The Program

The EDRA Great Places Awards are unique among programs that honor professional and scholarly excellence in environmental design. They seek to recognize work that combines expertise in design, research, and practice, and contributes to the creation of dynamic, humane places that engage our attention and imagination.

We invite participation from a range of design and research disciplines — particularly projects whose significance extends beyond any one profession or field. All submissions should show how research and/or public participation is linked to--or part of--an environmental design practice, and vice versa. Submissions should also demonstrate how an understanding of the experience of place may be used to generate insightful design.

EDRA welcomes submissions from the full breadth of environmental design and related research fields, including architecture, landscape architecture, planning, urban design, interior design, lighting design, graphic design, place-based public art, environmental psychology, sociology, anthropology, geography, and the physical sciences.

the PROcess

Each year we assemble a jury with diverse backgrounds in design, research, and practice. The jury evaluates how each project--no matter what the discipline--addresses the human experience of well-designed places. Special attention is paid to the transferability of research on this topic into design and planning practice. The jury selects exceptional submissions from five categories: Place Design, Place Planning, Place Research, Place Book, and Place Art.

Submission Costs

• Members: $325
• Non-members: $400
• Discounts are available if you are a student or early-career researcher (within five years post-graduation of your degree), as well as if the organization submitting is a community-based organization, non-profit, or a woman or minority-owned business. Only one discount is applicable per application.
• Note: Applicants from countries with comparable economic conditions are encouraged to contact the EDRA Headquarters for further information.

Submission requirements

Each entry must follow category-specific submission requirements and must be submitted in English.