelerator.

These sentiments were echoed by AIA New York Executive Director Jesse Lazar, who said, “As an organization committed to shaping a more resilient and equitable built environment, we see these award-winning projects as powerful examples for our members—and the broader industry—of how thoughtful design can help address both the climate crisis and the urgent need for quality housing.”

The Buildings of Excellence Competition helps project teams work through real-world problems and better understand how to design and build high-performance multifamily buildings under a variety of conditions. Funding creates a broader knowledge base within the architecture, engineering, and construction sector while also helping to establish expertise in emerging low-carbon technologies. This knowledge can then be shared with a wider community to accelerate the adoption of high-performance building methodologies and the implementation of new, carbon-cutting technologies.

“BOE has really impacted individual building performance and research, but the bigger impact is on the industry as a whole,” said Paul A. Castrucci Architects Partner Grayson Jordan. “It doesn’t just help us build individual better buildings. It helps build our collective knowledge.”

On account of the program’s successes, Harris announced that NYSERDA is now making $15 million available through Round Six of the Competition. Winning applicants can receive up to $1.5 million in awards funding. As in previous rounds, projects should prioritize energy efficiency and high-performance building methodologies (which can include Passive House). Projects should also utilize technologies that reduce energy use during peak hours, incorporate refrigerants with reduced global warming potential, and employ geothermal heat pump systems for space conditioning. Teams that rely on the latter technology will have access to a higher level of funding.

Applications will be accepted through September 17, 2025, at 3:00 pm. For more information, visit NYSERDA’s website.

Round Five Winners

Winning demonstration projects from Round Five of the Competition came from throughout New York State, including six from New York City, two from the Hudson Valley, and one from Western New York.

“By advancing resilient, sustainable, regenerative, high-performance designs, we can be the change we want to see in the world if we can work together, collaborate with communities, design professionals, and developers alike. Furthermore, these projects embody a framework for design excellence that meets the challenges of climate change and sets new horizons that we must all strive to achieve,” said Illya Azaroff, FAIA, AIA National 2025-2026 President Elect, founding principal of +LAB architect PLLC and New York City College of Technology Professor.

“These buildings must become the standard,” Azaroff added.

This round’s winners include:

Early Design Stage Ongoing

In addition to demonstration projects, NYSERDA is also currently offering up to $150,000 to design firm partners through the competition’s Early Design Support program. Proposals are being accepted for early-stage design projects from design teams that integrate carbon neutral features into pre-schematic and schematic design phases and lead to the cost-effective construction and completion of exemplary multifamily buildings.

For more information on this funding opportunity, please visit NYSERDA’s new website for the Early Design Support program.

Top photo: NYSERDA President and CEO Doreen M. Harris speaking at the Buildings of Excellence award ceremony in Lower Manhattan. Photo by Jay Fox