The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the jury for the 2025 China Fellowship. This year’s jury will be led by Brian Lee (Consulting Partner, SOM, Chicago) and will include Inho Rhee (Design Principal, SOM, Shanghai), and Huang Wenjing (Founding Partner, OPEN Architecture, Beijing).
Brian Lee is a Consulting Design Partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) and former chair of the SOM Foundation. His design portfolio encompasses domestic and international projects at all scales, recognized by over 180 significant awards for design excellence and innovation. Lee has lectured, taught, and participated in studio reviews or Dean’s committees at Harvard, UC Berkeley, Stanford, CCA, IIT, SAIC, VT, and TU Delft; served on numerous prestigious design juries; has been published extensively worldwide; and featured at the Venice and Beijing Biennales, the Chicago Architecture Biennial, HK BODW, and Barcelona World Architecture Festival. He is a registered NCARB architect and in multiple states across the nation, and is a LEED accredited professional. He is a member of the AIA and was named to its College of Fellows in 2008. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Architecture with Highest Honors from the University of California, Berkeley, and his Master of Architecture with Commendation from Harvard University GSD. After practicing in the SOM San Francisco office for twenty-eight years, where he became a Design Partner, he joined the Chicago office in 2007, transitioning to Consulting Partner in 2019.
Inho Rhee is a Design Principal at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) and based in Shanghai. Rhee leads interdisciplinary teams through a robust design process. He is particularly adept at developing the conceptual design for projects, strategically refining a design that is finely tuned to its users and context, and carrying the intent through to the final built form. Rhee specializes in large-scale mixed-use office, residential, civic, and public spaces. He has significant experience leading projects in various cities in the US, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Since joining SOM in 2004, Rhee has provided design leadership to notable projects at a wide range of scales, from the award-winning Chinatown Branch of the Chicago Public Library to Tianjin CTF Finance Centre, the seventh-tallest building in the world.
Huang Wenjing is the founding partner of OPEN Architecture, Kenzo Tange Design Critic in Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, visiting professor at the Tsinghua University, China Central Academy of Fine Arts, and the University of Hong Kong. Huang received her B.Arch. from Tsinghua University in 1996, and her M.Arch. from Princeton University in 1999. She is a licensed architect in New York State and a member of the AIA. Prior to OPEN, Huang was a senior designer and associate at the New York-based firm Pei Cobb Freed and Partners. Huang Wenjing and Li Hu cofounded OPEN in New York City in 2006 and established the studio’s Beijing office in 2008. Some major projects by OPEN include UCCA Dune Art Museum, Chapel of Sound, Sun Tower, Tank Shanghai, Shanfeng Academy, Shanghai Qingpu Pinghe International School, Pingshan Performing Arts Center, Tsinghua Ocean Center, Garden School/Beijing No.4 High School Fangshan Campus, and Gehua Youth and Cultural Center.