Its most striking success came in June this year when it won a High Court case against the port company's plans to push one of its big wharves nearly 100m further into the Waitemata Harbour.
Its court case was launched after the council granted resource consents for the extension without any consultation, notification or knowledge of the wider Auckland community and other stakeholders. This was despite intense public interest in the port's future and while the thorny issue of its expansion was under the spotlight in planning hearings.
For the hearing, Urban Auckland managed to build a decent pot of money from fundraising and got sympathetic lawyers to argue its case at reduced fees.
The court agreed with the lobby that the consents for the multi-million project were not lawful.
Stout was ecstatic.
"We always knew it was the right thing to do bringing this case and we have been completely vindicated," she said after the judgment.
The lobby says it is not anti-Ports, but rather pro-harbour, which it regards as one of the city's most precious assets to be held in trust for future generations. It was unhappy the port company had pushed ahead in defiance of public opinion and without a holistic study of the wider social, economic and environmental impact of growth on the harbour.
Wearing her architectural hat, Stout is a director of the highly regarded firm she runs with her partner, David Mitchell.
The Mitchell & Stout practice's work is seen to reflect Auckland's Pacific location, unsurprising given the couple spent some years working and sailing in the Pacific and Asia. It has twice won Home Magazine's "Home of the Year" and in 2014 Stout was part of the creative team which produced the New Zealand pavilion at the 14th Venice Biennale of Architecture in June 2014.
Outside the office, she teaches budding young architects, encouraging in them a sensibility to promote and create a better built environment for Auckland City.
Read about the other nominees here nzh.nu/VXkDM.
