AIA Peconic Design Awards 2026
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The AIA Peconic Design Awards is an annual award program that celebrates firms and individuals who demonstrate their outstanding architectural excellence and advance the architectural discourse on the East End of Long Island. At its annual Design Awards Celebration, held at the Bay Street Theater and Sag Harbor Center for the Arts on Thursday, April 30, 2026,
AIA Peconic awarded nine awards for design, as well as the fourth-annual AIA Peconic Community Award which was given to Michael Daly.
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Jurors for the 2026 Design Awards
Nkiru Gelles, AIA — Associate Principal with SOM in Austin
Andrea Lamberti, FAIA
Daniel Lee, AIA – Principal at Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
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Blaze Makoid, AIA and Matthew LaBrake, AIA | BMA Architects
Jury Comment
The project illustrates a beautiful, excellent use of materials, ultimately demonstrating a contemporary take on a traditional form. The roofscape reinterprets pitched roof traditions with asymmetrical positioning of roof peaks; skylights at the top of each soften interior spaces below. Purist in its modernist approach, exterior materials of wood shingles and stone cladding extend to the interior of the building; site walls continue the stone outdoors and into the garden, unifying a highly intentional experience.
The following partners are credited for the project:
● Interior Design: The Unionworks
● Landscape Architect: LaGuardia Design
● Lighting Design: Orsman Design Inc.
This project was also selected as the People’s Choice Award.
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Paul Masi, AIA, LEED AP, Aaron Weil and Ryan Berry | Bates Masi + Architects
Jury Comment
The design balances large scale with the intimacy of a private sanctuary, using expansive second-story overhangs to define the ground-floor living areas. These deep overhangs provide shade and create cool, transitional courtyards that seamlessly connect interior and exterior spaces, drawing the landscape into the heart of the home. Despite its restrained, modern expression, the project avoids austerity through the thoughtful integration of finely detailed screening elements, which add texture and depth. Together, these strategies create a cohesive architectural language that is clear, disciplined, and unified resulting in a project that is both rigorous and beautifully realized.
The following partners are credited for the project:
● General Contractor: Men At Work Construction Corp.
● Interior Design: Bart Verhelle Interior Architecture
● Photographer: Michael Moran
● Lighting Designer: Radiance Lighting
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Residential Over 3,500sf David Piscuskas, FAIA, LEED AP,
and Ed Parker, AIA | 1100 Architect
Jury Comment
The project demonstrates a successful execution of a restrained approach, where the precision and quality of detailing elevate the overall design. The boldness of form gives the residence a distinct identity, balancing simplicity with a clear sense of architectural ambition. Sustainable strategies are woven seamlessly into the project within this measured design clarity.
Project Partners included:
● Construction Manager: Lettieri Construction
● Structural Engineer: Silman
● Photographer: Eric Petrschek
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Renovations and Additions Michael Lomont, AIA, Toby Sherrard, Jonathan Walker
Stelle Lomont Rouhani Architects
Jury Comment
This renovation celebrates the original buildings’ bold and volumetric form while introducing precise interventions that modernize the home. Through a careful orchestration of light and materiality, the design highlights a refined detailing, expressed through tone, grain, directionality, alongside thoughtful placement of new openings and entryways, that draw the landscape inward. The result is a residence that honors its legacy while breathing with a renewed luminous clarity.
The following partners are credited for the project:
● Landscape Architect: Hollander Design
● Builder: Gregor & Demonaco
● Structural Engineer: DiLandro Andrews
● Land Planner: Billy Hajek
● Interior Design: Stelle Lomont Rouhani Architects
● Photographer: Glen Allsop
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Residential Over 3,500sf Michael Lomont, AIA, Frank Guittard, AIA, Jonathan Walker,
Yash Gupta | Stelle Lomont Rouhani
Jury Comment
Elegantly proportioned and highly contextual, the design emphasizes strong horizontality that allows the residence to nestle into the landscape. A well conceived series of roof planes that conceptually extend through interior ceiling planes anchors the project and sustainable strategies are thoughtfully integrated. The design reflects a disciplined and well-articulated architectural vision.
Project partners included:
● Landscape Architect: LaGuardia Design Group
● Builder: Gregor & Demonaco
● Structural Engineer: GMS (Gilsanz Murray Steficek)
● Land Planner: Nelson + Pope
● Interior Design: Stelle Lomont Rouhani Architects
● Photographer: Glen Allsop
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Residential Under 3,500sf Paul Masi, AIA, LEED AP, Aaron Weil
Bates Masi + Architects
Jury Comment
This design melds a modern approach to residence planning with an impressive site design, given its clear concept for locating private and common spaces within cubic volumes. Dynamism and whimsicality are suggested by the hovering asymmetrical form of the great roof, in what is ultimately a highly ambitious design. Interspersed rain gardens, paved in stone, provide a visual connection to the environment from the interior of the building footprint; combined with the bay views, the result is that once inside, occupants never lose connection to the benign bayside environment. Building volumes are clad partially in unfinished wood, lending the building a sense that it has been inspired by the most romantic of beachside shacks. Yet the ubiquitous copper soffit, the Living Room’s fully receding glass walls to create a truly indoor-outdoor space, and the probing of the formal boundaries within the details and the materials of the building, elevate this entry to a one-of-a kind architectural exploration.
Partners included:
● Men At Work Construction Corp. General Contractor
● Bates Masi + Architects Interior Design
● STIMSON, Summerhill Landscape Inc Landscape architect and installer
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Historic Preservation and Adaptive Reuse
Clay Coffey and Margot Coffey | Isaac-Rae Studio
Jury Comment
The project thoughtfully restores an 18th century dairy barn into a modern wine cellar through carefully crafted details and inspired joinery.
Interventions are guided by a respect for original materiality, allowing salvaged and reused elements to retain their character while being subtly reinterpreted for contemporary use.
Project partners included:
● General Contractor: Victor Barrera Construction
● Structural Engineers: Edward Stanley Engineers
● Timber Consultant: Ben Brungraber, Firetower Engineers
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Sustainable Architecture Christopher Jeffrey, AIA and Emilio Dominguez
Christopher Jeffrey Architects PLLC
Jury Comment
Set low within the site, the design minimizes the residence’s presence in the landscape through integration with planted roofs and wood-clad vertical surfaces. Overhangs and building orientation have been planned to maximize shading in summer and daylight in winter. These sustainable design approaches, complemented by renewable energy use, passive heating strategies, use succession vegetation, and many strategies too numerous to list, make this project a new exemplar in sustainable residence design.
Project partners included:
● BK Kuck Construction: Builder
● Chris Foster Photography: Photographer
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MICHAEL DALY – 2026 Community Award
AIA Peconic is delighted to continue the new tradition of bestowing an award upon non-architect persons and/or organizations who have made a meaningful impact on the built environment of the region or in the field of architecture. Recipients of this award will have prioritized values in line with those of the AIA including sustainability and diversity, equity, access, and inclusion.
For our 2026 Community Award recipient, the Board selected Michael Daly, local leader
who inspires us with his dedication to community housing.Michael Daly is Senior Advisor at True North Realty Associates, LLC, a consulting firm, providing technical assistance for municipalities, community organizations and developers focused on Community Housing. He is a 27-year real estate veteran with decades experience as a hospitality executive. He is an early adopter of real estate education trends and was one of the Hampton’s first Accredited Buyers Representatives and Senior Real Estate Specialists by the National Association of Realtors.
Michael believes in service leadership and is deeply involved in community, sharing his expertise as founder of East End YIMBY, a Community Housing Advocacy Group, and played a role in the campaign to pass the Peconic Bay Region Community Housing Fund Public Referendum in 2022, which is estimated to raise over $650M for
Community Housing Initiatives on the East End of Long Island, New York. He is a member of the Peconic Land Trust Public Policy Committee, North Haven Village Zoning Board of Appeals and other Community Organizations… and we are proud to call him an Allied Member, event partner, and AIA Peconic Community Housing Task Force Member.
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AIA Peconic is a chapter of the American Institute of Architects, a local non-profit organization of architectural professionals, associates and affiliates working on the East End of Long Island dedicated to professional development, design excellence and public outreach within this unique geographic and cultural area.
AIA Peconic
A Chapter of the American Institute of Architects
PO Box 1077 | Bridgehampton, NY 11932