The 26th annual Smithsonian National Design Awards Gala was unlike any previous ceremony in its quarter-century history. Held in Lower Manhattan at the National Museum of the American Indian—a branch of the Smithsonian, formerly the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House—the May 19th celebration coincided with the nation’s 250th birthday, which made the government venue feel rather fitting for a black tie gathering.

The date and venue weren’t the only details that made one of the nation’s highest design honors—and the museum’s flagship fundraising event—feel different. Per tradition, guests joined award winners spanning ten disciplines, ranging from interiors and landscape architecture to communication, digital, product, and fashion, in the museum’s auditorium for a theater-style ceremony. Only this year, an impressive group of Gala Honorees selected by Cooper Hewitt joined award recipients on stage, in what felt like the perfect mix of legacy and innovation.

“Because of the 250th anniversary of the country, we also have design honorees with us tonight who will help present the winners. They represent real shining lights in American design whom we also wanted to celebrate,” Maria Nicanor, director of Cooper Hewitt, told Vogue. Nicanor was referring to trailblazers whose contributions have created an indelible mark, such as Tory Burch, Jenna Lyons, Martha Stewart, Thom Browne, and Maya Lin.

The evening also honored historic figures whose work has helped inform design and culture, including Peter Cooper and Frederick Law Olmsted, architects Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, as well as textile and interior designer Candace Wheeler.

Lyons, the former executive creative director and president of J.Crew—once dubbed “the woman dressing America”—introduced the award for Landscape Architecture to Christine Ten Eyck of Ten Eyck Landscape Architects. “What you start to realize is that the language [between disciplines] is really similar,” Lyons told Vogue. “As a designer of clothing, my only desire is to make someone feel beautiful, powerful, and confident. Most designers have the same aspiration. They just want the person who’s interacting with the thing they’ve made to walk away feeling good.”

Burch was tasked with introducing the Communication Design category, which was awarded to New York-based agency, Thought Matter, its founder and chief executive Tom Jaffe, and managing partner Jessie McGuire.

The ceremony ended with a group photo of all the presenters and winners, but not before a huge round of applause reserved for this year’s Design Visionary recipient: the 89-year-old artist, designer, and educator, Robert Earl Paige.

Guests were ushered upstairs to mingle during a cocktail reception ahead of the seated dinner. And while prosecco and cucumber cocktails were passed around, Stewart and Browne quietly made their way into an oak wood-paneled room called the Collectors Office, which houses portraits of famous seaports around the world.

Both Stewart and Browne eventually shared remarks on stage once guests took their seats inside The Rotunda; a 48-foot oval skylight room lined with murals of the New York Harbor. “This is heartfelt for me because I worked at the Cooper Hewitt for several years, catering all their parties, learning all their designs, and understanding their collections,” Stewart told Vogue. “Being honored here—where I catered one of my very first big parties, which landed me my first book contract as a result—is pretty fabulous,” she continued.