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Featured Fellow
A Taxonomy of Vacancy: Are Underutilized Commercial Strips the Answer to San Antonio’s Housing Shortage?
“A Taxonomy of Vacancy” demonstrates that multifamily infill housing along VIA Metropolitan Transit’s proposed rapid transit corridors can meet San Antonio’s 25-year housing demand without greenfield expansion or residential displacement. Using spatial analysis, data visualization, and prototype design, the research reimagines underutilized commercial corridors as compact, transit-oriented, walkable neighborhoods.
2023 Research Prize
Ian Caine
Esteban López Ochoa
Rudy Niño, Jr.
Christine Quattro
Wei Zhai
University of Texas at San Antonio
School of Architecture + Planning
City of San Antonio
Planning Department
Appalachian State University
College of Arts and Sciences
There are 3,938 developable parcels covering 2,720 acres along the proposed rapid transit routes. © Ian Caine.
Aerial rendering of Transit-Oriented Development in Perrin Beitel Corridor along Nacogdoches Road. © Ian Caine.
Recent News
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), 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).
2026 Research Prize Opens
The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of the 2026 Research Prize. Two $30,000 prizes will be awarded to faculty-led interdisciplinary teams based in the United States to conduct original research on this year’s topic, “AI, the Built Environment, and Human Agency.” The Research Prize was created in 2018 to cultivate new ideas and meaningful research that addresses the critical issues of our time.
Applications are due Monday, December 7, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. CST. Winners will be notified no later than Monday, February 1, 2027.