Ayers Saint Gross wins Architect’s Newspaper Best of Practice Award

We are honored to announce that The Architect’s Newspaper has selected Ayers Saint Gross for the 2025 Best of Practice Award (XL Firm – Northeast). AN’s Best of Practice program honors companies designing better, fairer practices in the AEC industry by considering firms by their individual projects, culture, and social impact. This recognition highlights our firm’s commitment to serving mission-driven clients around the world to create places for shared knowledge and culture.  

In his award comments, juror Antoine Bryant said, “Ayers Saint Gross does education, and, quite frankly, it does it pretty damn well. I appreciate the fact that the firm is definitive in its design approach.”

Founded in Baltimore in 1912, Ayers Saint Gross has a team of around 200 employees working across three offices in Baltimore, Tempe, and Washington, DC. A 100% employee-owned firm since 2013, we embrace a collaborative culture where everyone shares responsibilities and benefits from our success. In 2021, we were named the inaugural JUST Firm of the Year by the International Living Future Institute.  

Ayers Saint Gross uses research and design to strengthen communities. In our work, we educate, advance knowledge, and protect and interpret places of significance. Our higher education work has shaped a new paradigm of campus design focused on long-term sustainable investments in the built environment, projects that align with our client’s mission and vision, and student success and belonging at more than 200 campuses around the world. Our work for culturally significant landmarks includes three UNESCO World Heritage Sites and more than 50 projects for the Smithsonian Institution. Other award-winning work includes the National Aquarium Harbor Wetland, the Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center at the Missouri Botanical Garden, and the Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center at Monticello. 

Ayers Saint Gross is deeply committed to protecting the environment. In 2012, we signed the AIA 2030 Commitment and developed our first sustainability action plan. We have reduced energy consumption and carbon emissions in our material choices, processes, and building operations. We consider global impact and have designed more than 80 high-performance projects rated by third-party organizations such as LEED, WELL, and the Living Building Challenge. Our landscape architecture studio incorporates native and adapted plant species to aid in carbon sequestration and stormwater management. We research and track our data to educate our clients and ourselves on new ways to live and work more sustainably.   

We strive to strengthen the resiliency of our industry and our communities through our projects, pipeline, and practice. Every year, we donate time, money, and in-kind contributions to social, educational, and cultural programs through our annual Jim Wheeler Month of Service and United Way giving campaign. To build a pipeline of future design professionals who can positively shape the built environment, we partner with schools and organizations like the Baltimore Design School, the Neighborhood Design Center, NOMA, and ACE Mentors. In all our work, our goal is to create meaningful and long-lasting changes to build better futures. 

We are proud to have been included in this prestigious list of North American firms that are making a positive impact through human-centered design.  

Read the complete list of this year’s winners.