Charlotte’s annual Urban Design Awards are a useful shortcut to the places, projects and neighborhoods the city thinks are doing something right.

The 2026 awards — better known as the Urbies — recognized 12 winners across categories ranging from walkability and public space to adaptive reuse and mobility.

Here is the full list, plus why each one is worth knowing.

Great Development Near Transit: The Station at LoSo

The Station at LoSo was recognized for combining development with access to the Blue Line, Rail Trail and the growing Lower South End district.

Great Walkable Neighborhood: Elizabeth

Elizabeth earned the walkability award for its mix of homes, parks, restaurants and historic streetcar-era character.

Great New Life for an Old Place: Common Market Oakwold

The Oakwold location turned an underused business property into a neighborhood gathering spot with a deli, bottle shop, market and patio.

Great Public Space: Pearl Street Park

Pearl Street Park’s renovation brought new recreation space, an inclusive playground, a performance pavilion and public art to a park with deep ties to Charlotte’s historic Brooklyn neighborhood.

Great Placemaking: Thrift Pony

The secondhand clothing shop was recognized not just for retail, but for markets, concerts, movie nights and pop-ups that turn its locations into gathering places.

Great Mobility Project: The Braille Trail by Lions Services

The two-mile route connects Sugar Creek Station to Lions Services and is being designed with tactile, sound and sensory features that make the trail more useful for people who are blind or visually impaired.

Great Urban Architecture: Linea

Linea in South End was recognized for architecture that connects directly to the Rail Trail and the surrounding neighborhood.

Great Suburban Design: Apex SouthPark

Apex SouthPark was recognized for a mixed-use approach that kept a cultural institution on the former SouthPark United Methodist Church site.

Great Student Project: Transformative Structures

Kristen James received the student award for a citywide design study focused on how structures can adapt and change.

Great Urban Design Champion: Chris Thomas

Thomas was honored for a career that included major Charlotte-area development work and leadership in SouthPark.

Great Neighborhood Champion: Mattie Marshall

The Washington Heights community leader was recognized for years of neighborhood advocacy and work creating spaces for residents to gather.

People’s Choice: Rosie’s Coffee & Wine Garden

Charlotte residents selected Rosie’s at McGill Rose Garden for the People’s Choice award, giving one of the city’s most distinctive garden gathering spots the public vote.

What makes this list interesting

The winners are not simply new towers or expensive developments.

They include an old neighborhood, a public park, a thrift store, an accessibility-focused trail and a coffee-and-wine garden.

That makes the Urbies less of an architecture list and more of a guide to places around Charlotte that are trying to make the city easier to walk, gather and spend time in.

See the City of Charlotte’s full 2026 Urbies announcement.