News

The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of the 2021 Robert L. Wesley Award. The award supports BIPOC undergraduate students enrolled in architecture, landscape architecture, interior architecture, urban design, or engineering programs in the United States. This year, three students will receive a $10,000 award in addition to a yearlong mentorship program that connects the students with leading BIPOC practitioners and educators. The award is named in honor of Robert L. Wesley, the first Black partner at SOM.

The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the jury for the 2021 Robert L. Wesley Award. This year’s jury will be led by Robert L. Wesley (Retired Partner at SOM, Chicago) and will include Danei Cesario (Architect and Project Manager at SOM, New York City and Founder at WALLEN + daub, New York City), Chris Cornelius (Founding Principal at studio:indigenous, Milwaukee and Chair of the Department of Architecture at the University of New Mexico), Joyce Hwang (Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies of Architecture at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York and Founder of Ants of the Prairie, Buffalo, NY), and María Villalobos Hernandez (Assistant Professor at the College of Architecture, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago and Cofounder and Artist Creator, Botanical City, New York City).

The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the jury for the 2021 Research Prize. This year’s jury will be led by SOM Foundation Executive Director Iker Gil and will include Scott Duncan (Partner of SOM, Chicago and Cochair of the SOM Foundation), Gabriel Kozlowski (Principal of POLES.studio, Rio de Janeiro and Boston), James Leng (Founding Partner of Figure, San Francisco and 2013 SOM Foundation Fellow), Charlotte Malterre-Barthes (Assistant Professor of Urban Design at Harvard University, Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA), and Zoë Ryan (Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia).

The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the jury for the 2021 European Research Prize. The inaugural jury will be led by SOM Foundation Executive Director Iker Gil and will include Marco Ferrari (Cofounder of Studio Folder, Milan), Kent Jackson (Partner of SOM, London and Secretary of the SOM Foundation), Tim Marlow (Chief Executive and Director of the Design Museum, London), Débora Mesa Molina (Principal of Ensamble Studio, Boston and Madrid), and Sumayya Vally (Founder and Principal of Counterspace, Johannesburg).

2020 Research Prize fellows Diane Jones Allen, Austin Allen, and Kathryn Holliday are featured in the Forth Worth Star-Telegram article “Historic Black Communities in Texas Face Steep Challenges. UT Arlington Wants to Help” by Haley Samsel.

ELLE Decor has featured Robert L. Wesley, the first Black partner at SOM, as part of their interview series Lift Every Voice, which records the wisdom and life experiences of Black Americans seventy-five and older. In 2020, the SOM Foundation established the Robert L. Wesley Award that supports BIPOC undergraduate students.