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Newsletter v043: Celebration
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Dear School of Architecture Community,
2026 has begun in a spirit of celebration. In January, we welcomed students back to campus with renewed energy and gathered at the end of the first week of classes in the Great Hall of CFA for a school-wide convocation and launch of the newest issue of our annual "x-change" publication.
This book-length volume celebrates the extraordinary range of work from the 2024-25 academic year. It includes student work from first year through Ph.D., along with summaries of courses taught, public programs offered, research produced, and critical reflections on the school's place in the contemporary context. Designed by Studio Elana Schlenker and Jordi Ng and co-edited by Tuliza Sindi and Meredith Marsh, the publication is available in both print and digital formats.
A few days later, we honored the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., reaffirming our commitment to the values of equity and justice that shape our work as architects and educators. And not long thereafter, we hosted a celebration of the PJ Dick Innovation Fund Faculty Grants Program, announcing the 2026 round of awardees and highlighting the work completed by the 2025 recipients. During a festive lunch and exhibition, faculty shared their projects with colleagues and students through lively discussions, demonstrations, and thoughtful reflection.
Established in 2023 by PJ Dick Trumbull Lindy Group, the Faculty Grants Program will award a total of $400,000 over four years. The program supports faculty research and teaching innovations that address the school's three pedagogical challenges of climate change, social justice and artificial intelligence.
The PJ Dick event took place at — and marked something of an opening celebration for — our new research facility at 6555 Penn Avenue, near Bakery Square in Pittsburgh's East End. The former warehouse space greatly expands our capacity for faculty research and full-scale fabrication, the exhibition of student and faculty work at multiple scales, and gatherings. We look forward to hosting the Graduate Student Formal and thesis exhibition there later this semester. If you're in the area, please contact us for a visit.
Despite a stressful landscape in higher education, we deeply value celebrating our students and faculty and their work, and we invite you to join us in doing so.
Kai Gutschow
Associate Professor & Associate Head for Design Ethics
Associate Professor & Associate Head for Design Ethics
When asked how architecture education — let alone celebrations of architecture education — can matter amidst global unrest, CM—A Head of School Omar Khan first looks to history.
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"The energy in architecture and design, writ large, has always been toward making a better world," he says. But in the 20th and early 21st centuries, that energy was often funneled into what he calls an "individualist's utopianism" — a narrative in which "the innovative brainchild of a single visionary genius [think: the Museo Guggenheim Bilbao] could completely alter the fate of a struggling region, raise the world's collective spirit, and enrich all of humanity."
In the intervening decades, though, this "salvation by starchitect" narrative has lost most of its luster — especially for architecture students seeking a way to do meaningful work. "When you look at new, innovative buildings globally," says Khan, "all you see are representations of capital, rather than examples for better living in the 21st century; it's a far cry from utopia."
Becoming situationally responsive to global challenges
Instead of chasing utopias, Khan sees CM—A students and faculty taking a hyper-local, tangible approach.
"They're idealists, but they're also highly pragmatic realists. They want to make communities work better for the people in them. They're not interested in an individual visionary. They're interested in making real, material differences."
Some of this energy is focused on the work of architecture itself. In the past, for example, says Khan, "sustainable design seemed like an achievable, measurable goal; in a rational world, we could expect that global leaders would identify and achieve sustainability metrics." But the current generation of students has watched this shared leadership begin to dissipate, and globally applicable design solutions seem largely unavailable.
"In all three of our pedagogical challenge areas — climate change, social justice and artificial intelligence — students ask fundamental questions, like what would it mean if we can't rely on an agreed-upon, measurable definition? How can we design something adaptable, equitable and resilient, something that works here, now?"
"Of course, technology is part of the answer," says Khan, "but so is community. Our students understand that we cannot function in isolation. We function within and are responsive to a social framework, one that should be just and equitable — but isn't, yet."
Celebrating the moment and building community
CM—A students have also focused their pragmatic energy on their own school's culture. Since 2020, students have self-organized to demand profound institutional change, from new courses to clearer communication and more transparent grading practices. Student-led town halls and community agreements now regularly help shape student life in CM—A.
Carnegie Mellon students have a reputation for putting their heads down and losing themselves in their studies, to the exclusion of all else. But "the work" of architecture has never been solitary. So, for CM—A students, hearts immersed in the work must also be hearts immersed in their local community.
Over the past couple of years, says Khan, CM—A has sought to support intraschool camaraderie by hosting more frequent events for students, faculty and staff. Alongside the usual programs, lectures and colloquia, the school offers opportunities for community rest and celebration. This might look like chatting at a pop-up hot cocoa bar in Margaret Morrison Carnegie Hall, posing for an enormous all-school picture, or celebrating innovative research, like at last month's PJ Dick Innovation Fund Round 2 Awardees Celebration (see footage of the event below).
These moments, says Khan, are as important a part of "the work" as are late nights in studio. Real solutions to the three major challenges, he says, are nuanced and responsive to the moment. They're technical and fanciful, pragmatic and idealistic, flinty-eyed and full of joy. Architecture isn't utopia for CM—A students. It's authentic, responsive, and devoted to the real flourishing of real humans, starting at home.
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PJ Dick Innovation Fund Round 2 Awardees Celebration
On Friday, January 23, the CM—A community gathered at the new research facility at 6555 Penn Avenue to celebrate the second year of the PJ Dick Innovation Fund Faculty Grants Program.
Established in 2023 by PJ Dick Trumbull Lindy Group, the Faculty Grants Program will award a total of $400,000 over four years beginning in 2024. Now in its third year, the program supports the pedagogical mission of the school through faculty research and teaching innovations and the diverse work of faculty in creative practice, professional practice, artistic practice, funded research, participatory design, design build, curation, scholarship, critical and digital humanities, and more. Faculty recipients of the PJ Dick Innovation Fund grants have proposed projects and courses that address the school's three pedagogical challenges of climate change, social justice and artificial intelligence.
The showcase in January not only celebrated the exciting work completed during the second cycle of the program, but it was the first event hosted by CM—A in its new research space at 6555 Penn Avenue, near Bakery Square in Pittsburgh's East End. Peruse video and photos of the projects and new space below, and learn about the third round of grant recipients announced during the event.
Project Grant: "From Pipes to People and Places: Regime Change in Urban Water Infrastructure"
This project addresses the challenge of transitioning stormwater infrastructure to a more resilient and socially integrated urban system. Project lead: Christine Mondor.
Photograph of project display taken at the PJ Dick Innovation Fund Round 2 Awardees Celebration at the 6555 Penn Ave Research Facility on January 23, 2026.
Photograph of project display taken at the PJ Dick Innovation Fund Round 2 Awardees Celebration at the 6555 Penn Ave Research Facility on January 23, 2026.
This project addresses the challenge of transitioning stormwater infrastructure to a more resilient and socially integrated urban system. Project lead: Christine Mondor.
Project Grant: "South Asian Urban Climates"
South Asian Urban Climates is a scholarly community and platform for discussion about the histories, power structures, and material assemblages that make up the climate in and across South Asian cities. The website features place-based case studies that reveal multi-faceted meanings, challenges, and possibilities of urban climates in the region; conversations within a growing community of urban researchers, artists, designers and activists; and pedagogical resources to connect between classroom, community networks, activist forums, and creative practices. Project lead: Nida Rehman.
Screenshot of the website homepage. South Asian Urban Climates is co-convened by Nida Rehman (CMU) and Aparna Parikh (Penn State). The website development has been supported by grants from the Urban Studies Foundation Seminar Series Awards (2019), CMU's Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry (2022), and the PJ Dick Innovation Fund (2025). Website design by Hala B. Malik (Mohr).
Screenshot of the website homepage. South Asian Urban Climates is co-convened by Nida Rehman (CMU) and Aparna Parikh (Penn State). The website development has been supported by grants from the Urban Studies Foundation Seminar Series Awards (2019), CMU's Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry (2022), and the PJ Dick Innovation Fund (2025). Website design by Hala B. Malik (Mohr).
South Asian Urban Climates is a scholarly community and platform for discussion about the histories, power structures, and material assemblages that make up the climate in and across South Asian cities. The website features place-based case studies that reveal multi-faceted meanings, challenges, and possibilities of urban climates in the region; conversations within a growing community of urban researchers, artists, designers and activists; and pedagogical resources to connect between classroom, community networks, activist forums, and creative practices. Project lead: Nida Rehman.
Project Grant: "MycoRubble: Regenerative Biomatter"
This project explores adaptive reuse in architecture through growth processes and the bioremediation of construction waste utilizing mycelium-inoculated invasive species to create Mycelium-Based Composites (MBCs). Project lead: Dana Cupkova.
"MycoRubble: Modular Column Prototype Using Gradient Compaction of Mycelium-Bound Construction Waste." Research assistants: Jil Berenblum (MSSD '24), Nandan Bhusry (MSSD '24), Migel Shehu (MSRSD '26) and Nirmal Kumaras (MAAD '26).
"MycoRubble: Modular Column Prototype Using Gradient Compaction of Mycelium-Bound Construction Waste." Research assistants: Jil Berenblum (MSSD '24), Nandan Bhusry (MSSD '24), Migel Shehu (MSRSD '26) and Nirmal Kumaras (MAAD '26).
This project explores adaptive reuse in architecture through growth processes and the bioremediation of construction waste utilizing mycelium-inoculated invasive species to create Mycelium-Based Composites (MBCs). Project lead: Dana Cupkova.
Project Grant: "Of Mothers and Dragons: Tracing the Life Worlds of Chiang Mai's Peri Urban Through Water and Craft"
The Indigenous knowledge of Chiang Mai, Thailand, is made of rhythms of human rituals — planting, harvesting, and practices that have centered matrilocal beliefs for centuries with the intimate association of climatic, topographic and fluid knowledge of land as they meandered the alluvial plain nestled between two mountains. Project leads: Tommy CheeMou Yang, Vernelle A. A. Noel.
Photograph of project display taken at the PJ Dick Innovation Fund Round 2 Awardees Celebration at the 6555 Penn Ave Research Facility on January 23, 2026.
Photograph of project display taken at the PJ Dick Innovation Fund Round 2 Awardees Celebration at the 6555 Penn Ave Research Facility on January 23, 2026.
The Indigenous knowledge of Chiang Mai, Thailand, is made of rhythms of human rituals — planting, harvesting, and practices that have centered matrilocal beliefs for centuries with the intimate association of climatic, topographic and fluid knowledge of land as they meandered the alluvial plain nestled between two mountains. Project leads: Tommy CheeMou Yang, Vernelle A. A. Noel.
Project Grant: "Unmapping State Monocultures"
This research and design project transforms a 1920s humanitarian shelter, originally built as part of the League of Nations' resettlement efforts following the 1923 population exchange between Türkiye and Greece, into a platform for exploring the intersections of architecture, displacement and ecology. Project leads: Theodossis (Theo) Issaias, Vicky Achnani.
Photograph of project display taken at the PJ Dick Innovation Fund Round 2 Awardees Celebration at the 6555 Penn Ave Research Facility on January 23, 2026.
Photograph of project display taken at the PJ Dick Innovation Fund Round 2 Awardees Celebration at the 6555 Penn Ave Research Facility on January 23, 2026.
This research and design project transforms a 1920s humanitarian shelter, originally built as part of the League of Nations' resettlement efforts following the 1923 population exchange between Türkiye and Greece, into a platform for exploring the intersections of architecture, displacement and ecology. Project leads: Theodossis (Theo) Issaias, Vicky Achnani.
Project Grant: "Building, Builders and Built-Things: Pittsburgh, Charleston and Chiang Mai"
This project conducts inquiry into acts of building, their builders, and built-things to repair — restore, remediate and reconfigure — cultures of making and computation. Project leads: Vernelle A. A. Noel, Tommy CheeMou Yang.
Photograph of project display with project team taken at the PJ Dick Innovation Fund Round 2 Awardees Celebration at the 6555 Penn Ave Research Facility on January 23, 2026.
Photograph of project display with project team taken at the PJ Dick Innovation Fund Round 2 Awardees Celebration at the 6555 Penn Ave Research Facility on January 23, 2026.
This project conducts inquiry into acts of building, their builders, and built-things to repair — restore, remediate and reconfigure — cultures of making and computation. Project leads: Vernelle A. A. Noel, Tommy CheeMou Yang.
Project Grant: "Commons-Public Partnerships: Scaling Cooperative Housing for Just Transitions in Cities"
This project supports the ongoing development of a book manuscript by funding essential research trips for fieldwork and archival investigations that are critical to two chapters. The manuscript explores the emerging concept of Commons-Public Partnerships (CPPs) as a transformational alternative to Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), which typically privatize profit while socializing risk. Distilled from an archive of over 70 case studies, the selected initiatives offer insights from the struggles and successes of tackling the wicked problem of housing affordability. Project lead: Stefan Gruber.
Photograph of project display taken at the PJ Dick Innovation Fund Round 2 Awardees Celebration at the 6555 Penn Ave Research Facility on January 23, 2026.
Photograph of project display taken at the PJ Dick Innovation Fund Round 2 Awardees Celebration at the 6555 Penn Ave Research Facility on January 23, 2026.
This project supports the ongoing development of a book manuscript by funding essential research trips for fieldwork and archival investigations that are critical to two chapters. The manuscript explores the emerging concept of Commons-Public Partnerships (CPPs) as a transformational alternative to Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), which typically privatize profit while socializing risk. Distilled from an archive of over 70 case studies, the selected initiatives offer insights from the struggles and successes of tackling the wicked problem of housing affordability. Project lead: Stefan Gruber.
Project Grant: "Second Life: From Waste to Oasis"
This project emerges as a beacon of hope in the face of the climate crisis, repurposing bamboo from the previous NOMAS Spring Carnival Pavilion. It seeks to present a compelling case for low-carbon practices through a full-scale intervention within an underserved neighborhood, thus supporting the community while fostering sustainable development. Project leads: Vicky Achnani, Misri Patel.
Photograph of project display with research team taken at the PJ Dick Innovation Fund Round 2 Awardees Celebration at the 6555 Penn Ave Research Facility on January 23, 2026.
Photograph of project display with research team taken at the PJ Dick Innovation Fund Round 2 Awardees Celebration at the 6555 Penn Ave Research Facility on January 23, 2026.
This project emerges as a beacon of hope in the face of the climate crisis, repurposing bamboo from the previous NOMAS Spring Carnival Pavilion. It seeks to present a compelling case for low-carbon practices through a full-scale intervention within an underserved neighborhood, thus supporting the community while fostering sustainable development. Project leads: Vicky Achnani, Misri Patel.
Teaching Grant: "Bending Active Systems_ Bamboo Research Pavilion I Prototyping material and spanning systems in Bamboo_ using robotic arms and steam-bending"
Bamboo, a material endowed with vast, yet largely untapped, potential — especially within the domain of architecture — serves as a testament to nature's ingenuity. Despite its remarkable attributes, bamboo remains an underutilized resource in architectural practice, often relegated to peripheral applications such as scaffolding, and occasional use in a more substantive capacity. As a rapidly growing, low-cost, carbon-sequestering natural resource, it offers tremendous promise that has yet to be fully realized. It is time to reassess our approach and unlock the full potential of this multifaceted material in the 21st century. Lead: Vicky Achnani.
Photograph of project display taken at the PJ Dick Innovation Fund Round 2 Awardees Celebration at the 6555 Penn Ave Research Facility on January 23, 2026.
Photograph of project display taken at the PJ Dick Innovation Fund Round 2 Awardees Celebration at the 6555 Penn Ave Research Facility on January 23, 2026.
Bamboo, a material endowed with vast, yet largely untapped, potential — especially within the domain of architecture — serves as a testament to nature's ingenuity. Despite its remarkable attributes, bamboo remains an underutilized resource in architectural practice, often relegated to peripheral applications such as scaffolding, and occasional use in a more substantive capacity. As a rapidly growing, low-cost, carbon-sequestering natural resource, it offers tremendous promise that has yet to be fully realized. It is time to reassess our approach and unlock the full potential of this multifaceted material in the 21st century. Lead: Vicky Achnani.
Teaching Grant: "Unlikely Hybrids"
This Options Studio course aims to build a body of knowledge surrounding the widely unexplored hybrid-topology or office-to-residential conversion. The studio treats the conversion of Pittsburgh's vacated office buildings as a design research project, the outcome of which will directly contribute to the emerging dialogue surrounding this new building type. Lead: Jared Abraham.
Yellow poplar, native to Pennsylvania and abundant across the region, is the largest hardwood species in eastern North America and a promising source for locally harvested mass timber. Image by Drazen Nesic, licensed under Creative Commons (CC).
Yellow poplar, native to Pennsylvania and abundant across the region, is the largest hardwood species in eastern North America and a promising source for locally harvested mass timber. Image by Drazen Nesic, licensed under Creative Commons (CC).
This Options Studio course aims to build a body of knowledge surrounding the widely unexplored hybrid-topology or office-to-residential conversion. The studio treats the conversion of Pittsburgh's vacated office buildings as a design research project, the outcome of which will directly contribute to the emerging dialogue surrounding this new building type. Lead: Jared Abraham.
Teaching Grant: "Advanced Structural Design — Computational Explorations"
This elective course will provide support for research exploring the transformative potential of extended reality (XR) technology in revolutionizing the interactive design and teaching processes of three-dimensional (3D) architectural structures. The project aims to bridge the gap between traditional digital design methodologies that are constrained to two-dimensional (2D) interfaces and the fully immersive spatial capabilities offered by XR. Lead: Juney Lee.
Photograph of project display and demonstration taken at the PJ Dick Innovation Fund Round 2 Awardees Celebration at the 6555 Penn Ave Research Facility on January 23, 2026.
Photograph of project display and demonstration taken at the PJ Dick Innovation Fund Round 2 Awardees Celebration at the 6555 Penn Ave Research Facility on January 23, 2026.
This elective course will provide support for research exploring the transformative potential of extended reality (XR) technology in revolutionizing the interactive design and teaching processes of three-dimensional (3D) architectural structures. The project aims to bridge the gap between traditional digital design methodologies that are constrained to two-dimensional (2D) interfaces and the fully immersive spatial capabilities offered by XR. Lead: Juney Lee.
Teaching Grant: "Material Regeneration: Prototyping Material Circularity"
This elective course tackles climate change by examining extractive material systems and exploring innovative construction methods and tectonics grounded in ethical and ecological principles. Lead: Jongwan Kwon.
Photograph of project display taken at the PJ Dick Innovation Fund Round 2 Awardees Celebration at the 6555 Penn Ave Research Facility on January 23, 2026.
Photograph of project display taken at the PJ Dick Innovation Fund Round 2 Awardees Celebration at the 6555 Penn Ave Research Facility on January 23, 2026.
This elective course tackles climate change by examining extractive material systems and exploring innovative construction methods and tectonics grounded in ethical and ecological principles. Lead: Jongwan Kwon.
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Project grants support the diverse work of CM—A's faculty in creative practice, professional practice, artistic practice, funded research, participatory design, design build, curation, scholarship, critical and digital humanities, and more. Funds may be used as seed funding to start a project with the aim of getting external support, and for continued work on a project that may not have the option for sponsored research.
- BuildFest: Five Years of Peace and Building at the Historic Site of Woodstock — Project Lead: Neal Lucas Hitch, Special Faculty
- Seeing Heat: Drone-Based Thermal Signatures and Design Strategies for Pittsburgh Housing — Project Lead: Azadeh Sawyer, Assistant Professor in Building Technology
- Landscapes of More-Than-Human Temporalities — Project Lead: Daragh Byrne, Associate Teaching Professor
- Rural–Urban Timber Economies: Hardwood CLT for Scalable Affordable Housing — Project Lead: Jared Abraham, Special Faculty in Architectural Design
- From Archive to Generative: Beyond Prompting Toward a Search-Centric Pedagogy for AI-Assisted Architectural Design — Project Lead: Jimmy Wei-Chun Cheng, Special Faculty
- Making Alive: Cities! Decommodified, Regenerative, Pluriversal, Reworlded — Project Leads: Stefan Gruber, Associate Professor; Sarosh Anklesaria, Associate Teaching Professor; Tuliza Sindi, Special Faculty
- Weather Dreams: Colonial Fantasies and Atmospheric Fictions — Project Lead: Stephanie Kyuyoung Lee, Ann Kalla Visiting Professor
- Healing and Hybridizing Urban Infrastructures: Mitigating Social, Spatial, and Environmental Impacts in East Allegheny — Project Lead: Jonathan Kline, Professor of Practice
- From Soft-to-Structure: Novel Computational Workflows for Textile Techniques in Architecture — Project Lead: Vernelle A. A. Noel, Lucian and Rita Caste Assistant Professor in Architecture
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Teaching grants support changes to existing courses and the development of new courses that focus on the school's three pedagogical challenges. The teaching grants recognize that the future of architecture and its related industries starts with the education of the profession's next generation of practitioners through innovative pedagogies.
- Ethics and Decision Making in Architecture — Instructor: Maryam Karimi, Special Faculty
- Soft Form — Burnt Clay — Instructor: Laura Garófalo, Associate Professor
- [Velocity as Frame] Mobility as Access — Instructor: Gloria Chang, Special Faculty
- Owning Affinity: Spatial Models for Collective Housing — Instructor: Jongwan Kwon, Assistant Teaching Professor
- Intermundium: Labyrinth of Invisible Narratives — Instructor: Niloufar Alenjery, Special Faculty
"x-change" Book Launch & Welcome Back Celebration
We began the spring semester with a welcome back celebration and the launch of our annual school publication, "x-change." The event kicked off with a brief opening assembly, followed by a group photograph of the school community, and then lunch and an opportunity to pick up a copy of the 2025 "x-change" publication.
The 2025 "x-change" book, "market x-change," was designed by Studio Elana Schlenker and Jordi Ng, and co-edited by Tuliza Sindi and Meredith Marsh. The exhibition of work from the publication, "Cabinets of Curiosities," was on view in the College of Fine Arts Great Hall from August 25 to September 5, 2025, and was designed by Jared Abraham and Heather Bizon.
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CM—A students admire the 2025 edition of "x-change" at the book launch and welcome back event on January 16, held in the CFA Great Hall.
Tuliza Sindi, co-editor of the 2025 "x-change" book, speaks at the opening assembly in Kresge Theatre. Following remarks by Head of School Omar Khan, co-editors Sindi and Meredith Marsh delivered their remarks.
Student organizations introduced themselves at the assembly and shared information about their activities and membership opportunities.
After the opening assembly, the event continued in the Great Hall, where the CM—A community had the opportunity to pick up copies of "x-change," enjoy lunch, and mingle.
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2025 x-change book team: "2024–25: market x-change"
Cover and Book Design: Studio Elana Schlenker, Jordi Ng; Co-Editors: Tuliza Sindi, Meredith Marsh; Copy Editor: Meredith Marsh; Student Team: Narayan Ashanahalli, Jason Asiedu, Trijya Bhardwaj, Pausha Bovornthamajak, Melika Davarkhah, Lilianne Kouyaté, Keng Pu (Paul) Li, Ananya Shrimali, Aakash Vipparla; Staff Acknowledgements: Alycia Barney, Christi Danner, David Koltas.Publication of this book has been generously aided by the EX-CHANGE Fund. Carnegie Mellon Architecture gratefully acknowledges Mark Ferguson (CFA'78) and Natalie Jacobs (CFA'79), and Desmone (Gold Sponsorship), for their generous sponsorship of this publication. Additional thanks to our individual donors: Julio Ascencios (P'CFA'28), Katherine Bojsza (CFA'03, H&SS'03), David Burson (CFA'72, P'CFA'04), Patricia Burson (CFA'71, P'CFA'04), Laurence Clodic (P'CFA'25), Nicholas Colello (CFA'01), Chip Desmone (CFA'87), Lisa Ficarelli-Halpern, Ian Friedman (CFA'18, CFA'20), Kristin Froling (P'CFA'26), Mark Froling (P'CFA'26), Front Studio Architects, Robert Grubb (CFA'80), Jim Halpern (CFA'81), Cassie Howard (CFA'21), Melinda Hungerman Johnson (CMU'00, HNZ'01), Stefan Hurray (CFA'03), Naim Jabbour (CFA'09, CFA'22), Brian Johnson (TPR'05), Adam Shong Jing Kor (CFA'18), Suzan Lami (CFA'79), Norman Larson (CFA'89), Lauren Marx-Ascencios (P'CFA'28), Anne Riggs (CFA'09), Eric Warfel (P'CFA'25), Frederick Watts (CFA'68, P'CFA'96), Jiaxi Wu (CFA'25), Yumiko Yamada (CFA'99), Andrew Yoon (CFA'25), Rachel Zsembery (CFA'00).
Students and professionals meet in small groups at Interchange on February 12, 2026.
Interchange 2026
Interchange, CM—A's annual employer recruiting event, took place on February 12. During Interchange, professionals and firms are invited to meet students in the studio environment and view their design projects and research. This year, over 30 firms visited the school and met with over 100 undergraduate and graduate students.
If you are interested in more information about Interchange or connecting with CM—A students professionally, contact Lori Claus, Director for Career Development Opportunity.
Save the Date: CM—A at Spring Carnival
April 11, 2026
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April 11, 2026
1:00PM - 2:30PMCarnival Entry Pavilion on The Cut
Faculty & Staff News
- January 5, 2026: Special Faculty Tommy CheeMou Yang leads an international workshop, "Living with Green-Blue Infrastructure: Methods in Compoundology and Cinemetrics in Architecture" in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
- January 10, 2026: The book "Building and Unbuilding the City Museum: From Le Corbusier to Ahmedabad," coedited by Associate Teaching Professor Sarosh Anklesaria and Lily Chi, will be released March 26, 2026 by Routledge.
- January 29, 2026: Special Faculty Tommy CheeMou Yang is featured in Carnegie Mellon University's Eberly Center Spotlight on Innovative Teaching, where he presents the Poiesis II Core Studio "Radical Empathy in Architecture."
- February 3, 2026: Special Faculty Yiqun Pan, Ph.D. delivers a presentation titled "Occupant Behavior (OB) Modules Development for Coupled Simulation in DeST3.0" during "Seminar 37: Occupant-Centric, AI-Aided Building Simulation and Modeling" at the ASHRAE Winter Meeting in Las Vegas.
- February 10, 2026: Professor Emeritus Khee Poh Lam receives the 2025 IWBI Global Educator of the Year Award.
- February 10, 2026: Adjunct Suzy Li (PhD-BPD '25) is featured in an interview with WESA about her research on smart surfaces and their impact on temperature.
- February 11, 2026: Associate Professor Erica Cochran Hameen is listed in "Pittsburgh Business Times" People on the Move for her work with the Green Building Alliance and CMU.
- February 11, 2026: Tuliza Sindi, as Curator for Public Programs and Director and Editor-in-Chief of Carnegie Mellon Architecture's in otherwards Imprint, is featured in "Madame Architect," an international platform highlighting women and gender-expansive practitioners in architecture. Titled "Spatial Possibilities: Carnegie Mellon's Tuliza Sindi on Gaps in Exposure, New Models of Practice, and Vocabularies Toward New Futures," Sindi's interview reflects on her research, design practice, and critical engagement with architecture’s political and cultural dimensions.
February 27, 2026: Special Faculty Yiqun Pan delivers an invited seminar at Syracuse University titled "Bridging the Gap: Multi-Scale Occupancy Modeling and Human-in-the-Loop Personalized Control."
February 27, 2026: Professor Dana Cupkova is elected to the International Journal for Architectural Computing (IJAC) Editorial Board.
March 2, 2026: Special Faculty Niloufar Alenjery and Tommy CheeMou Yang have their open panel accepted to the 2026 meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) in Toronto. Titled "Ontological Interference: Ethnography in Technoscientific Worlds," the panel examines how technoscientific systems shape knowledge, memory, and futures within technocratic societies.
March 2, 2026: University Professor Vivian Loftness, FAIA joins Brian H. Messana, FAIA and Dan Beyer, AIA to serve as the 2026 jury for the AIA National Interior Architecture Awards, incorporating the goals embodied in the AIA Framework for Design Excellence.
March 11, 2026: University Professor Vivian Loftness joins a panel of three international professors at the "Sustainability of Hope Summit" taking place March 11-13 in in Rome, Italy. Loftness' presentation seeks to catalyze international action towards achieving sustainable and climate-resilient communities.
Alumni News & Updates
We invite all Carnegie Mellon Architecture alumni to keep us up to date on their awards, professional milestones and more. Send us your updates with a brief description and link to more information.
- We mourn the passing of Steve George, FAIA (B.Arch '58), who passed away peacefully on December 24, 2025, at the age of 93. Steve was an architect, community advocate, and longtime AIA Pittsburgh Fellow. Read the full obituary.
- Sindu Maliakal Meier, AIA (B.Arch '91), Associate Principal at William Rawn Associates, is a recipient of Women in Design's (WiD) 2025 Award of Excellence. For over 25 years, WiD has annually honored women in the design community to recognize "a person who has built one's own life around design, whose work exemplifies the best of process and product, and who uses a position of achievement to give back to the world of design and to the community at large."
- Jordan Luther, AIAS, Assoc. AIA, NOMA (M.Arch '23), designer at GBBN, has been selected to the "Pittsburgh Business Times" 2026 class of 30 Under 30 honorees. The recognition honors young professionals who are making an impact on both their workplaces and their communities.
- Eric Heiman (B.Arch '92) is Partner and Creative Director of hybrid design/architecture firm Volume Inc. The firm recently designed "Past as Prologue: The Last Decade of Furniture Design by Ray and Charles Eames (1968-78)," the hit exhibition at the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco. The firm is currently completing design of the Harvey Milk Memorial, also in San Francisco. Heiman teaches design at the California College of Arts and Crafts (CCA) in San Francisco, where he runs TBD*, a student-run studio using design to empower Bay Area nonprofits and civic-minded Institutions. Studio students were recently part of the faculty exhibition "Between Silver and Gold."
Carnegie Mellon Architecture Newsletter
The Carnegie Mellon Architecture Newsletter comes out three times per semester. It includes interviews with CM-A alumni and faculty and deep dives into research, events, projects and work happening at the school. Started in 2010 as a print publication known as "Span," it moved online under the name "e-SPAN" before coming to be known as the CM-A Newsletter. Have an update you'd like to share? Contact us.