Overview
The traditional answer to a data center has been a sealed box with a fence around it. Sited for power and fiber, shaped by the equipment inside, turned away from everything around it. That answer worked when these buildings were rare and small. It does not work now.
Beyond the Box asks a different question. If a data center had to earn its place in a community, what would it look like? What would it give back? How would it exchange heat, water, and presence with the neighborhood at its fence line?
This is an architecture challenge, not an engineering brief. Teams work at the scale of the campus and its civic edge, roughly a one mile perimeter, and every solution has to be buildable within one to three years, as new construction or retrofit.
Now recruiting founding sponsors, partners and judges
Sponsor commitments open through December 1, 2026.
Sponsorship: carrie@usgbc-ca.org | Partnerships: colin@usgbc-ca.org | Judge nominations: kyle@usgbc-ca.org via online nomination form here
Why architects
Architects are early enough to change the outcome. By the time a project reaches procurement or permitting, most of what matters is already fixed. Architects are in the room while siting, massing, envelope, and material selection are still live questions.
Architects also hold the specification. The building products that end up in these facilities, from the envelope to the acoustic treatment to the low-carbon materials, are chosen at the design stage.
And architects hold form and function together. They are not satisfied when something merely works; they expect it to be worth looking at. For a building type designed as though nobody would see it, that instinct is the point, and aesthetic quality is itself a benefit to the neighbors.
Run by a community organization
USGBC California is a member organization, and our members are Californians. Our mission is to transform California through the built environment into a more sustainable, resilient, and equitable place for all.
A competition about whether data centers can be good neighbors ought to be run by someone accountable to the neighbors.
Design focus areas
01 Thermal
Cooling strategy, power use effectiveness, and heat rejection. Then the question almost nobody answers: what happens to the heat once it leaves the rack. Waste heat is the largest unclaimed asset on the site.
02 Water
Evaporative cooling puts these buildings in direct competition with the communities around them. Closed loop systems, reuse, and honest accounting of the indirect water that comes through the grid.
03 Energy
Onsite generation, storage, and grid interaction. The bar is moving from bring your own energy, to bring your own clean energy, to adding to the community’s energy infrastructure.
04 Civic Edge
Form, massing, landscape, noise, light, and the fence line itself. What the building offers the block it sits on. Public amenity rather than setback and berm.
Performance targets for each thread are in development and will be published with the design brief.
Who can enter
Open worldwide, with professional and student tracks judged separately. Architecture, engineering and landscape practices, university design programs, and interdisciplinary teams.
Submissions comprise a design narrative, two 24×36 design boards, and a three minute video.
Key dates
- September 23, 2026 — Official Announcement
- December 10, 2026 — Competition opens with the USGBC California Green Gala
- February 12, 2027 — Submissions close
- February 22 to March 26, 2027 — Judging
- April 15, 2027 — Finalists named
- TBD — Winners announced at the California Green Building Conference
The design challenge phase is timed to coincide with winter break for architecture students. Five Office Hours sessions run through January and February. All dates subject to change.
Call for judges
The jury is being assembled now, and nominations are open through the fall. We are looking for:
- Data center sustainability and operations leaders
- Architects and engineers with data center portfolios
- Utility, grid, and thermal infrastructure specialists
- Water and cooling technology experts
- Community engagement and siting practitioners
- Academics in the energy and water impacts of computing
Judges score submissions against five weighted criteria across a four week remote review in early 2027, join one convening to select the finalist slate, and are named across challenge materials and the final report.
Anyone can put a name forward, including their own. Please use our online form here.
Get involved
We are actively recruiting founding sponsors, partners and judges. Founding commitments close September 15, 2026.
Fund the challenge
Sponsors who commit before the call opens help shape the design brief and the performance targets. Sponsors at the Gold level and above hold a seat on the jury. Recognition runs across the full program, from the December launch through the awards at the California Green Building Conference.
Request the sponsorship prospectus: carrie@usgbc-ca.org
Partner with us
If your organization reaches architects, engineers, students or data center professionals, we want you carrying the call for entries. We are building an amplification coalition across industry associations, architecture institutes, engineering societies, university design programs and trade media. Partners receive a ready-to-share kit and are credited across challenge materials.
Start a partner conversation: colin@usgbc-ca.org
Nominate a judge
Anyone can put a name forward, including their own. Nominations are open through the fall.
Send name, organization and area of expertise: kyle@usgbc-ca.org
Track record
Our previous Architectural Design Challenge, Shaping the Future of Water Use at Home, drew 112 participants from nine countries and six U.S. states across professional and student tracks.
Winning concepts were published in the Design Showcase and Final Report, exhibited at the California Green Building Conference, and several are moving toward pilots.
Contact
- General inquiries — ashton@usgbc-ca.org
- Sponsorship and partnership — carrie@usgbc-ca.org
- Challenge development — colin@usgbc-ca.org
- Judge nominations — kyle@usgbc-ca.org via online nomination form here
