The Glorya Kaufman Community Center at the Wende Museum has received a Citation Award in the 2026 AIA California Design Awards. The project is one of just 22 recognized by the chapter this year.
The jury noted that the Glorya Kaufman Community Center is “a successful surgical intervention that creates a whole, civic place with important street presence. [It is] an impressive turn of a conventional new-build brief into an adaptive reuse project; the open circulation and continuity at ground plane provide environmental benefits and invite pedestrian movement into and through the facility.”
AIA California 2026 President Ginger Thompson observed that many of the award-winning projects this year prioritized the value of saving and reconsidered existing buildings through adaptive reuse, renovation, or historic preservation work, saying “What is meaningful to our organization, AIA California, is the rigorousness of our membership, the constant leaning forward. The determination to embed the sustainable so deeply into design excellence it disappears.”
Read more about the annual AIA California Design Awards and the organization’s commitment to sustainability and design excellence on the AIA California website.
