The Stanley Center for Peace and Security Earns 2025 AIA COTE Top Ten Award
Design Engineers is proud to celebrate the recognition of the Stanley Center for Peace and Security headquarters, designed by Neumann Monson Architects, as a recipient of the 2025 AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) Top Ten Award.
Presented annually by The American Institute of Architects’ Committee on the Environment, the COTE Top Ten Awards recognize ten exemplary projects that successfully integrate sustainable design performance with architectural excellence. Widely regarded as one of the most prestigious honors in sustainable architecture, the program highlights projects that demonstrate measurable environmental, social, and economic impact. The Stanley Center project marks a significant milestone for Iowa design and construction, as only five projects in the state to have received a COTE Top Ten Award since the program’s inception in 1997.
Located in Muscatine, Iowa, the project transformed a former public library into a net-carbon-negative headquarters for the Stanley Center for Peace and Security, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing nuclear weapons use, mitigating climate change, and eliminating mass violence and atrocities. Guided by the rigorous Living Building Challenge framework set by the International Living Future Institute, the adaptive reuse project combines high-performance building systems, renewable energy strategies, and regenerative design principles while creating a vibrant community gathering space.
The headquarters has already earned numerous honors, including the 2022 Chicago Athenaeum Green GOOD DESIGN® Global Sustainability Award, the 2023 1000 Friends of Iowa Best Development Award for Innovative Leadership, the 2024 Master Builders of Iowa Masters Award, and the 2024 Iowa Architectural Foundation Community Enhancement Award. The project is also currently in the performance verification stage for full Living Building Challenge and would be one of only a handful of renovations to achieve a full Living Building Certification (LBC).
Recently announced at the AIA Conference on Architecture & Design 2025, the project will also be recognized at the upcoming AIA Iowa Convention in September alongside several other Design Engineers projects being honored for energy efficiency and excellence in design and architecture.
Design Engineers is honored to collaborate with so many talented partners to contribute to a project that demonstrates how thoughtful design can create buildings that advance both human and environmental well-being while serving as a model for sustainable development across the country.
To learn more about Design Engineers’ work on the building, read our featured article covering the Stanley Center for Peace & Security’s high-performing Mechanical, Plumbing, and Electrical (MEP) systems.
Photos: Whisler Studios
