Now in its 44th edition, the portfolio-based competition was established in 1981 as the Young Architects’ Forum and is open to architects and designers less than 10 years out of a bachelor’s or master’s degree program. As reported in February, the previously annual prize has switched to a biennial cycle, alternating years with the League’s other major awards program, Emerging Voices. Submissions for the next cohort of Emerging Voice–winning architects will open in the fall, with awardees announced in 2026. 

Similar to League Prize’s past, the 2025 theme was developed by the Young Architects + Designers Committee, a rotating group comprising previous winners. For the latest cycle, the committee included Rayshad Dorsey, Liz Gálvez, and Miles Gertler. Joining them on the competition jury were Behnaz Assadi, Mario Gooden, Jia Yi Gu, and William O’Brien Jr. 

In its prompt, the committee asked “designers with a story to tell” to plot it all out: “Every building has its lore, and plots are known to thicken. Which dramas are shaping architecture’s arc today? The truth may be stranger than fiction. Despite the best-laid plans, design so often deals in circumstance. That is, while architects may endeavor to write their own stories, projects always present twists. … We invite young designers to chronicle that which bookends their practices and to demonstrate plot’s persistent role as main character.”

The theme will be explored in a three-part online lecture series held on the evenings of June 11, June 19, and June 26, as well as a digital exhibition that features original material created by the winners. More information on the 2025 League Prize programming can be found on the Architecture League’s website.

Below are images of works by the 2025 League Prize awardees, along with short profiles as provided by the League:

Rural Restroom (Ausonia, Córdoba, Argentina, 2018) by Balsa Crosetto Piazzi. Photo by Juan Murua Palacio

“Balsa Crosetto Piazzi is an architecture firm based in the United States and Argentina. Founded in 2014, the practice is led by Juan Manuel Balsa, Rocio Crosetto Brizzio, and Leandro Piazzi. Grounded in thoughtful attention to materiality and building methods, Balsa Crosetto Piazzi describes their design approach as inclusive of ‘the networks and cycles of materials, people, ecologies, knowledge, and resources that are part of the construction of architecture,’ in their own words. The firm works across multiple scales in both urban and rural contexts, from public installations to houses, gathering spaces, and other commissions.”

Karina Caballero and Camila Ulloa Vásquez | Otros Entregables | Mexico City 

Consecuencias event (Zyanya, Mexico City, 2024) by Otros Entregables and Adriana Rodríguez. Photo by Laura Méndez

“Karina Caballero and Camila Ulloa Vásquez founded Mexico City-based platform Otros Entregables (Other Deliverables) in 2023. Through their podcast, live events, and curatorial initiatives, Otros Entregables aims to challenge the boundaries of traditional architectural deliverables and expand architectural discourse to include a variety of artistic-spatial practices. The platform’s work is generated from exchanges with collaborators including academic institutions and students, designers and design organizations, and ‘likeminded unconventional makers,’ in their own words.”

David Costanza | Ithaca, New York 

Shared Beds, Ragdale Foundation (Lake Forest, Illinois, 2019) by David Costanza and Piergianna Mazzocca. Photo by David Costanza

“David Costanza is the principal of David Costanza Studio, a design-build practice based in Ithaca, New York, and director of the Building Construction Lab at Cornell University AAP, which he founded in 2020. Through his practice, research, and teaching, Costanza aims to ‘question how architects can operate as engaged participants in the act of making,’ in his own words. Costanza’s portfolio engages with a broad spectrum of design processes, from computational design tools, to tectonically experimental public installations, to sustainability oriented residential work.”

Deborah Garcia | Debora.Studio | New York City 

SUPA Soundsystem (Harvard ArtLab, Cambridge Massachusetts, 2024) by Debora.Studio and Joseph Zeal-Henry. Photo by Malakhai Pearson

“Deborah Garcia is an architectural designer and researcher whose work focuses on reimagining everyday structures through multisensory activation. Throughout her often site-specific installations, curatorial work, and research projects, Garcia aims to ‘investigate the crossed wires of what we hear, the stories we are a part of, and the things we feed back into the system,’ in her own words. Her recent research developed strategies for using sound as an architectural medium and historical record.”

Mahsa Malek and Alex Yueyan Li | 11 x 17 Toronto and Denver

3/8” (Three Eighths of an Inch), Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts ( Texas, 2023-24) by 11 x 17 and Nero He. Photo by 11 x 17 and Nero He

“11 x 17 is a research-driven design practice with offices in Denver and Toronto. Founded in 2022 by Mahsa Malek and Alex Yueyan Li, the firm creates built and speculative works across multiple scales, including exhibitions, furniture, interiors, books, and buildings, united by a critical examination of materiality. 11 x 17 approaches building construction as ‘a conceptual device to engage larger issues around resources, labor, and form,’ in the firm’s own words, resulting in a portfolio of lean yet multifaceted projects that challenge divisions between architectural products and processes.”

Laura Salazar, Pablo Sequero, and Juan Medina | salazarsequeromedina | New York City and New Orleans

Sobremesas, 13th Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (Lima, 2024) by salazarsequeromedina and Leggett & Cahuas. Photo by Ivan Salinero

“Laura Salazar, Pablo Sequero, and Juan Medina founded design studio salazarsequeromedina in 2020. The collaborative practice focuses on civic work that engages creatively with both building processes and the contemporary built environment. Often constructed with repurposed materials, salazarsequeromedina’s ‘open-ended structures,’ as the firm describes their projects, are realized through dialogue with environmental context in concert with community programming and use. The firm has produced architectural installations, speculative interventions, and built work for sites and platforms in Peru, South Korea, Spain, and the United States.”