2026 Sir Walter Raleigh Award Winners

This category recognizes new retail and office developments, adaptive reuse projects, and may also include industrial, warehouse, or corporate spaces that enhance the visual character of the city.

• Coastal Credit Union HQ
• Sauna House Raleigh 

This category honors individuals or teams who have developed and carried out projects, big or small, that enhance life in Raleigh through thoughtful design. 

• A Safe Place – Crosslink’s Enriching Outdoor Learning 

Awards in this category are for education-related facilities at any level of instruction, including preschool, elementary, middle, high school, college, or continuing education.

• Fuller Magnet Elementary School
• Wood Residence Hall

This award category celebrates projects that take a thoughtful, integrated approach to conserving resources and honoring the natural character of their site. It highlights efforts that preserve Raleigh’s trees and landscape and creatively transform everyday site elements into valuable public amenities.

• NC Department of Health and Human Services Campus Phase 1

Awards in this category recognize long-term planning to enhance the character, environment, and visual appeal of Raleigh through thoughtful, innovative, and sustainable designs.

• South Park Heritage Trail 
• The Oakline

Awards in this category are for local, state, and federal projects including office, and transportation-related facilities.

• Dix Park Accessibility Improvements Project

Awards in this category are given for projects which enhance the appearance and livability of public areas of the city, including parks, streets, neighborhoods, and churches.

• Letters from the Lake 

Awards in this category are given for the preservation or rehabilitation of existing buildings, especially Raleigh's historic resources.

• Eliza Battle Pittman Auditorium

Awards for this category are given for new residential development, conversion to residential use, or improvement made to existing residential areas. The entry may be for either multifamily developments or single-family developments of multiple buildings.

• Idlye Townhouses

Unique for 2026, this award recognizes Dix Park for its outstanding achievements creating a world class public space, through numerous projects such as the House of Many Porches, Gipson Play Plaza, the Dix Park Cultural Interpretive Plan, and the Dix Chapel solar project and healing garden.

• Dix Park