Submission Categories

Entries may be made in any of the following categories:

• Residential - single-family residential projects, including homes, additions, restorations, renovations, and interiors and multi-family housing
• Commercial - office, retail, industrial
• Commercial Interiors - primarily the design of commercial interior spaces
• Institutional - such as fire stations, educational facilities and places of worship
• Recreational - such as recreational facilities, entertainment or performing arts centers
• Historical/Adaptive Re-use - projects involving the preservation, restoration, rehabilitation or sympathetic adaptive reuse of historic structures
• Adaptive Re-use/Repurposing - projects involving the rehabilitation and sympathetic adaptive reuse of existing buildings
• Mixed Use - some combination of residential, retail or office
• Community Benefit Project - such as affordable housing, senior housing or a community center

Submission Requirements

• Submissions will be accepted as a PDF document attached to an e-mail submitted to James M. Scott Exceptional Design Awards or by compact disc (CD) and sent to:

The Department of Planning and Development
12055 Government Center Parkway, Suite 730
Fairfax, Virginia 22035
ATTENTION: Exceptional Design Awards Program

• Email submissions must be limited to 6 Megabytes in size.   

• Each submission shall include the following two components:

  1. The ENTRY FORM - Complete the entry form and save it to your computer. It can be attached as a separate PDF.
  2. The PROJECT DESCRIPTION prepared by the nominator for use by the jury. The name of the architect is not to appear anywhere in the Project Description, as these submissions materials will be viewed by the design jury.  This project description must contain the following, in PDF document format:

     • Page 1

       • Name of project.
       • Address of project.  Project must be located in Fairfax County and not within the Cities of Alexandria, Fairfax or Falls Church.

     • Page 2

       • Year the project was built. Projects must be completed within the last five years, that is completed by 2020, or later.  Please do not resubmit projects which may have received an award in the County's design awards program previously.
       • Category under which the project has been nominated.
       • A project location map.
       • A brief narrative of the project's program and design goals which explains how design features, buildings materials and/or site elements contribute to making this project exceptional.

     • Page 3 and subsequent pages, up to a maximum of 15  

       Graphic materials, such as those listed below, necessary to give a complete understanding of the full project:
       • Photographs of the exterior and/or interior, in black and white or color.  Please provide attribution for photographs.
       • Site plans showing the project's landscape and its relationship with its environs.
       • Building plans, elevations and cross-sections as appropriate.