SOM Foundation Announces Jury for the 2021 Robert L. Wesley Award

Danei Cesario is the 333rd Black woman in American history to earn her architectural license. Cesario is a Project Manager at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), overseeing dynamic mixed-use development and healthcare projects. Her passion for architecture and advocacy has led her to become a champion for design professionals. Cesario served as chair of AIA New York’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee for over five years. Currently, she serves on the AIA New York State Board (representing nearly 10,000 members across thirteen chapters), the Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization and the AIA New York Nominating Committee. She is an ambassador to organizations vested in equity, diversity and inclusion including Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, and nycobaNOMA Executive Board. Cesario is dedicated to fostering mentorship, sponsorship and leadership within the design community. She founded WALLEN + daub to expand on these principles.

Chris Cornelius is a citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and Chair of the Department of Architecture at the University of New Mexico. He is the founding principal of studio:indigenous, a design practice serving Indigenous clients. Cornelius was a collaborating designer with Antoine Predock on the Indian Community School of Milwaukee. Cornelius is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the inaugural Miller Prize from Exhibit Columbus, a 2018 Architect’s Newspaper Best of Design Award, and an artist residency from the National Museum of the American Indian. His work has been exhibited widely including the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. Cornelius was the Spring 2021, Louis I. Kahn Visiting Assistant Professor at Yale University. Studio:indigenous received a 2021 Architect’s Newspaper Best Of Practice Award–Best Small Practice, Midwest.

Joyce Hwang is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies of Architecture at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, and the Founder of Ants of the Prairie, an office of architectural practice and research that focuses on confronting contemporary ecological conditions through creative means. She is a recipient of the Exhibit Columbus University Research Design Fellowship, the Architectural League Emerging Voices Award, the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, and the MacDowell Fellowship. Hwang is on the Steering Committee for US Architects Declare, and serves as a Core Organizer for Dark Matter University. She received a M.Arch degree from Princeton University and a B.Arch degree from Cornell University, where she was awarded the Charles Goodwin Sands Memorial Bronze Medal.

María Villalobos Hernandez is an Assistant Professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology and Coordinator of the second year of the Master on Landscape Architecture and Urbanism. She obtained her PhD at the School of Landscape Architecture of Versailles, France and a Master in Design Studies from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. From 2005 to 2009, Villalobos worked for the recovery of Lower Manhattan after 9/11 at the New York Department of City Planning. She joined Arup to develop world-class public projects in New York, Mexico City, and Rio de Janeiro the following years. In 2017, she won the first prize in the Venezuelan Architecture Biennial for the Rehabilitation of the Botanical Garden of Maracaibo, the first time that a Landscape Architecture entry and woman received this award. As cofounder of Artist Creator at Botanical City, Villalobos calls attention to preserving endangered cultural landscapes and performative research methods where practice and research co-occur. In 2020, Villalobos became a core member of Dark Matter University to advocate for anti-racist design education and practice models. In 2021, Villalobos joined the inaugural Committee on Design for the Department of City Planning in Chicago.

Robert L. Wesley (Chair) joined the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in 1964 and became its first Black partner in 1984. During his nearly four decades with the office, he worked on an impressive range of civic, commercial, entertainment, master planning, and infrastructural projects in the US and internationally, including Algeria, Australia, Canada, Mexico, and the UK. As lead project administrator and liaison with clients, Wesley managed and coordinated the execution of several complex projects—working closely with the client’s representatives, the construction manager or general contractor, and special consultants to ensure each project’s successful completion. Wesley retired from SOM on September 30, 2001.