AIA Phoenix Metro was pleased to partner with the City of Phoenix in 2025 to host and produce a competition to create a new urban block typology that elevates civic identity, drives sustainable growth, and fosters an inclusive, 24-hour urban environment.
Participants were asked to propose visionary, conceptual designs for one of three prominent parcels located at the southwest (SW), northeast (NE), and northwest (NW) corners of 7th Avenue and Washington Street.
These sites have the potential to become transformative civic anchors, strengthening the connection between Downtown Phoenix and the Arizona State Capitol.
Winners, selected in a jury process, were announced in a ceremony at the Pemberton on January 29, 2026. The program featured remarks from the competition jury, as well as perspectives from the City of Phoenix on why these sites are critical to downtown’s continued growth, equity, and long-term vitality.
Below, see all entries selected by the jury for recognition, in the order of Winners.
Competition Winners
Winner: 1st Place Professional
BLOCK UP
Team Members:
Oscar Lopez, Assoc. AIA
Trevor Watson, Assoc. AIA
Salvador Arellano, Assoc. AIA
Cameron Noble, Assoc. AIA
BLOCK UP envisions a new urban block typology for Phoenix—one that reimagines the vertical tower not as a closed, privatized object, but as a civic framework that actively participates in urban life. The project challenges the prevailing model in which residential and commercial towers function primarily as private enclaves, disconnected from the public realm they depend on to thrive. In response, the proposal advances a bold yet pragmatic thesis: the future of urban growth in Phoenix requires the public realm to rise vertically, interwoven with living, working, and cultural spaces throughout the tower itself
Winner: 2nd Place Professional
STRATUM
Team Members:
Woodia Yu
Marc Salazar
Spencer Okeson
Erin Forstner
STRATUM is a radical urban block typology that reimagines downtown Phoenix by prioritizing
the community experience. The project envisions a mixed-use landmark that blends residential,
commercial, and cultural functions, anchored by shared civic spaces and the reintroduction of
the desert ecology to the urban fabric.
Winner: 1st Place Student
Desert Roots
Takis Miller
University of Southern California
Desert Roots reimagines the urban block as a “parent plant” for Phoenix—borrowing from the Sonoran Desert’s ecology to create shade, protection, and community in a warming climate. This mixed-use urban center weaves together a public desert park, an earth-cooled marketplace, and shaded office spaces wrapped in a responsive façade and steel louvers. Designed to mitigate heat and foster connection, the project transforms the Northwest Parcel into a vibrant, distinctly Arizonan ecosystem where people and place can grow together.
Winners in the AIA Phoenix Metro Block of the Future Design Competition were honored on January 29, 2026. The competition called for innovative urban design proposals for the intersection of 7th Avenue at Washington Street in Phoenix.
Pictured below: The competition was chaired by 2024 AIA Phoenix Metro President Carlos A Murrieta, AIA, NOMA, (standing before the audience); the first-place winner among professional entries was designed by a team of Associate AIA members (from left) Cameron Noble, Assoc. AIA, Salvador Arellano, Assoc. AIA, Oscar Lopez, Assoc. AIA, and Trevor Watson, Assoc. AIA (to the right of Murrieta), with Oscar’s son Teddy in front; and the second-place winner among professional entries was designed by a team of landscape architects all from Floor Associates in Phoenix that included (from left) Marc Salazar, Spencer Okeson, PLA, Erin Forstner, and Woodia Yu (next to Murrieta). Not pictured: the winner in the student category, USC architecture grad student Takis Miller, was honored for his entry but could not attend.
