AIA Chicago gave a big shoutout to some of the city's best small and emerging architectural firms in the annual 2014 Small Projects Awards. The awards program promotes upcoming small firms as a resource for design excellence and also the valuable contributions of architects in even the smallest works.

Out of 96 entries, 13 projects received awards -- including four Honor Awards and one Special Recognition. — bustler.net

The two-stage Port of Kinmen Passenger Service Center International Competition‏‎ in Taiwan has come to a close. Since our last update in January, five star-studded firms — who worked with local architects — were in the final round to become the master architect to design a new multi-functional terminal facility and expansion for the Port of Kinmen. — bustler.net

Four projects -- which all happen to be built in California -- have won in the 2014 AIA/HUD Secretary Awards, as announced by the AIA Housing and Custom Residential Knowledge Community along with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The annual awards program recognizes what they deem as the best examples of the latest innovation and development in the housing design industry. — bustler.net

Winning at the New Zealand Architecture Awards -- the country's most prestigious architectural competition -- must feel like winning the lottery. This year's winners, who accepted their awards at a ceremony in Auckland, were recently announced.

This year's program included nine award categories; the 2014 recipient of the New Zealand Institute of Architects Gold Medal, and the winner of the New Zealand Architectural Medal -- the competition's highest honor. — bustler.net

Team Lord of Toronto was announced today as the winner to design the new Canadian National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa, Canada's capital.

The team's proposal, titled "Landscape of Loss, Memory and Survival", was selected out of six finalists who were invited to present their concepts to a jury of professionals and then to the public during the national design competition. — bustler.net

The competitive nature of the architecture and design world is inevitable, with exceptional projects getting more recognition than others that deserve just as much. The A' (A-Prime) Design Award & Competition not only wants to highlight great designs and products, but also to boost publicity opportunities for designers of all disciplines and experiences worldwide. Just recently, the annual program announced the winning projects for the 2013-2014 period. — bustler.net

The winners were finally revealed for Storefront's Competition of Competitions, where entrants got to question the boundaries and shortcomings of competition brief formats by writing their very own. From the 18 finalists announced back in February, the jury picked 4 prize-winning projects, 7 honorable mentions, and a Storefront Special Prize. — bustler.net

Twenty-one of what was deemed as the most bold and creative ideas were listed as finalists in the first European edition of the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayors Challenge Competition. European cities with populations of at least 100,000 residents were invited to submit ideas that address a variety of some of the most common and complex urban issues throughout the continent. — bustler.net

The 2014 European Prize for Urban Public Space adds a dose of reality to often romanticized European cities, showing that every city no matter where has its own set of pressing issues. The annual prize recognizes exemplary projects that have transformed and improved public spaces throughout the continent.

Starting with a total of 274 projects from 30 European countries, the international jury selected 25 finalists, and finally two joint winners and four special mentions. — bustler.net

Six teams of architects and landscape architects are still in the running for the 11th Street Bridge Park competition in Washington D.C. The nationwide competition is hunting for the best design to transform an old freeway bridge into D.C.'s first elevated park: the 11th Street Bridge Park. — bustler.net

The winners of the 15th annual National Design Awards were recently revealed, as announced by The Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. Established in The White House in 2000, the National Design Awards recognizes design excellence, innovation, and public impact in a multitude of disciplines. The awards program also aims to promote the valuable role of design in society. — bustler.net

Preserving the rich history of an iconic site while modernizing any aspect of its design is always a tricky feat. For MVRDV, one of their latest competition wins is redeveloping the urban plan of the historic Serp & Molot (Hammer & Sickle) Factory...In the two-stage competition, the winning team was chosen out of a shortlist with LDA Design (UK), Ateliers lion Associés (France), Mega Project (Russia), and De Architecten Cie. (Netherlands). — bustler.net

The best museums are more than just expensive buildings that house expensive pieces of artwork. They have original exhibitions, engaging educational programs, and even tell a lot about a city's character. The Art Fund is one step closer to finding Britain's 2014 Museum of the Year, which acknowledges the very best achievements of museums across the UK. — bustler.net