Design Competition
To kick off the BuildReady initiative, in the summer of 2026 the City of Cincinnati hosted the open-call BuildReady Design Competition for innovative yet practical middle housing designs. The purpose of the Design Competition was to broaden the understanding of possible middle housing in Cincinnati by advancing creative and new approaches, to serve as a community engagement tool by collecting feedback on popular design elements, and to generate public and professional interest in the later pr-approved plan solicitation.
The winning designs will be the basis for further community engagement activities to identify which features are desirable for the pre-approved plans before a firm is hired to produce them through a Request for Proposals (RFP).
The Design Competition officially closed on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, and an Awards Ceremony to honor the winners was held in partnership with the Cincinnati Chapter of the Urban Land Institute on Monday, September 14, 2026.
- View the Awards Ceremony photos
- View the Awards Ceremony recording
- View the Awards Ceremony Presentation
View the Submissions and Winning Designs!
Click the buttons below to view the submission booklet for each housing type. Winners are highlighted with banners for their respective awards. Winning designs and firms are also listed below.
| Winners | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Professional Panel | Community Panel | Online Voting | ||||
| 2 Family Winners | 2.23 - The Gable by Maria Jose Ponce de Leon at Ponce de Leon Design LLC in Cincinnati, OH |
2.14 - The Seamless Two-Family by Garland Harris Jr & Umesh Warge at Middle Housing Design Co in Houston, TX |
2.29 - WestLake by William Smith & Morgan Morse at the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, OH |
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| 3 Family Winners | 3.31 - Cincinnati Three Way by Jonathan Bolch, Colin Christensen, Madeline Peck, Matthew Stoll, Willis DeWitt, and Miles Woofter at Woofter Bolch Architecture in Portland, OR |
3.7 - 3-Z House by Eileen Trimbach, Olivia Bates, Veronica Martin, and Michael Prince at FFE Inc. in Blue Ash, OH |
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| 4 Family Winners | 4.26 - House for All Ages by Ian Ting and Hannah Terry at TATA Design Workshop in Houston, TX |
4.15 - The Modern Foursquare by Garland Harris Jr & Umesh Warge at Middle Housing Design Co in Houston, TX |
4.29 - Stairloom by Jonathan Rieke, Clayton Taylor, Keegan Hebert, and Jess Hadley at West of West Architecture + Design in Los Angeles, CA and Portland, OR |
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| Student Winner | 2.18 - Accessible and Affordable by Emma Daddabbo and Mike Pachan at Miami University in Oxford, OH |
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| Honorable Mentions | ||||||
| Recognized for Scalability | Recognized for Contextuality | Recognized for Storytelling | Recognized for Neighborliness | Recognized for Sustainability | ||
| 2.10 - The Guardian by Zack Miller and DJ Keenan at Guardian Structural Technologies in Cleveland, OH |
2.6 - Context Versatility by Jeff Raser at CUDA Studio LLC in Cincinnati, OH |
2.5 - Living Framework by Zoque Wahid. Rishi Tej Aritakula, and Stephan Inabnit at Champlin Studios LLC in Cincinnati, OH |
4.7 - Between Our Homes by Mitchell Hoffman, Junting Ying, Ryan Kennedy, and Nicole Lanese at Champlin Studios in Cincinnati, OH |
3.24 - Passive House by Carl Sterner, Maia Davidson, Aerin Goldman, and Darby Brenner at Sol Design in Cincinnati, OH |
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| Finalists | ||||||
| Professional Panel | Community Panel | Online Voting | ||||
| 2 Family Finalists | 2.14 - The Seamless Two-Family by Garland Harris Jr & Umesh Warge at Middle Housing Design Co in Houston, TX 2.27 - Push and Pull Duplex by Matthew Scarlettat Things Meet Architecture Studio in New York, NY |
2.17 - Eins Du Plex by Ryan Minnich in Cincinnati, OH 2.18 - Accessible and Affordable by Emma Daddabbo and Mike Pachan at Miami University in Oxford, OH |
2.14 - The Seamless Two-Family 2.24 - A Duplex for the Basin and the Zone |
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| 3 Family Finalists | 3.16 - A Design for Contextuality and Privacy by Nathaniael Groth at Syracuse University in Salisbury, MD 3.22 - New Painted Ladies on the Block by Gregory Serweta and Maia Peck at Serweta Peck in Buffalo, NY |
3.18 - Common Ground by Maria Jose Ponce de Leon at Ponce de Leon Design in Cincinnati, OH 3.19 - The Alice by Andreas Lange, Abigail Lovins, and Nathaniel Liesh at PWWG Architects in Cincinnati, OH |
3.3 - Trillium by Zach Zielke at Atelier Butter in Denver, CO 3.13 - The Neighborhood Triplex by Garland Harris Jr & Umesh Warge at Middle Housing Design Co in Houston, TX |
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| 4 Family Finalists | 4.7 - Between Our Homes
by Mitchell Hoffman, Junting Ying, Ryan Kennedy and Nicole Lanese at Champlin Studios in Cincinnati, OH |
4.12 - Porchlight Four by Tim Sullivan at Lasting Ground in Nantucket, MA 4.29 - Stairloom by Jonathan Rieke, Clayton Taylor, Keegan Hebert, and Jess Hadley at West of West Architecture + Design in Los Angeles, CA and Portland, OR |
4.9 – The Common House |
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Jury Panels
Winning designs were reviewed and judged by three jury panels: the Professional Panel, the Community Stakeholder Panel, and the People's Choice Online Voting, each of which chose a winner for each of the three typologies. This award structure provided the equally necessary professional expertise and resident perspective to facilitate a balanced evaluation that was reflective of all stakeholders in the broader BuildReady initiative. The three panels enabled a higher level of community engagement in the design competition, allowing each group to clearly express their unique preferences and priorities outside of City influence, while the online voting widened the reach and pool of participants in the process. Click the links below to learn about BuildReady's Professional and Community Stakeholder judges.
Competition Brief
The Design Competition Brief was published on Wednesday, May 27, 2026 and served as the guiding document for participants in the competition. It outlines the background, goals, and timeline of the BuildReady initiative, the purpose of the design competition and the submission objectives, community engagement feedback conducted with the Technical Support Group, rules of submission, award categories, jury panels and scoring, and more. Click Here to Download the Design Competition Brief.
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