2025 AIA Nebraska Honors and Awards Winners

Congratulations to the 2025 AIA Nebraska Honor and Awards recipients to be recognized at the 2025 AIA Nebraska Excellence in Design Gala – Registration Required – Sponsorships Opportunities Available.

Registration deadline: Tuesday, October 28, 2025. Price increase on October 29th.

Deadline for sponsorships is November 1, 2025.

Tuesday, November 18, 2025

5:30 pm – 6:15 pm – Lecture, Andy Tinucci, AIA, LEED AP, W oodhouse Tinucci Architects
6:30 pm – 7:30 pm – Excellence in Design Awards Reception
7:30 pm – 9:00 pm – Excellence in Design Awards + Honors Awards Recognition

Dress: Dressy Casual

Women: Dress; Skirt and dressy top; Dressy pants outfit
Men: Seasonal sport coat or blazer and slacks; Dress shirt, casual button-down shirt, open-collar or polo shirt; Optional tie.
Please no jeans or t-shirts

*This is a ticketed event, pre-registration is required.

AIAS Student Award

This award recognizes two members of the American Institute of Architects Students (AIAS), one undergraduate and graduate, who have shown exceptional leadership and made significant contributions to their academic community at the University of Nebraska College of Architecture.

Audrey Cherek, AIAS is a fourth-year architecture student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Design with a minor in Business Administration. Driven by a passion for design and leadership, she is deeply engaged in both the College of Architecture and the broader campus community.

Within the College, Audrey serves as a Peer Mentor, Ambassador, and Student Blogger, as well as President of the UNL chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students. She is also Treasurer of Tau Sigma Delta, a member of The Gallery and NOMAS, and an active UCARE student researcher under Professor Brian M. Kelly.

Her design work has been recognized nationally and locally. Recent honors include publication in The Gallery‘s Spring 2024 Student Work collection, a SARA New York Design Award, finalist recognition in the BWBR Competition, and the 2025 UNL Student Research Days undergraduate award for her project “Biases and Bloopers in Comfy UI.”

Beyond the studio, Audrey represents the College of Architecture as a Senator in the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska, contributes to AIAS’s National Ethics Committee, and plays cello in the Campus Orchestra and Cello Choir. She also gained professional experience as a design intern at DLR Group in Omaha.

In addition to her academic and professional pursuits, Audrey enjoys watercolor painting, casting, yoga, and cooking.

Young Architect Award

Recognizes an AIA Nebraska member, licensed less than 10 years who has shown exceptional leadership and made significant contributions to the profession in the areas of design, education, and or service in an early stage of their architectural career.

Timothy Williams, AIA, grew up in Omaha, where skateboarding first introduced him to the built environment as a landscape of experimentation and iteration. That early curiosity about space and cities led him to the University of Kansas, where he earned his Master of Architecture and developed a collaborative ethos through both studio and leadership roles.

After graduation, Tim worked with Ateliers Jean Nouvel in Paris before moving to Hong Kong, where he spent eight years immersed in the city’s cultural dynamism and density. There, he engaged in international competitions, exhibitions, and became one of the first architects to complete the NCARB exams in Asia. His experiences abroad sharpened his belief in cross-disciplinary collaboration, cultural responsiveness, and global exchange as drivers of innovation.

Returning to the U.S., Tim contributed to large-scale projects at Pelli Clarke Pelli in New York before joining HDR in Omaha in 2019. As Design Principal, he has led major civic and cultural projects, including the Kiewit Luminarium and the new Omaha Central Library, while fostering a studio culture of curiosity, openness, and continuous learning.

Outside of practice, he continues to explore design through woodworking and home projects with his wife, also an architect, and their sons. At the core of his work is a belief that meaningful environments emerge from curiosity, listening, and a willingness to rethink the expected.

Architectural | Design Education Award

Recognizes a living person of esteemed character who has rendered distinguished service to the profession of architecture design or to the arts science in a Nebraska institution of higher learning. .

Professor Jason Griffiths is an Associate Professor in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Architecture and the W. Cecil Steward Professor of Sustainability. He earned his Master of Architecture with distinction from the Bartlett School of Architecture in the UK and has held distinguished appointments, including the Hyde Chair of Excellence and the Hawthorne Distinguished Professorship.

A tireless advocate for the advancement of design-build pedagogy, Griffiths provides a transformative, experience-based education for students at UNL. Through his PLAIN Design-Build collective, he integrates research on mass timber with buildings for non-profit organizations in Nebraska. Projects such as Mizer’s Ruin, BLIND, and the Baxa Cabin at Cedar Point Biological Station have enabled students to develop a deep understanding of low-carbon design and socially responsible forestry. Beyond the classroom, Griffiths’ research and creative practice place him at the forefront of material innovation and cultural discourse in architecture. His book Manifest Destiny: A Guide to the Essential Indifference of American Suburban Housing challenges conventional paradigms of suburban development, while his ongoing work-supported by grants from the US Forest Service and the Softwood Lumber Board, among others-advances the use of engineered wood products and sustainable building practices in both education and professional practice

Firm of the Year

Recognizes an AIA Nebraska firm in good standing that has shown exceptional leadership and made significant contributions to the profession in the areas of design, education, and or service to the State of Nebraska and its communities.

RDG Planning & Design has helped define and elevate architecture in Nebraska for more than six decades. With over 130 AIA awards and hundreds of design recognitions, RDG exemplifies design excellence across diverse project types, including healthcare environments, educational facilities, cultural institutions, worship spaces, civic buildings and community planning initiatives.

Their leadership is most visible in transformative contributions to health science education, including landmark projects at UNMC and Creighton University, as well as recent work at UNK on the Douglas A. Kristensen Rural Health Education Complex. These projects support professional training for healthcare practitioners serving rural communities, helping expand access to healthcare across the state. RDG’s pioneering work in early childhood education is equally impactful, exemplified by four Educare facilities in Nebraska – including the first on tribal lands – and ongoing collaborations with the Buffett Early Childhood Institute and rural districts that are helping set new national standards for learning environments. Their work in faith-based architecture, including churches and spiritual centers across the Midwest, reflects a commitment to creating spaces that strengthen community, nurture belonging and elevate the human spirit.

RDG’s planning leadership extends well beyond buildings, shaping the future of campuses, municipalities and critical infrastructure across Nebraska. From trail systems to transportation planning, the firm helps turn visionary ideas into long-term impact.

Equally integral is RDG’s culture of service. As an employee-owned firm, RDG actively contributes to the state’s civic life, and invests in the next generation of designers through mentorship, education and participation in ACE and NOMA programs.

Rooted in the values of purposeful design and civic stewardship, RDG continues to demonstrate that architecture is most powerful when it uplifts people and places, setting a higher standard for design in the public interest.

Harry F. Cunningham Gold Medal

The Gold Medal commemorates the achievements of Harry Francis Cunningham who came to Nebraska as lead architect for Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue’s office during completion of the tower phase of construction for the State Capitol following Goodhue’s death in 1924. It was Goodhue’s revolutionary building design which won the nationwide competition in 1920 for the creation of the state house in Lincoln. Cunningham subsequently established the first school of architecture at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln.

Upon earning his Master’s Degree in Architecture from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Doug Wignall, FAIA, made the deliberate choice to remain in Nebraska, turning down opportunities with well-known East Coast firms. His early work on Omaha projects such as the Joslyn Art Museum addition and the Western Heritage Museum renovation (now the Durham Museum) sparked a deep passion for design excellence-one that has guided every stage of his career.

In 2012, Doug became President of HDR Architecture, and embarked on redefining what a 21st-century global architecture practice could be. He expanded HDR’s reach by opening offices in New York, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Sydney, and London, ensuring that global expertise would strengthen local studios. At the same time, he emphasized that architectural success depends on context-designing buildings appropriate to their cultural, social, political, and environmental settings. Under Doug’s leadership, HDR has won four national Honor Awards, produced three national Young Architect Award recipients, and elevated five architects to Fellowship, all while headquartered in Nebraska.

Doug has been a strong advocate for elevating design culture locally and nationally. For more than a decade, he has served as a founding patron and sponsor of daOMA (Design Alliance OMAha, Inc.) and supported Unicameral Design Magazine. He also championed HDR’s sponsorship of the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in both 2021 and 2023, reinforcing the importance of design on the global stage. Closer to home, he led HDR’s gift to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s College of Architecture, resulting in the new HDR Pavilion addition to the iconic Architecture Hall, a project that underscores the firm’s and Doug’s enduring ties to Nebraska.

“Doug’s advocacy of design excellence has guided the firm’s constant transformation, evolving it from a practice focused on technical and planning expertise to a design-driven, 21st-century architecture practice,” said nominator Thomas J. Trenolone, FAIA, LEED AP, NCARB . His strategy of combining organic growth with acquisitions has grown HDR’s non-U.S. business from 11% to nearly 35% of revenues. Under Doug’s leadership, the firm’s practitioners are empowered to challenge conventional practices and innovate across disciplines and geographies. Their diversity-architects, engineers, interior designers, planners, social scientists, clinicians, strategists, researchers, economists and data geeks-speaks to the design culture that Doug has fostered and to his willingness to invest in development, testing and implementation.

Today, he remains an ardent advocate for the power of design, a champion of the idea that architects bring value to the world by applying critical thinking and problem-solving to address pressing social, environmental and economic challenges.