SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS (June 10, 2026) — Overland Partners announced today that its work on the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida, has been awarded the 2026 COTE Top Ten Award by the American Institute of Architects (AIA). The project team included landscape architect, OLIN; solar power engineer and contractor, One80 Solar; structural, mechanical, electrical engineer, Arup; structural engineer, Kimley-Horn; lighting designer Lam Partners; and general contractor, Willis Smith Construction.
Widely regarded as one of the architecture profession’s most prestigious honors for sustainable design, AIA’s Committee on the Environment (COTE) has for 29 years annually recognized ten projects that integrate design excellence with high performance across ten key areas, demonstrating how architects advance the health and welfare of communities and the planet.
“We are honored and humbled to accept this award on behalf of the entire team that helped bring Marie Selby Botanical Gardens to life,” said Adam Bush, President and Principal of Overland Partners. “Since our founding in 1987, Overland Partners has forged a meaningful legacy of work designed to foster human and environmental flourishing. As the world’s first net-positive energy botanical garden, Selby Botanical Gardens continues that legacy, acting as a global model of resilience and innovation. Our work with Jennifer Rominiecki and the entire Selby Botanical Gardens team is a singular example of how collaboration, creativity, and collective vision can result in a highly impactful project that is catalytic for a future generation of buildings that positively impact humanity and our environment.”
Located in an ecologically fragile parcel of bayfront land in Florida, Marie Selby Botanical Gardens is known for its display and study of epiphytic orchids, bromeliads, gesneriads and ferns, and other tropical plants, as well as its significant focus on botany, horticulture, education, historical preservation, and the environment. Since the arrival of its president and CEO Jennifer Rominiecki in 2015, Selby Botanical Gardens has made drastic progress on advancing its mission of becoming a Living Museum that integrates science, art, hospitality and education while expanding public engagement and financial resilience.
Phase One of the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens project included a new master plan, created by Overland Partners and landscape architect OLIN, and the design and build of a new Welcome Center; Plant Research Center, inclusive of an Herbarium, Laboratory and Research Library; a new Living Energy Access Facility (LEAF) that houses critical mechanical, electrical and plumbing equipment, as well as an attached protected parking structure, museum-quality gift shop, plant sales area and restaurant; a new stormwater filtration system; and a new section of the Multi-Use Recreational Trail (MURT) that connects pedestrians and bicyclists with the Gardens and Sarasota Bay.
The collaborative, complex effort to bring these new spaces to life was rooted in three guiding principles: Grow the gardens by improving access, orientation and open space; reveal hidden treasured by making science visible and accessible; and safeguard the future by protecting collections and infrastructure from climate threats.
Following the completion of Phase One in January 2024, the team’s work was put to an early test facing a series of historic storms and hurricanes, including the Category 4 Hurricane Helene in September 2024 and the Category 5 Hurricane Milton that followed two weeks later. While the region’s surrounding infrastructure took on significant damage because of the storms, Selby’s new buildings succeeded in protecting its collections and recovering quickly. This resilience in the face of real-world climate uncertainty was a case study in the value of regenerative design.
Selby Botanical Gardens has been the recipient of numerous accolades and honors. Earlier this year, Selby received Petal Certification through the International Living Future Institute’s Living Building Challenge. In 2025, it won the American Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design. It was also awarded Travel + Leisure’s 2025 Global Vision Award for Sustainability and was named to Vogue’s 2025 list of Best Botanical Gardens in the United States and USA Today’s 2025 Top 10 Botanical Gardens in the United States. It is on the Time magazine’s 2024 World’s Greatest Places and was included in The Wall Street Journal’s list of Best Architecture of 2024.
About Overland Partners
Overland Partners is an internationally renowned architecture firm offering comprehensive services in architecture, master planning and urban design. With its signature integration of technology, art and landscape, Overland Partners is known for delivering transformative solutions that create meaningful impact across a range of geographies and market sectors, including commercial and mixed use, cultural, civic, nonprofit, education, hospitality, science and research, and residential. Founded in 1987 in San Antonio, the firm now includes teams in Austin, Dallas, Denver, Nashville and New York. For more information about Overland Partners, visit www.overlandpartners.com
About Marie Selby Botanical Gardens
Marie Selby Botanical Gardens provides 45 acres of bayfront sanctuaries connecting people with air plants of the world, native nature, and our regional history. Established by forward-thinking women of their time, Selby Gardens is composed of the 15-acre Downtown Sarasota campus and the 30-acre Historic Spanish Point campus in the Osprey area of Sarasota County, Florida. The Downtown Sarasota campus on Sarasota Bay is the only botanical garden in the world dedicated to the display and study of epiphytic orchids, bromeliads, gesneriads and ferns, and other tropical plants. There is a significant focus on botany, horticulture, education, historical preservation, and the environment. Selby Gardens’ Downtown Sarasota campus features the world’s first net positive energy botanical garden complex, generating more energy than it consumes. The Historic Spanish Point campus is located less than 10 miles south along Little Sarasota Bay. One of the largest preserves showcasing native Florida plants and active archaeology that is interpreted for and open to the public, it celebrates an archaeological record that encompasses approximately 5,000 years of Florida history. Marie Selby Botanical Gardens is a Smithsonian Affiliate and is also accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. For more information visit http://www.selby.org
About AIA
Founded in 1857, AIA consistently works to create more valuable, healthy, secure, and sustainable buildings, neighborhoods, and communities. Through more than 200 international, state and local chapters, AIA advocates for public policies that promote economic vitality and public wellbeing. AIA provides members with tools and resources to assist them in their careers and business as well as engaging civic and government leaders and the public to find solutions to pressing issues facing our communities, institutions, nation, and world. Members adhere to a code of ethics and conduct to ensure the highest professional standards.
Creating places that can’t be built by anyone else
…for anyone else.