San Diego Design Week debuts ‘Signature Projects Shaping Our City’

Bold ideas, stunning spaces, and community-driven solutions will share the spotlight when San Diego Design Week opens on Sept. 17.

Presented by Design Forward Alliance, the weeklong celebration will debut its Signature Projects Shaping Our City series, honoring innovative leaders whose work is transforming San Diego’s built environment, public spaces, and cultural landscape. These projects set the standard for design excellence while strengthening communities, inspiring connection, and tackling today’s toughest challenges, according to a news release.

This year’s theme, Design for Impact, calls on designers, makers, and changemakers to create purposeful solutions that drive innovation, advance equity, and deliver lasting change. It highlights the power of multidisciplinary collaboration, bringing together architects, planners, technologists, artists, environmentalists, and community leaders to address urgent social, environmental, and civic needs.

“Our Signature Projects honorees—from MIG to OJB, IQHQ to BASILE Studio—reflect the diversity, creativity, and community spirit that make San Diego such an extraordinary design city,” said Eric Weiss, Board President of Design Forward Alliance. “These projects are more than beautiful—they show how design can build bridges between people, disciplines, and ideas, shaping a resilient, inclusive future. The firms we’re honoring this year are leading in their fields, from innovative placemaking and landmark landscape design to monumental projects such as the museum renovation at the San Diego Museum of Art.”

Signature Projects 2025 Honorees:

• Architecture: Steinberg Hart – Fox Point Farms
• Museum Renovation: Foster + Partners – SDMA
• Historic Preservation: Forever Balboa Park – Botanical Building and Gardens
• Public Art/Placemaking: IQHQ – RaDD Artwalk
• City Wayfinding/Signage: MIG – Orion Park
• Park Planning and Design: MIG – Town + Country Park
• Landscape Design: OJB – 13th Street Green
• Restaurant Design: BASILE Studio and Jules Wilson Design
• Hotel/Resort Design: Gaylord Resort
• …and more to be announced.

“It’s an honor to be recognized by the leading design organization in San Diego,” said Rick Barrett, principal, MIG Landscape Architect. “San Diego Design Week is more than an event—it’s a platform for mentorship, collaboration, and connection across industries. It celebrates the best of our community’s creativity while inspiring the next generation of designers to think bigger and work together to tackle complex challenges.”

Honorees will be showcased during opening night and featured throughout the week in tours, panels, and presentations. All will be added to the Signature Projects Digital Archive, a permanent record of San Diego’s landmark design contributions.

From Sept. 17–21, SDDW will turn the city into a living design lab, with exhibitions, talks, workshops, and collaborations inviting the public to meet the people shaping San Diego’s future. Highlights include:

• AI Create – Exploring the intersection of artificial intelligence and human creativity (9/17)
• DDX Innovation & UX – Showcasing digital experience design (9/18)
• Design for Impact – Featuring Design for Clean Water, presented by BluPeak Credit Union (9/19)
• Design for Clean Water Challenge – Showcasing microgrant winners at the I Love A Clean San Diego Coastal Cleanup Event, presented by BluPeak Credit Union and sponsored by Project Clean Water (9/19)
• Industry Day – Connecting professionals across architecture, planning, technology, and the arts (9/20)
• Community Showcases – Over 100 community-led design events across the region (9/21)

San Diego Design Week fosters mentorship, interdisciplinary collaboration, and cross-cultural exchange, creating opportunities for professionals, students, and the public to connect and share ideas.

Organized by Design Forward Alliance, a 501(c)(3) founded in 2016 by the UC San Diego Design Lab, SDDW champions design-driven innovation across business, education, and creative industries. Sponsors for 2025 include A Designed Space, BluPeak, Border UX, Learning Designed, MIG, Perkins Eastman, Shine Bloom Creative, and Qualcomm. For more information or to learn about sponsorship details, visit sddesignweek.org or follow @SDDesignWeek on social media.