Welcome to Residential Design magazine.
We are an award-winning national publication dedicated to informing, inspiring, and elevating the custom residential architecture and construction professions. RD has a distinguished lineage that began with the long-running Residential Design + Build magazine. Among our sister publications are Qualified Remodeler and Kitchen & Bath Design News, also longstanding leaders in the professions they serve. We are all part of SOLA Group, Inc.
Creating something as important as someone’s home is more than a trade, it’s a calling. The architects and builders who answer that call share a special passion for the work and it drives all that you do.
We’re here to fuel that passion and to provide the high-level, substantive information you need to make your clients’ individual dreams come true. We believe that “design” isn’t just a noun, it’s a verb—an ongoing effort among all the pros involved in a custom residential project. That’s why we focus on more than just pretty pictures of pretty houses. We love houses, too, and we show the best. But we also care about how the pros, the process, and the products align to perfect form and faciltate function. We’re committed to providing indispensable insight and expert guidance into the practice of residential architecture and construction—online and in print.
We have a national residential architecture design competition, judged by an independent jury of architects, that recognizes excellence in custom residential design. The RDAA competition is part of our ongoing mission to elevate and support the profession. Each year, winners are published in full in the print edition of the magazine, in keeping with the importance of the professional achievement the awards represent.
Our print edition is published six times a year. And our newsletter is published twice a month. If you would like to be sure of receiving both the print magazine and the newsletter, please request subscriptions here. Or write to: Residential Design, Circulation Dept., P.O. Box 3007, Northbrook, IL 60065-3007, or call (866) 932-5904, or email [email protected].
In the meantime, watch this space as we continue to build out our home on the web.
PUBLISHED BY
SOLA Group, Inc. | 444 N. Michigan Ave. | Suite 300 | Chicago, IL 60611 | 847.920.9513
Publisher: Paul DeGrandis | [email protected]
Group Editorial Director: Patrick L. O’Toole | [email protected]
Editor-in-Chief: S. Claire Conroy | [email protected]
Digital Content Editor: Caroline Hetzel | [email protected]
Art Director: Bill Murphy| [email protected]
Projects Manager: Heidi Riedl | [email protected]
HOW TO GET YOUR WORK PUBLISHED IN THE MAGAZINE
What do we look for in projects? The exceptional, the unusual, the ambitious, and the delightful. Any custom residential project is eligible if it is under four or so years old, not widely published on a national basis (either in print or online), has a strong architect/designer at the helm and a talented custom builder.
We strive for geographical diversity, covering as much of the country as we can from issue to issue.
We prefer new construction projects, but will consider an extensive, whole-house remodel or major addition.
The house must already have been professionally photographed with at least 10 or more images, presentation floor plans, and a products specification list.
We are happy to keep the identity of the client(s) confidential.
How do we define a custom home? A one-of-a-kind project designed and built for a specific client on the client’s property. Houses built from existing plans with modifications do not qualify. Houses built as speculative projects for a hypothetical buyer do not typically qualify. Any style of house does qualify, as long as its particulars are uniquely invented for the client and the site.
Please recognize that we cannot publish all submissions. We may not be able to reply to all inquiries, due to volume. If we don’t select your project, it could be for many reasons that have nothing to do with merit. We may have run a similar house recently, one from a nearby location, or may have already agreed to do so.
Do put on your critic’s hat before submitting work. The magazine consists of an all-professional audience. Is your project one that teaches a lesson other professionals will find valuable? Does it stand up to what you already see in this magazine and other professional journals? Does it advance the practice of residential design in one way or another? Would it likely win an award in a local, regional, or national design competition? If yes, we are delighted to consider it.
Email is best. Address your submissions to [email protected]. And please be sure to include the following:
- Low-res jpegs of the project itself
- A short project description, highlighting significant aspects of the house and unusual aspects of the design and/or construction
- Presentation floor plans, if available (these will be needed if your project is selected for publication). Other drawings are welcome
We also welcome interesting practice/business stories from architects and builders. Just a straightforward email outlining your idea will do. Note: We don’t accept article placements by public relations firms or other entities. If we like your idea, we’ll write about it ourselves.
If you have a new building product you’d like us to cover in the magazine, please send a high-resolution image ready for print reproduction and a product description to the email above.
Thank you for your interest in the magazine!
HOW TO ENTER OUR ANNUAL RESIDENTIAL DESIGN ARCHITECTURE AWARDS
The RD Architecture Awards recognize excellence in custom residential design.
This is a different kind of awards competition that covers the breadth and scope of work by talented residential architects and designers. We recognize that contemporary and contextual projects are sometimes difficult to judge against each other. We have, therefore, created two different paths of entry. In addition to categories based on location and scope of design, we’ve created categories specifically for contextual, vernacular, or traditional work to encourage submission of these projects to the program and to the magazine. Modern work is judged against modern work; traditional work against traditional work.
This is not a web-only awards program.
All winning projects are published in the print edition of Residential Design magazine distributed at the AIA Conference on Architecture, and published in the digital edition of the magazine and on RD’s website.
All entries are judged by an independent jury of architects.
Our 2025 program is now open for entries.
Online coverage of last year’s RDAA award-winning projects can be viewed here. And a digital facsimile of the print edition coverage can be seen here.