Cumbernauld has the dubious distinction of winning the Plook on the Plinth title for having Scotland's "most dismal" town centre in 2001 and 2005.
Judges have compared it to Kabul and described its shopping centre as a rabbit warren on stilts.
Now an online poll has seen it top a public vote for civic pride.
The Scottish Design Awards is organised by Urban Realm - which also organises the Carbuncle awards.
During the past few weeks of online voting, Cumbernauld residents helped the town move ahead of rivals such as Broughty Ferry, Dunkeld, East Kilbride, Eaglesham Linlithgow, Peebles and Pitlochry.
When the polls closed at midnight on Thursday, Cumbernauld had narrowly beaten Peebles.
The prize will be collected by a delegation from the town at a ceremony in Glasgow on Friday evening.
The Carbuncle Awards were created by Gordon Young, now editor of The Drum, one of the sponsors of the Scottish Design Awards.
He said: "The initial complaints against the town concerned the disastrous design of the town centre.
"There has been some investment in that area but the level of improvement is not great.
"However, Cumbernauld's real success story is how it has prospered despite these problems."
Mr Young said "the surrounding countryside, the high demand for housing, rich and diverse suburbs, transport links to Glasgow and Edinburgh and a vibrant community spirit" had all helped make Cumbernauld "a decent place to bring up a family".
He added: "Basically, economic success plus people power have made it a nice place to live."

The 15-year-old, who is currently staying with relatives, has been subject to an online and in-person harassment campaign.
People on Facebook have threatened "they are going to get" her daughter, the 32-year-old woman told US media.
The BBC is not identifying the mother in order to protect the girl's privacy.
Around 40 people were said to have been watching the livestream but nobody reported the incident to police.
The girl has been afraid to return to the Lawndale neighbourhood where she lives.
Her mother says local children have been ringing her doorbell looking for the girl.
"This is just disturbing and to think the kids think it is funny," she said, adding that she now wants to leave the crime-plagued west Chicago neighbourhood.
"I can't stay here," she said on Wednesday after being reunited with her daughter.
Chicago police found the girl one day after she went missing and contacted Facebook to have the video removed.
The girl is now out of hospital, but has not yet returned home.
A relative of the girl, Reginald King, says he was the last to see her before the alleged attack, after the two attended church together on Sunday.
"Nobody deserves that. No human being deserves for that to happen to them," he told local media, adding that he suspects local "thugs" committed the attack.
Mr King said a local group of children are "holding an entire community hostage".
"I literally saw adults, 60 years old, my elders, my parents' age, cringeing in fear," he told the Chicago Tribune.
No arrests have yet been made, but a spokesman for Chicago police says they have conducted several interviews with potential suspects and they are "making good progress" identifying the assailants.
A spokeswoman for Facebook refused to comment on this specific case, but said they do not allow this kind of content.
"We take our responsibility to keep people safe on Facebook very seriously and will remove videos that depict sexual assault and are shared to glorify violence."
In January, Chicago police arrested four people following a separate incident in which a man's alleged assault was live streamed, also on Facebook Live.

The side's appearance in France will be its first at a major tournament since the 1958 World Cup.
Players and coaches left their base at the Vale Resort, Vale of Glamorgan, on Saturday and headed to Cardiff Airport.
After a send-off from pupils from Ysgol Treganna, Cardiff, the team took off for a friendly in Sweden on Sunday.
They will then head to France ahead of the team's first game of the tournament against Slovakia on 11 June.
The Scottish town which 'won' two Carbuncle honours for its ugly shopping centre has scooped Best Town at the Scottish Design Awards.
[NEXT_CONCEPT]
A teenage girl who police say was raped during a Facebook Live broadcast is too scared to return to her Chicago home, her mother has said.
[NEXT_CONCEPT]
Wales' football team has departed the country as their Euro 2016 preparations reach a climax.