The SOM Foundation supports individuals with the highest aspirations to enhance the design of the built environment.
2026 Robert L. Wesley Award Now Open
2026 Researcher-in-Residence
Sixth Street Viaduct as Next Generation Infrastructure
Linda C. Samuels
Sixth Street Viaduct, Los Angeles. Photograph by Iwan Baan, Courtesy Michael Maltzan Architecture.
Featured Fellow
Constructive Land
2021 European Research Prize
Paloma Gormley
Summer Islam
University of the Arts London, Central Saint Martins
Spatial Practices Program
Clearfell House. © Material Cultures.
1:1 Sycamore fragment, 2022. © Emily Llumigusin and Michael Parish, MArch Unit 3, UAL x Material Cultures.
1:1 Eucalyptus fragment, 2022. © Sabina Shaybazyan and Adam Stanford, MArch Unit 3, UAL x Material Cultures.
Recent News
SOM Foundation Announces Jury and Applications Open for the 2026 European Research Prize
The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the jury for the 2026 European Research Prize. This year’s jury will be led by SOM Foundation Executive Director Peter MacKeith and will include Antti Ahlava (Professor of Emergent Design Methodologies, Aalto University, Helsinki), Kent Jackson (Design Partner, SOM, London), and Andrew Waugh (Director, Waugh Thistleton Architects, London).
SOM Foundation Announces Jury and Applications Open for the 2026 Robert L. Wesley Award
The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the jury for the 2026 Robert L. Wesley Award. This year’s jury will be led by SOM Foundation Executive Director Peter MacKeith and will include Germane Barnes (Associate Professor and Director, Community Housing Identity Lab, School of Architecture, University of Miami; Director, Studio Barnes, Miami), Terri Bullard (Lecturer and Herb Greene Teaching Fellow, Gibbs College of Architecture, University of Oklahoma, Norman), Teri Canada (Principal and Cofounder, EVOKE Studio, Durham), Shawn Rickenbacker (Associate Professor and Director, J. Max Bond Center for Urban Futures, Spitzer School of Architecture, The City College of New York, New York), and Douglas Voigt (Urban Design and Planning Partner, SOM, Chicago).
SOM Foundation Announces Jury for the 2026 Research Prize
The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the jury for the 2026 Research Prize. This year’s jury will be led by SOM Foundation Executive Director Peter MacKeith and will include Phillip Bernstein (Deputy Dean and Professor in the Practice, Yale School of Architecture, Yale University, New Haven), Shane Burger (Chief Design Technology Officer, SOM, New York), Charlie Catlett (Senior Computer Scientist, Argonne National Laboratory; Founding Director, Trillion Parameter Consortium, Chicago), Dana Čupková (Professor, School of Architecture, Carnegie Mellon University; Director, EPIPHYTE Lab, Pittsburgh), and Liam Young (Coordinator, MS Program in Fiction and Entertainment, Southern California Institute of Architecture; Founder, Tomorrows Thoughts Today, Los Angeles).