Over the January 30-February 2 weekend, the 2026 AIA Virginia Prize competition kicked off with students around Virginia. We were thrilled to have competitors from William & Mary, Hampton University, UVA, Virginia Tech (Blacksburg and the WAAC), and JMU in addressing the challenge.
The first round of submissions is juried at the university level and up to 10 finalists from each school will be sent to be juried at the state level by the competition jury. We look forward to sharing and celebrating the results.
2026 AIA Virginia Prize Challenge
Background
A Third Space is where community happens—part public living room, part creative commons, part everyday hangout. It’s a place to linger, read, work, make, perform, meet friends, meet strangers, and simply be. Third Spaces aren’t formal civic buildings; they are welcoming, flexible, low-threshold environments that invite people to gather. Bridgewater, VA is a compact town nestled within a bend of the North River, with Round Hill rising to the west. Many towns in the Shenandoah Valley have walkable historic downtown cores that grew outward over time. Others, like Bridgewater, have evolved into more linear patterns, with auto traffic shaping the main thoroughfares and making it harder to form a true town center where people can easily gather.
The Challenge
This competition asks you to imagine a central space that brings people together in new ways, supports creative activity, and strengthens the rhythms of everyday life. Across Main Street from the competition site sits Generations Park—home to free winter ice skating for residents, pickleball courts, concerts under the stars, and year-round community events—and an opportunity to expand a “third space.”
Your site is a Main Street (Route 42) infill parcel directly across from Generations Park. Your charge is to: Create a Third Space that expands and complements the energy of Generations Park, Strengthen connections across Main Street and support safe pedestrian movement, Propose an inventive infill strategy—renovation, new construction, hybrid reuse, or a mix of approaches. Above all, design a place that feels alive: a space the community can claim, adapt, and return to again and again. The site has an existing building that you may choose to ignore or incorporate as part of your design, but you should consider flexibility, safety, and accessibility as priority considerations.
About the AIA Virginia Prize
Conducted simultaneously at Hampton University, the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech (both in Blacksburg and at the Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center/the WAAC), William & Mary, and James Madison University, the competition is a design charrette that engages students across the Commonwealth. Students receive the competition program on a Friday afternoon at 5 p.m. They work over the weekend to create a design solution and submit it by 9 a.m. the following Monday.
Launched in 1980, the competition is intended to promote collaboration between the profession, students, and professors in Virginia.
Development of the competition brief rotates between the schools annually — the 2026 Prize challenge was developed by JMU.