The Awards

Applications for the six Chicago Neighborhood Development Awards and the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Award for Architectural Excellence in Community Design will open in November. Submissions are due by 11:59PM on January 15, 2025.

CNDA Selection Criteria and Process

There are six Chicago Neighborhood Development Award categories that are open to Chicago-area organizations for application. They are:

All applicants will be scheduled to have a one-hour site visit with a team of community development industry professionals to be scheduled on Feb 12 or Feb 13, 2025.

Selection criteria

For the CNDA Awards, teams of three to four volunteer judges, representing both the non-profit and for-profit sectors, evaluate and rate each applicant on three primary aspects of the organization or project:

building process or organizational effectiveness
community impact
and project or organizational challenge.

Teams of judges from the for-profit and non-profit sectors will schedule one-hour site visits with applicants to learn more about the submitted projects and programs. The CNDA applicant site visits will take place on Feb 12 or Feb 13, 2025. Applications and information from the site visits are provided to the Awards Committee who reviews all information and makes the selection. Winners will be notified by March 2025.

The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Awards for Architectural Excellence in Community Design Criteria and Process

For The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Awards for Architectural Excellence in Community Design, a jury of recognized leaders from Chicago's architectural and civic community select the winning projects. To be eligible a development must:

be located in Cook County;
serve a predominantly low to moderate income population AND/OR be located in a predominantly low to moderate income neighborhood;
be completed and in-use upon submission of application; and
have been completed within the last three years.

Selection criteria

Demonstrates superior design quality responsive to the neighborhood context and the constraints imposed by funding and regulatory agencies.
Responds successfully to the needs of the population served.
Enhances the overall development of the local community; and
Exhibits a creative design solution that could become a model for projects in other neighborhoods.

Award Finalists will be notified in mid-February 2025, and scheduled for a 45-minute in-person site visit with the Jury to be scheduled for late February 2025 (date TBD).

The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Community Design Impact Award

The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Community Design Impact Award recognizes an emerging architect of color who is engaged in community design in Chicago's low-to-moderate income neighborhoods and/or with projects that serve communities/populations that have experienced disinvestment as part of their portfolio of work.

Criteria: .

Nominee is an emerging Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) architect (residential, commercial, urban design, landscape).
Nominee has not previously been a recipient of the Richard H. Driehaus Award for Architectural Excellence in Community Design.
Nominee's portfolio of work includes projects – large or small - in Chicago neighborhoods that have experienced disinvestment and/or serve populations that have experienced disinvestment.
Nominee may have been a lead architect on projects meeting this criteria or an integral part of a design team.

Selection Process

Qualified nominees will be contacted in late January 2025 to provide additional information about their work.
Finalist candidates will be scheduled for in-person meeting with the award selection committee on March 2025.

The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Community Design Impact Award winner will receive a monetary prize of $10,000 and will be recognized at the Chicago Neighborhood Development Awards event in June 2025.