Nominations are open for the 2025 Ottawa Heritage and Urban Design Awards

The City of Ottawa recognizes outstanding achievements in heritage conservation with the Ottawa Heritage Awards, and celebrates urban design excellence with the Urban Design Awards. This year, the two awards are being recognized together.

The nomination deadline for both awards is Friday, September 5. Both awards will be presented together in one ceremony: November 6, 2025 at Ottawa City Hall.

Ottawa Heritage Awards

Heritage projects completed between 2022 and 2025 are eligible for consideration of a Heritage Award. There are three types of Heritage awards:

• project-based
  • Ottawa Heritage Awards entry form
• student-led
  • Ottawa Student Heritage Award application
• community member/group.
  • Community Heritage Award application

Project awards may be presented in seven categories:

• Restoration
• Rehabilitation / Adaptive Reuse
• Infill
• Addition
• Government
• Heritage Grants
• Other

Some projects may qualify in more than one category. Please note that projects related to properties owned by the federal government will only qualify for the “Government” category.

For more information on the Ottawa Heritage Awards visit ottawa.ca.

Urban Design Awards

Projects completed between 2023 and 2025 can be nominated in the following categories

• Urban Infill, (low-rise): for buildings that introduce quality-built spaces into established neighbourhoods in ways that respect the community
• Public Places and Civic Spaces: for spaces that enhance, extend and embellish the public realm
• Urban Elements: for design elements that contribute to the unique character of the neighbourhood at a human scale
• Student Projects: for theoretical or studio projects submitted by students
• Visions and Master Plans: An unbuilt vision for the city, studies and master plans that are inspiring, trend setting and significant for the future development of the city.

For more information on the Urban Design Awards, visit ottawa.ca