Five Projects Receive 2025 AIA/ALA Library Building Award

WASHINGTON – June 5, 2025 – The American Institute of Architects (AIA) proudly announced the winners of its 2025 Awards during a prestigious gala held at the Omni Boston at the Seaport Ensemble Ballroom. One of these awards is the ALA/AIA Library Building Awards – the only awards that recognize entire library structures and all aspects of their design. They are open to all types of libraries that permit public access, and projects may be located anywhere in the world.

Libraries are more than learning centers—they’re also enduring examples of architectural excellence. Every year, the AIA is proud to partner with ALA's Core division to honor the best in library architecture and design.

Award recipients must demonstrate design achievement, including a sense of place, purpose, ecology, environmental sustainability, and history. This year’s AIA/ALA Library Building Award recipients, selected by an 11-person jury, exemplify these qualities.

Please join us at the ALA Annual Conference at the AIA/ALA Awards Breakfast, AIA/ALA Awards Breakfast, 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM EDT at the Center for Architecture and Design, 1218 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107.

2025 AIA/ALA Library Building Awards recipients

• Hilltop Branch Library, Columbus, OH | Gresham Smith, Harris Architects
  The Hilltop community in west Columbus, OH is an economically disadvantaged, primarily minority-populated neighborhood. Serving over 65,000 residents, the project is an extensive renovation and expansion of the existing quasi-colonial, stick-framed structure. The new facility offers a more open, inviting and modern face for the library system in this neighborhood. A key mission includes accommodating a significant population of school age children between the end of the school day and the time their parents arrive home from work. Significant space is given to children’s resources including a quiet study area, homework assistance lab and dedicated children’s (K-12-year-old) library space.
• Liberty Park Library, Spokane, WA, INTEGRUS
  The new 12,500 sf Liberty Park Library relocates and doubles the size of an underserved library to provide 21st Century library services including a marketplace, program room, children’s discovery area, group study rooms, staff areas, and outdoor learning. Located in historic Liberty Park, designed by the Olmstead brothers in the early 1900’s, the library takes advantage of open space, views, and avoids removal of specimen trees. The community chose this site in the heart of a diverse area to serve as a catalyst for future reimagining of the underused park to build and strengthen neighborhood connections.
• Merriam Plaza Library, Merriam KS, Dake Wells Architecture
  The Merriam Plaza Library was conceived as a "Collection of Experiences.” Appendages emerge from a simple box shape, in response to programmatic need and spatial opportunity. Skylight monitors bump up to capture daylight and sky views from different orientations; walls pivot out to create intimate reading niches; roofs extend out to shelter cars and people. The resulting collection of views, adjacencies and spatial options create a variety of experiences to choose from for people of different ages, abilities, backgrounds and personality types--providing equitable opportunities for patrons to connect with the library in a variety of familiar and surprising ways.
• Pleasant Hill Library, Pleasant, Hill, CA, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
  Engaged by Pleasant Hill to create its first civic building in many years, we were asked to design a 21st century library, with flexibility for all ages to feel welcome and encouraged to learn, create, and explore. From its free-span central hall to pavilions housing a ‘messy makerspace’, ‘story lab’, and ‘retreat’ for quiet reading, Pleasant Hill Library provides immersive spaces and uses for the entire community. A south-facing clerestory and large circular skylights bring natural light indoors, while the all-electric, highly energy-efficient design includes radiant heating and cooling, natural ventilation with night-flush operability, and a rooftop PV solar array.
• The State Historical Society of Missouri (SHSHMO) - Center for Missouri Studies, Columbia, MO, Multistudio
  SHSMO’s new 76,000 sq. ft. headquarters integrates community and scholarly pursuits with innovative architecture. The design honors Missouri’s cultural and ecological heritage through its form, materiality, and programs, positioning it as a hub for dialogue and discovery.

Visit AIA’s website for more information on the AIA/ALA Library Building Awards

About the American Library Association
The American Library Association (ALA) is the foremost national organization providing resources to inspire library and information professionals to transform their communities through essential programs and services. For more than 140 years, the ALA has been the trusted voice for academic, public, school, government and special libraries, advocating for the profession and the library’s role in enhancing learning and ensuring access to information for all. For more information, visit ala.org.

About Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures
Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures is the national association that advances the profession of librarians and information providers in central roles of leadership and management, collections and technical services, and technology. Our mission is to cultivate and amplify the collective expertise of library workers in core functions through community building, advocacy and learning. Core is a division of the American Library Association. Follow us on our Blog, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

About the American Institute of Architects
Founded in 1857, the American Institute of Architects consistently works to create more valuable, healthy, secure, and sustainable buildings, neighborhoods, and communities. Through more than 200 international, state and local chapters, AIA advocates for public policies that promote economic vitality and public wellbeing. AIA provides members with tools and resources to assist them in their careers and business as well as engaging civic and government leaders and the public to find solutions to pressing issues facing our communities, institutions, nation, and world. Members adhere to a code of ethics and conduct to ensure the highest professional standards.