Design Pittsburgh 2022

Design Pittsburgh 2022 featured a juried Design Awards competition (with a Colorado jury), including the Young Architects Studio Competition which had its own local jury that reimagined an ambitious future to build upon the new Fern Hollow Bridge as a community connector, an extension of the park spaces that surround the bridge, and a meaningful destination that adds to the environmental, social, and aesthetic value of Frick Park.

Over 3,800 members of the public voted for the coveted People’s Choice Award. DRAW Collective, with 600 votes, won for their Hillview Elementary School Additions and Alteration.

Attending in-person at Nova Place were more than 275 members, affiliates, and design fans. The awards ceremony was hosted by Nancy Polinsky Johnson, co-host of WQED’s Saturday morning “QED Cooks”.

Design Pittsburgh highlights the importance of good design and how our members, sponsors, partners, and the public support and promote the value of architecture and design in the places where we live, work, and play.

31 firms submitted a total of 66 projects

3,893 votes cast for the People’s Choice Award

12 awards presented

Brendan Bogolin & Brad Feitl won the Young Architects Studio Competition with their proposed accessible pedestrian junction to reconnect Regent Square with Squirrel Hill and Frick Park, “The Fern Hollow Junction”.

Social Impact Award* Winner: Liberian Self-sustaining Orphan Village

“Protean Design Collaborative is honored to receive both the 2022 Social Impact in Design Award and the Honor Award for Small Projects for our Liberian Self-sustaining Orphan Village. These awards confirm AIA Pittsburgh’s continued commitment to design advocacy, civic engagement, environmental stewardship, and equity, diversity and inclusion. Given the many challenges we face as a global society it is essential for architects to engage in work that addresses the needs of under-resourced communities across a wide range of scales and functions, locally and internationally.

This project has been a labor of love for several years for our team of American and Liberian architects, contractors, and missionaries that required an international exchange of professional and cultural knowledge. The resulting project provides a safe, adaptable, context-specific, and sustainable campus for orphaned children and staff members whose lives have been stabilized and improved. With this recognition we hope to expand our network of local and international partners in this mutually transformational work.”

- Joshua D. Lee, AIA, PhD, Principal of Protean Design Collaborative