Reflections and Visions

Mississauga Urban Design Awards 2025

50 years since its inception, Mississauga remains committed to advancing its cityscape and celebrating excellence in design. Submit an innovative, dynamic and trendsetting urban design project that’s transforming our community.

Submissions close on April 18, 2025.

Submit a project

About the Awards

Once a collection of villages, the City of Mississauga has matured into a vital and connected urban community. Knowing that this accomplishment results from careful and ambitious design, Mississauga remains committed to recognizing and celebrating excellence in design.

That’s why, it’s no surprise that the Mississauga Urban Design Awards is the longest running Urban Design Award program in Ontario. Established in 1981, the awards celebrates designs that advance our city space and supports the City’s vision to inspire the world as a dynamic and beautiful global city for creativity and innovation, with vibrant, safe and connected communities.

Submissions open

Submissions deadline

People’s Choice opens

People’s Choice closes

Winners announced

Past winners

Mississauga Urban Design Award recipients are internationally recognized as standing shoulder to shoulder with the best in contemporary urban design.

Past winners in this prestigious program include:

Absolute World Tower

2013 Award of Excellence

The Absolute World Tower redefined the downtown skyline, and exceeded conventions in residential tower design. The project dared to be different and set the stage for an architecturally sophisticated, cosmopolitan Mississauga (2013 Jury Report)

Mississauga Celebration Square

2011 Award of Excellence

Celebration Square was recognized for being an example for other cities of how to revitalize a central urban space. It has gone on to receive other laurels, including the Rick Hansen award for Accessible Design (2011 Jury Report)

Churchill Meadows Community Centre and Mattamy Sports Park

2023 Award of Excellence

Churchill Meadows Community Centre and Mattamy Sports Park clearly display a high level of design excellence. The organization of the built form and open spaces are carefully connected and meaningfully executed. (2023 Jury Report)

“Design excellence is essential in shaping the identity of our places and raising the quality of life in our communities.”

Sharon Mittmann, Manager of Urban Design

Types of awards

The Mississauga Urban Design Awards recognize three awards of distinction. The number of awards bestowed in each category, if any, is at the discretion of the jury.

Award of Excellence

Given to projects that demonstrate excellence across all judging criteria

Award of Merit

Given to projects that demonstrate excellence in one or more of the judging criteria

Healthy by Design

Given to projects that exemplify the six Healthy Community Design elements

The Mississauga Urban Design Awards also includes a People’s Choice Award where the public can vote for their favourite urban design project online.

People’s Choice Award

Given to the project that receives the most public support through online voting

Judging criteria

Every submission will be reviewed for excellence across several criteria, including:

Citywide significance

Considers whether the project contributes to the City’s design objectives as related to city image, visual identity, vistas, skyline, streetscapes, recognition of sites and location opportunities.

Community significance

Considers whether the project contributes to the quality of the environment within a community which demonstrates regard for the context of the locale, enhancing a sense of place, personal health, and safety, or reinforcing a unique history.

Living green

Considers whether the project demonstrates an integrated approach to design which supports environmental and sustainable site and building practices, while providing benefits to the community and supporting active modes of transportation, walkability and green infrastructure.

Innovation

Considers the degree of creative response to program requirements and site constraints, considering sustainable best practices, including LEED and Low Impact Development, with the ability to influence trends.

Context

Considers the relationship or blending of built form and spaces with existing and planned development, and respect for and enhancement of the area’s character.

Execution

Considers the quality of construction materials and the interpretation of design into reality and how it supports the City’s Strategic Plan and the five Strategic Pillars for Change:

Move: Developing a transit-oriented city
Belong: Ensuring youth, older adults and new immigrants thrive, ensure accessibility
Connect: Completing our neighbourhoods
Prosper: Cultivating creative and innovative businesses
Green: Sustainability and environmental considerations

Healthy by Design

Considers whether the project contributes to the creation of walkable, sustainable and complete communities by demonstrating inter-related healthy development elements: density, service proximity, land use mix, street connectivity, streetscape characteristics and parking.

Award winners stand shoulder to shoulder nationally and internationally, and are recognized for excellence in design.

Award categories

The Mississauga Urban Design Awards invites a broad range of submissions, including:

Urban elements

A standalone object, public artwork, small-scale building component or landscape element which contributes significantly to the quality of the public realm.

This includes infill housing, additions, public art on public or private lands, street furniture, light fixtures, canopies, signage, walkways, stairways, or other unique design element.

Private projects

A building or group of buildings in all types and scales that achieve urban design excellence and is precedent setting for a project of its type. Submissions should address how the project contributes to successful city-building through its contextual relationship, design quality and measures of sustainable and healthy design. Submissions may include residential, employment, commercial, mixed-use, heritage restoration and adaptive re-use buildings, parks, private open spaces, or plazas.

Public projects

A building or group of buildings that serve the public and are accessible to the public. All building types and scales are eligible.

This includes education, healthcare, recreation, cultural, community, civic buildings, heritage restoration and adaptive re-use buildings, bridges, parks, streetscape, public or private open spaces, plazas, landscaped areas, or stormwater facilities.

Eligibility and submission requirements

Eligibility

The project must be substantially completed to be considered for an award. Owners, architects, designers, landscape architects, developers or others who’ve played a key role in the design, development or construction may submit a project
Project owner permission is required to visit the property as part of the evaluation process
More than one project may be submitted for consideration, so long as all projects meet the eligibility criteria
Projects must be located within Mississauga
Projects can be entered in only one category which will be confirmed by the awards committee
Projects that have been previously submitted are not eligible for reconsideration
Projects must be submitted by the April 18, 2025 deadline

Non-eligible projects and project types

Projects that were submitted for a Mississauga Urban Design Award in previous years
Interior design projects
Plans
Proposals
Master plans

What to submit

High resolution digital images of your project (maximum of five)
Brief project description explaining why your project is award-worthy and details, such as the backstory (500 words or less)
Names and contact information of key project contributors
Signed permission form the project owner for the jury to visit the project site

Key considerations

Theme

The theme will inform how the program is communicated in 2025, but projects don’t need to align with the theme.

Participation and winner benefits

Benefits of nominating a project include:

Community and industry peer recognition for excellence in design
Project portfolio and marketing materials
Eligibility and fee waiver to participate in the 2026 National Urban Design Awards (a prestigious, Canada-wide contemporary urban design celebration)
National and international recognition for design excellence

Photography tips

Projects are best photographed in full daylight (unless nighttime/architectural lighting is a key component for review in the nomination process). Photos with flora in full bloom looks best. If you don’t have spring/summer images, don’t worry – the jury will be visiting each project in person as part of the evaluation.

Reception details

The City intends to host the reception as an in-person event in October 2025, however, will modify the plan should public health require it. The reception is open to nominees and jury members, and select others, pre-registration may be required to ensure venue capacity is not exceeded.

Jury selection

The Jury is selected from the local community of design professionals, and may include Landscape Architects, Architects, Urban Designers and Professional Artists. A member of the City of Mississauga’s City Council and staff representative from the Region of Peel’s Public Health team are also included on the jury. Jury participation is by invite only, with members selected by the City of Mississauga’s Planning and Building Leadership Team.

Stay tuned for when the Mississauga Urban Design Awards Jury is announced in February 2025.

Contact us

If you have any questions, email us at urban.design@mississauga.ca.