2026 Impact Award • Institute for the Built Environment at CSU

The Award

This award recognizes a group or organization in Colorado that has made a positive impact on Colorado communities and significantly contributed to the advancement of architecture and/or enhanced the role of practitioners. 

Institute for the Built Environment at Colorado State University

Brian Dunbar, Executive Director
Josie Plaut, Co-Director

For more than three decades, the Institute for the Built Environment at Colorado State University has helped Colorado imagine and create, healthier, more sustainable, and more resilient places.

Established in 1994, the Institute serves as a bridge between university research, professional practice, and the communities that architecture is meant to support. It brings together faculty, students, practitioners, owners, and public partners to turn complex ideas into practical progress. Through healthy green building guidance, community engagement, sustainability programs, and applied research, the Institute has strengthened hundreds of projects, organizations, and teams.

Its impact is also measured in people. The Institute includes CSU students in every project, giving emerging professionals meaningful, paid experience while connecting them with mentors and real-world challenges. That model prepares future leaders who understand that sustainability is not a specialty added at the end of a project, but a collaborative responsibility woven through design, construction, operations, health, equity, and community life.

By translating research into action and helping practitioners work across disciplines toward shared goals, the Institute has elevated sustainable practice throughout Colorado and beyond. The jury is proud to present the 2026 AIA Colorado Impact Award to the Institute for the Built Environment at Colorado State University.

Congratulations!

Why the jury selected The Institute for the Built Environment

• Has advanced healthy, thriving, and sustainable places since its establishment at Colorado State University in 1994.
• Connects university research with professional practice and community needs.
• Builds interdisciplinary teams of faculty, students, industry professionals, owners, and public partners.
• Has strengthened hundreds of projects, organizations, and teams through research, facilitation, and technical guidance.
• Supports project teams and communities through healthy green building expertise, place-based sustainability, climate-transition, equity, and resilience strategies.
• Translates applied research and social science into useful strategies, resources, and better project outcomes.
• Engages at least one CSU student in every project, providing meaningful paid experience and direct mentorship.
• Prepares future practitioners to lead by making collaboration, evidence, and whole-systems thinking central across architecture, construction, sustainability, public health, and community development.

The annual AIA Colorado Awards honor the outstanding work of members and their firms, reinforce the value of great architecture, and highlight member contributions to positive change.