Absolute Equality: Unity Tunnel, the mosaic-covered underpass near Lady Bird Lake that more than 250 Austin residents helped design and build, has won the 2026 IAP2 USA Core Values Award for Project of the Year in Creativity and Innovation. The honor recognizes a project that turned a stretch of city infrastructure beneath Pleasant Valley Road into a sprawling collaborative artwork, with contributions ranging from tile-setting to shaping the murals' imagery.
A National Recognition for a Year-and-a-Half Effort
The award was presented October 1 at the International Association for Public Participation's North American Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, according to statesman.com. IAP2, the International Association for Public Participation, gives the awards to projects that best demonstrate its Core Values and help raise the bar for public engagement by sharing best practices, according to iap2usa.org. The Creativity and Innovation category specifically honors projects that use inventive techniques to meaningfully engage participants, the organization notes.
The artwork was created by Texas artist Reginald Adams, who worked with more than 250 Austin residents over a year and a half of collaborative design and artmaking, per the same statesman.com report. Participants ranged in age from five to more than 65, and about 68 percent lived in the immediate neighborhood around Lady Bird Lake, the outlet reports.
What's Inside the Underpass
The finished tunnel includes a painted mural depicting local flora and fauna across its upper walls, flagstone along the lower walls meant to evoke the Colorado River, and a tile mosaic running the length of the project. The mosaic was built from more than 689,000 hand-laid tiles, paired with a 3,000-square-foot painted ceiling mural, according to statesman.com's reporting. The project also features custom ceramic handprints at its east and west entrances.
The mosaic's imagery grew directly out of community responses to the prompt “What makes East Austin special to you?” according to the artwork's own site, unitytunnel.com. That site describes the ceiling mural as drawing inspiration from local flora and fauna, and notes that the project has continued to invite participation through additional art workshops and community activations.
Reports describing the underpass's length vary: statesman.com puts it at a 160-foot span beneath Pleasant Valley Road, while Tribeza describes it as spanning 150 feet of trail. The tunnel connects Roy G. Guerrero Colorado River Metropolitan Park with the Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail, per statesman.com.
City Officials Point to Community Investment
IAP2 judges commended Adams's methods for encouraging community members to share their ideas, and noted that participants became personally invested in the art rather than merely cooperative, according to a city release cited in reporting. The judges found that the community went above and beyond decision-making, leading to investment in the artmaking itself, with residents making physical contributions to the finished piece, statesman.com reports.
Angela Means, director of Austin's Arts, Culture, Music and Entertainment department, said Austin residents shaped the artwork's stories, symbols and materials, and even helped fabricate it. Means also said the project strengthened the community, according to the same statesman.com account. The Unity Tunnel was produced through Art in Public Places, Austin's public art program, which IAP2 recognized alongside Adams for the project.
A Second Award Already in Hand
Beyond the IAP2 honor, the Unity Tunnel was also selected as a 2026 CODAworx Winner for Best Collaboration, statesman.com reports — a recognition the project's own website also lists among its 2026 honors. Together, the two awards point to a project that judges repeatedly singled out not just for its finished scale, but for how many hands helped put it there.
