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The Architect
Szostak Design
Philip Szostak is one of the most honored architects in North Carolina. Over forty-five years of practice, he has collected nearly every significant recognition his profession offers: Fellow of the AIA, the AIA NC Kamphoefner Prize for modernism, Firm of the Year, and in 2018, the AIA North Carolina Gold Medal. The Gold Medal is the single highest honor the state chapter gives any architect. It is awarded once, for a lifetime of work.
His buildings have received more than three dozen design awards across local, state, regional, and national juries, including an AIA National Small Project Award. He has designed a Broadway theater ranked among the three most-attended in the country, a broadcast headquarters, university dining halls, a public aquatic center, and a long list of modernist residences across the Triangle.
He also teaches. A graduate of NC State's College of Design under Henry Kamphoefner himself, Phil has been on the faculty in some form since 1976, and now holds the rank of full Professor. Four and a half decades in, he is still shaping the next generation of North Carolina architects while actively running a studio that received its most recent design awards in 2025.
Personal Honors
2018
The single highest honor the state chapter presents to any architect. Awarded in recognition of a lifetime of achievement.
2010
Named for Henry Kamphoefner, founder of the NC State College of Design. Awarded for outstanding contributions to modernism in architecture.
2009
Elevation to Fellow (FAIA) is held by fewer than 3% of American architects. The highest membership honor the AIA bestows.
Firm Honors
2014
The highest honor the state chapter can bestow on a firm. Szostak Design, recognized as one of the defining practices in North Carolina.
2022
Recognition for the firm's mentorship and investment in the next generation of architects.
The Signature Project
If you've been to a Broadway show in Durham, you've been inside Phil's most visible work. He co-developed and designed DPAC, carrying both financial risk and creative control. At 2,800 seats and 103,000 square feet, it is the largest broadway-style theater in the carolinas and is consistently ranked among the top three most-attended theaters in the united states.
DPAC alone has been recognized with six design awards, including an AIA North Carolina Honor Award, the Durham Appearance Commission's Golden Leaf Award, an AIA Triangle Merit Award, and a ULI Triangle Influence Award for its role in catalyzing the revitalization of downtown Durham.
Project Awards
Civic buildings, private residences, university projects, and agricultural architecture. Recognized at every level from local juries to the AIA National convention.
Durham, NC
103,000 SF, 2,800-seat Broadway-style theater. Consistently among the top three most-attended theaters in the United States. Phil co-developed, co-guaranteed, and designed DPAC.
Raleigh, NC
Durham, NC
Durham, NC
Chapel Hill, NC
Raleigh, NC
Battle Branch Residence and Curtis Media Center at UNC Chapel Hill both received Aspire Design Awards in 2025. Battle Branch and Patel Glendale Residence were selected for the AIA Triangle Tour of Residential Architecture.
Beyond Practice
Running a studio is only part of it. Phil's career has played out in classrooms, exhibition halls, and development boardrooms as much as on the drafting table.
The Commission at 707 Watts
707 Watts Street is a private commission, a home Phil designed for a client he knew, built in his own city, in the neighborhood he knows intimately.
Rather than treating the project as an isolated object, the house was conceived as part of a larger streetscape shaped by more than a century of residential development. The building is set back from Watts Street at a distance consistent with neighboring houses. The height and massing were carefully calibrated to align with the scale of surrounding homes.
The Builder
The home was built by Szostak Build, the firm's own construction arm, led by Zachary Szostak. The builder-architect relationship in this case is not a contractor interpreting someone else’s drawings: it is the architect’s own family building the architect’s own design.
The result is a level of fidelity between vision and execution that is genuinely rare.