A Look Back at 2025

2025 was a year of new beginnings and exciting successes for Ayers Saint Gross. As the year comes to a close, we are looking back with gratitude and appreciation on the following moments from the past 12 months:

We began the year by welcoming Joel Fidler as our new president and celebrating the promotions of more than a dozen members of our team. In the months to follow, we said goodbye to longtime architect Dan McKelvey, who retired after an extraordinary 42-year career.

In June, Ayers Saint Gross received a first-place Best of Practice Award (XL Firm – Northeast) from The Architect’s Newspaper, recognizing our commitment to serving mission-driven clients around the world to create places for shared knowledge and culture.

Individual Accomplishments:

We celebrated with our employee-owners on their tremendous achievements throughout the year. Principal Shannon Dowling was recognized with an ICON in Education Award from Learning by Design Magazine and, later, joined the board for the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP). Associate Principal Amber Wendland was named to The Daily Record’s 2025 list of Influential Marylanders. Sustainability Director Allison Wilson was recognized as one of Building Design + Construction’s 40 Under 40 class of 2025 and named a LEED Fellow in the same week. And Associate Caitlin Brady was named to SCUP’s 2025-2026 class of Emerging Leaders.

Internally, we took time as a firm to celebrate our accomplishments and strategize for the future during this year’s Collaboration Week in October.  As part of that celebration, we recognized Principal Michelle Kollmann and Associate Caitlin Brady with our firm’s Lex Schwartz Collaboration Awards, which honor employees who have shown the highest level of leadership in collaboration for the betterment of our projects and clients, our firm and employees, and the communities we serve.  Caitlin was honored with the Emerging Leader Award, while Michelle received the Lex Schwartz Collaboration Legacy Award.

Thought Leadership

Ayers Saint Gross continued to share our firm’s work, research, and ideas with national audiences this year, as 20 of our team members participated in 27 speaking engagements at conferences around the country, including the annual SCUP Conference, the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums Building Museums Conference, the AIA Women’s Leadership Summit,  the ACUHO-I Conference and Expo, and more. In September, Principal Jessica Leonard gave a keynote address at the ASLA Indianapolis Annual Conference. We all benefited from their experiences building relationships with clients and potential teaming partners, learning from our colleagues, and exhibiting our work.

Our projects received extensive coverage in the design media, including an article in Metropolis magazine that featured Jessica Leonard discussing our Comparing Campuses research on campus waterfronts, and a feature in Dezeen about the Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center. As a firm, we were included in Building Design + Construction’s top ten lists for both the Top University Architecture Firms of 2025 and the Top Student Housing Design Architecture Firms of 2025.

As a firm, we continued our long tradition of research with our 27th Comparing Campuses poster. This year’s poster, Designing for Belonging, offered practical, research-informed strategies to translate inclusive values into actionable design moves. We also published a new student housing book on Making Connections and an updated Sustainability Action Plan. Additional articles to our journal talked about many topics, including the importance of daylight in design, designing with mass timber, designing for stillness, types of labs, student centers for community building, and how campuses can adapt to rapid change.

Design Awards

Ayers Saint Gross was honored with 23 design awards this year for our work around the country. Projects honored included the following:

100 Forge

• AIA Baltimore Grand Design Award
• AIA Baltimore Excellence in Design Award

Clark University Center for Media Arts, Computing, and Design  

• IIDA MAC Achievement Award for Technology Advancement
• AIA Baltimore Excellence in Design Award

Comparing Campuses 2024: Water 

• Print Magazine Pro First Place Award, Data Visualization and Information Design

Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center at the Missouri Botanical Garden  

• Interior Design Best of the Best Award for Institutional Projects
• The Architect’s Newspaper Best of Design Honorable Mention, Cultural Category
• Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums 2025 Buildy Award
• National Terrazzo and Mosaic Association Honor Award
• St. Louis Magazine Architect and Designer Award, Commercial Restaurant Space
• IIDA Interior Design Competition Finalist
• SEGD Global Design Award and Best in Show

Philip Smith, Courtesy of National Aquarium

National Aquarium Harbor Wetland 

• The Architect Newspaper Best of Design Honorable Mention, Landscape Category
• Association of Zoos and Aquariums Facility Award for Institutional Budget over $8M, Top Honors
• ULI Baltimore Wavemaker Award
• Baltimore Building Congress and Exchange Craftsmanship Award, Marine Systems
• ASCE Maryland Outstanding Civil Engineering Award

Purdue University Classroom Master Plan  

• 2025 SCUP Excellence in Planning District of Campus Component, Honorable Mention

Quinnipiac University The Grove Residence Hall 

• AIA Connecticut Design Award Merit Award for Commercial, Institutional, Educational, or Multi-Family Residential Design, Large

Ringling College of Art + Design Cunniffe Commons 

• AIA Maryland Excellence in Design Award, Citation for Institutional Architecture

The Pearl  

• Business North Carolina’s 2025 Building North Carolina Award, Healthcare

University of Utah Student Housing 

• Partnerships Bulletin P3 Award for Best Education and Higher Education Project