Freelon was a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (and the recipient of their Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture), and a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Accredited Professional.
In 1989, Freelon was the recipient of the Loeb Fellowship and spent a year of independent study at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
Since then, The Freelon Group has expanded to a sixty-member architectural firm located in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina.
[7] Freelon's papers are housed at North Carolina State University Libraries' Special Collections Research Center.
[8] In honor of his contributions to the architectural field, the Harvard Graduate School of Design created the Phil Freelon Fellowship Fund.
[17] Freelon's end-of-life care and terminal struggle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis was documented on the Independent Lens documentary Matter of Mind: My ALS which originally premiered May 1st, 2023 on PBS.