SOM Foundation Announces Winners of the 2025 Research Prize

The SOM Foundation is pleased to announce the winners of the 2025 Research Prize. Two teams—one from the University of Texas at Austin and one from the University of Virginia—have been awarded the 2025 Research Prize, and will each receive $30,000 to conduct original research that contributes to this year’s topic, “Exploring the Potential of Mobility Corridors.” The Research Prize was created in 2018 to cultivate new ideas and meaningful research that addresses the critical issues of our time.

Maggie Hansen and Miriam Solis (University of Texas at Austin, School of Architecture) won with their proposal “Visioning Eco-Connectivity with Youth in the Rio Grande Valley.” The project engages two types of research questions: what are young people’s visions for eco-connectivity in south Pharr, Texas? And, how can designers, planners, and university-based researchers effectively engage and amplify community voice in accessibility and mobility research in Pharr? The project will at once make scholarly contributions and provide needed actionable insights to decision-makers while also modeling a method of community-led planning and design that prioritizes the needs of a group negatively impacted by a car-centric transit system: youth.

Juror Jeffrey Sriver commented: “I found the project exciting in its approach to bridging process and product. Often times in research or practice we encounter robust processes for inclusive engagement only to find that these processes may not lead to clearly actionable decision-making. This research is focused on actionable results that grow from inclusive engagement, and I look forward to seeing how this process and its results may find success in this context as well as potential replication in other infrastructure decision-making contexts.”

The second winning proposal is “Through the Cloud: Remapping Mobility in the Technical Landscapes of Northern Virginia” led by Ali Fard (University of Virginia, School of Architecture). By examining the Washington and Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail, a critical infrastructural corridor and converted rail line in Northern Virginia, this project asks: how can design reassess the potential of secondary mobility corridors at the edge of major urban areas as alternatives to car-centric networks? Through grounded research and design experimentation, the project aims to recenter the currently backgrounded linear park and to explore its potential as a regional mobility corridor.

“As the rush to meet the demands of AI is bending entire territories in Northern Virginia to the centralizing ethos of tech corporations, the SOM Foundation's support enables essential research into urban forms and innovative spatial strategies that promote more accessible, sustainable, and resilient urban futures in the region. The infrastructural spine of the W&OD provides a potent case study into the role of design in examining secondary mobility corridors as alternatives to car-centric transportation networks within and beyond Virginia,” mentioned Research Prize recipient Ali Fard.

This year’s jury was led by SOM Foundation Executive Director Iker Gil and included Gia Biagi (Secretary of Transportation, Illinois Department of Transportation, Chicago), Julia Day (Partner and Project Director, Gehl, New York City), Kit Krankel McCullough (Teaching Professor, University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Ann Arbor; SOM Foundation fellow), and Jeffrey Sriver (Director of Transportation Planning, Chicago Department of Transportation, Chicago).

Research Prize recipients are expected to collaborate with students, faculty, and leaders from various disciplines to pursue their research topics. They will be required to document their findings and develop suggestions for application to professional practice. The outcome of the research will be shared publicly on the SOM Foundation’s website as well as other mediums identified by the winning teams.