CIDIE Standard™
Transforming Community Insights into Design Solutions
The Memorial at Harvey Milk Plaza. Image courtesy of Friends of Harvey Milk and SWA Group.
The CIDIE Vision
To create a world with built environments that are free of structural, programmatic, and social barriers for all end-users and communities.
The CIDIE Approach
Translate end-user insights into actionable design strategies to create socially responsible built environments that are enjoyable, beneficial, and usable to as many people as possible.
Focused on Design, Guided by Community
Most building certification systems spread their focus across design, operations, and management. The CIDIE Standard is different.
CIDIE is among the first certification programs built exclusively around design, elevating people-first and community-centered approaches. By concentrating on the design process and outcomes, CIDIE ensures that the decisions made at the drawing board set the strongest possible foundation for a project’s impact, innovation, and long-term success.
CIDIE frameworks uniquely guide project teams in gathering, integrating, and evaluating community insights throughout design and post-occupancy to ensure that every environment reflects the people it serves.
Standard Administrators
CIDIE is administered by three interdisciplinary partners committed to advancing socially responsible buildings, spaces, and communities. The CIDIE Lab guides the stewardship of the Standard, refining criteria, engaging advisory committees, and promoting adoption worldwide. Certification is administered independently by SEAM, Inc. — a nonprofit organization and operator of the SEAM Standard — in collaboration with third-party reviewers at North Carolina State University. This powerful collaboration ensures that CIDIE Certification remains rigorous, transparent, and unbiased.
Certifying Entity
SEAM administers CIDIE Certifications to projects upon completion of all materials.
Standard Administration
The CIDIE Lab oversees standard development, research, and CIDIE Standard adoption.
Third-Party Reviewer
NC State reviews all project materials submitted for CIDIE Certification.
What People Are Saying about CIDIE
“The CIDIE Standard provided a clear and effective framework that highlights the critical role of engagement in creating spaces that genuinely serve communities. We’re excited to bring this approach to future projects, continuing to design environments that reflect and uplift diverse voices.”
— Daniel Cunningham, Principal, SWA Group
The CIDIE Standard helped us synthesize our approach to community-engaged design for Norman-Sims Elementary. We look forward to bringing CIDIE to more of our projects in the future.
— Nicola Springer, AIA, LEED AP, Partner & Managing Director, pK-12 Practice, Kirksey Architecture
“We are honored to pave the way as the first CIDIE Design Certification recipient for the Memorial at Harvey Milk Plaza. Inclusion of community voices is a key pillar of our project, and the CIDIE Standard helped us to bolster this commitment.”
— Brian Springfield, Former Executive Director, The Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza
“We were thrilled to pilot the CIDIE Standard at Norman-Sims Elementary. Engaging our community throughout the design process was a priority from the beginning. We appreciated CIDIE as a building certification program that helped elevate our values.”
— Raechel French, PhD, Director of Planning Services, Austin Independent School District
Get Involved
We invite organizations to join us in shaping community-informed built environments by becoming an Impact Partner or Sponsors. Through 2026, all participating organizations will receive the designation of *Founding* Sponsor or *Founding* Impact Partner, a one-time opportunity to be recognized as an early CIDIE champion!
Sponsors
Investing to make community-informed design possible.
Sponsors provide the essential financial support that sustains the CIDIE Lab’s research, standard development, and daily operations. Sponsorship enables the CIDIE Lab to deliver evidence-based tools, resources, and education that empower practitioners to design with and for communities.
Gold, Silver, and Bronze sponsorship levels provide organizations a range of pathways for supporting CIDIE’s mission and future development.
Impact Partners
Visionary collaborators shaping CIDIE from the ground up.
Impact Partners are leading organizations that join the CIDIE Lab in strategic, hands-on collaboration. Through bespoke partnerships, Impact Partners contribute expertise, resources, and in-kind support to co-create tools, frameworks, and initiatives that define the future of community-informed design.
