Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning

Congratulations to the seven undergraduate students who received the 2026 Wallenberg Studio Awards!

Each year, senior undergraduate students in the Taubman College B.S. in Architecture program complete the Wallenberg studio, named after renowned alumnus Raoul Wallenberg. As the final studio required for completion of their degree, students build on their past skills and experiences to explore the transformative power of architecture through a focus on broad humanitarian concerns.

At the end of the semester, the top students are awarded the Wallenberg Studio Award. Funded by the Raoul Wallenberg Endowment, awards are offered as a stipend for international travel to a country of the student’s choosing. Building on Wallenberg’s legacy, the stipend encourages students to engage with the people, architecture, and culture of the country they visit and return with a broadened understanding of the world. This year, there was a winner awarded for each studio, as well as eight honorable mentions.

This year's winners...

Constanza Capriles, “Tierra de Gracia: Thresholds”
Studio: Imagineries for Patchy Ecologies
Instructor: Zain AbuSeir

Fatema Almoamen, “reFramed: A Series of Do-It-Yourself Reactivating Assemblies”
Studio: Salvaging: Material and Memory after Demolition
Instructor: Tess Clancy

Emma High, “Ambler Medevac + Trauma Clinic”
Studio: THE AMBLER ROAD – Cosmopolitics of Arctic Territory
Instructor: Nitzan Farfel

Misk Aldulaimy, “Land as Memory”
Studio: Celestial Artifice + Subterranean Clouds
Instructors: Dawn Gilpin and Gina Reichert

John Watha, “Beyond Babel”
Studio: Swamp Logics
Instructor: Neal Robinson

Gulshat Roziali and Taylor Horsfall, “End of the American Dream”
Studio: Mavericks, the Multitude, and the Mesa
Instructor: Geoffrey Thün

Read more:

Taubman College Announces 2026 Wallenberg Studio Awards Taubman College recognized seven undergraduate students with 2026 Wallenberg Studio Awards during a May 1 symposium. The winners were B.S. Arch ’26 students Constanza Capriles, Fatema Almoamen…

How can autonomous vehicles help foster adolescent independence or expand access to transportation? These are just a couple of big questions urban technology students spent the winter semester working to answer with industry partners General Motors and ATLAS.ti (Lumivero), as part of Sheng-Hung Lee’s UT210: Listening—Design Ethnography Methods course at Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.

UT210 explores how design ethnography can inform the development of future autonomous urban systems through a human-centered, systems-oriented lens. Led by Lee, assistant professor of urban technology and director of d-mix lab, the course brought together 18 students in a studio-based, team-driven format to investigate real-world challenges at the intersection of mobility, equity, and everyday life.

During a final presentation attended by representatives from GM and several Taubman College faculty and students, Wade Bryant, design manager in Advanced UX Insight and Human Interface Design at GM, said the opportunity to partner with the class was one he couldn’t pass up.

Read the full story:

Urban Technology students work with GM and partners to envision human-centered autonomous mobility How can autonomous vehicles help foster adolescent independence or expand access to transportation? These are just a couple of big questions urban technology students spent the winter semester working…

Access by Design: Through Fresh Graphics, Julia McMorrough is helping future architects rethink accessibility and inclusion in the built environment
(This article is featured in the Spring 2026 digital edition of Portico+)

Growing up with a disabled sister with complex access needs, Julia McMorrough learned at an early age about the challenges disabled individuals can face in going about their daily lives. However, because her family simply did what was necessary to help her sister move through the world, she was well into her 15-year career as a practicing architect before she realized the important connection between architecture and access.

“As an architect, I was slow to recognize that the built environment should be doing more to design accessible spaces that are enabling, rather than disabling, for everyone,” says McMorrough, associate professor of architecture at Taubman College and co-founder of studioAPT, an Ann Arbor-based research and design collaborative.

McMorrough’s ARCH500 seminar, Fresh Graphics, breaks the concept of designing for accessibility into bite-sized pieces for students. Launched in 2013, the class prioritizes graphic communication to demystify big concepts. In its current focus on accessible design, it connects students with the disability community and provides the tools and opportunities to disseminate information about accessible design to a broader audience.

Read the full article:

Access by Design Through Fresh Graphics, Julia McMorrough is helping future architects rethink accessibility and inclusion in the built environment Growing up with a disabled sister with complex access needs…

A Career Built on Gratitude: Through a planned gift, Steve Riojas, M.U.P./M.Arch ’80, aims to offer students opportunities like he was given.
(This article is featured in the Spring 2026 digital edition of Portico+)

Steve Riojas’ career in architecture and urban planning spanned the automotive, education, and tech industries, taking him around the globe as a designer and business director before he retired in 2022. Not one to sit still, Riojas, M.Arch/M.U.P. ’80, then launched his own consulting studio in 2024.

To this day, he credits his success to having the opportunity to study at Taubman College, thanks to a full-ride scholarship he received. Now he has decided to honor that opportunity with a planned gift to the college.

Read more about Steve Riojas: https://taubmancollege.umich.edu/portico/2026/05/20/a-career-built-on-gratitude/

Congratulations to this year’s George G. Booth Traveling Fellowship recipient, Maya Fraser (M.Arch '23), who will investigate shared-space initiatives as a solution to the U.S. housing crisis. The Fellowship, which began in 1924, provides recent Taubman College graduates with a $13,000 stipend toward architectural research that requires international travel.

Her project, “Common Ground: Addressing the Housing Crisis Through Shared Space,” will build on her past research into co-operative housing models to create a design toolkit for shared housing in the United States. Fraser will visit cities across Denmark and Germany — including Copenhagen, Hamburg, Berlin, and Freiburg — to engage with residents in co-housing and Baugruppen buildings — a German practice of self-owned and communal, multi-family buildings.

“How to share space with others is personal for me,” writes Fraser in her abstract. “My whole adult life has been spent living in shared situations, including 8 years spent with roommates and 5 years in a housing co-op. When I decided to design a co-op for my M.Arch thesis project, I soon became frustrated with how few architecture-specific resources about shared space existed. My mission became clear: I realized that I wanted to create the design guide that I wished I had during my thesis.”

Fraser is a staff designer at Quinn Evans Architects and 2024 Health and Design Fellow at Michigan Medicine. As an M.Arch student, she was a Taubman Scholar and was awarded a 2022 Longo Internship with MASS Design Group.

Celebrating Melissa Harris
Beloved professor, architect, and colleague retires after 36 years at Taubman College

Taubman College colleagues Anya Sirota, associate dean for academic initiatives and professor of architecture, and Antje Steinmuller, chair and professor of architecture, offer this reflection on her extraordinary legacy as a teacher, administrator, architect, and beloved member of the college community.

"Those who have worked with Melissa know that her moral compass doesn’t break. She brings together a fierce sense of principle and a candor that disarms. It’s the kind of clarity that cuts through noise, throws open a window, and restores the oxygen in a room. And the Southern twang only makes her points sharper. She speaks plainly because she knows exactly what’s at stake."

Read the full letter:

Celebrating Melissa Harris Beloved professor, architect, and colleague retires after 36 years at Taubman College As Melissa Harris, associate professor of architecture, retires after 36 years at Taubman College…

When it Rains it Floods: Taubman College faculty and regional partners advance nature-based solutions to reduce flood risk and bolster biodiversity
(This article is featured in the Spring 2026 digital edition of Portico+)

Across Southeast Michigan, more frequent and severe rainstorms are overwhelming aging combined sewer systems, while the loss of wetlands and other natural features has reduced the landscape’s ability to absorb floodwaters.

For decades, efforts by local communities to address the growing risks associated with flooding have been hampered by a lack of regional coordination; the legacy of a massive, outdated combined sewer system; and insufficient funding to maintain operations. New solutions — and coordinated action — are needed.

Over the past two years, Taubman College faculty members Kathy Velikov, María Arquero de Alarcón, and Geoffrey Thun have collaborated with public, private, and academic partners to advance large-scale, nature-based solutions and visualize how they could mitigate urban flooding and protect biodiversity in the region.

Read the full story: https://taubmancollege.umich.edu/portico/2026/05/20/when-it-rains-it-floods/

Story by Claudia Capos

When It Rains, It Floods Taubman College faculty and regional partners advance nature-based solutions to reduce flood risk and bolster biodiversity Across Southeast Michigan, more frequent and severe rainstorms are…

Congratulations to the winners of the 2026 Leonard B. Willeke Portfolio Competition, the oldest and most prestigious award recognizing student architectural work at Taubman College.

Named after the late Detroit architect Leonard B. Willeke and funded by the Willeke endowment fund, the competition recognizes students’ design excellence and innovation through their portfolio work. Winning portfolios were carefully curated and demonstrated a clear design intent.

All undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in the B.S. Arch, M. Arch, M.S.D.M.T., and M.U.D. programs were eligible to receive the award. An invited alumni jury reviewed all submissions separately and selected winners from each group.

Here are the winners and their monetary awards:

Graduate Winners
1st Place – Sayyoung Chang, M.Arch ’26 , ($10,000)
2nd Place – Katherine White, M.Arch ’27 , ($5,000)
3rd Place – Riley Montgomery, M.Arch ’26, ($3,000)

Undergraduate Winners
1st Place – Anna DeYoung, B.S. Arch ’26, ($10,000)
2nd Place – Xiaoyu Xu, B.S. Arch ’26, ($5,000)
3rd Place – Elliot Lavigne, B.S. Arch ’26 , ($3,000)

Answering the Call
Renée M Russell, B.S. Arch ’75, M.Arch ’76, empowers the next generation through a planned gift and endowed scholarship
(This article is featured in the Spring 2026 digital edition of Portico+)

Renée Russell’s, B.S. Arch ’75, M.Arch ’76, pursuit of architecture led her from the Detroit suburbs to the East Coast to military bases in Germany and Virginia. As an architect, planner, and project manager with the U.S. Army and the Army Corps of Engineers, her overseas tour overlapped with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the launch of operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, which relied heavily on U.S. deployments from Germany.

After deciding to make a planned gift to Taubman College as part of her estate, Russell realized she wanted to do more to benefit students today.

“I want my legacy to extend beyond my own achievements,” she says. “I believe in empowering the next generation.”

Read the full story: https://taubmancollege.umich.edu/portico/2026/05/20/answering-the-call/

Story by Eric Gallippo
Photo: Renée Russell during her time at Michigan

Answering the Call Renée M. Russell, B.S. Arch ’75, M.Arch ’76, empowers the next generation through a planned gift and endowed scholarship Renée Russell’s, B.S. Arch ’75, M.Arch ’76, pursuit of architecture led her…

Congratulations to three architecture firms founded by Taubman College faculty members who were recognized with AIA Michigan Design and Honor Awards at an event hosted earlier this month. The awards recognize the best architects, firms, and projects from across the state. This year, honorees were selected by a group of Arkansas-based architects for their creativity, dedication, and vision.

M1DTW, founded by Christian Unverzagt, professor of practice, and Synecdoche, co-founded by Lisa Sauvé, assistant professor of practice and incoming faculty director of the urban technology program, were recognized with Interior Awards for their projects in Detroit and Grand Rapids. PLY+, founded by Craig Borum, professor of architecture, was recognized with a Community Impact Award for the firm’s design of a Detroit community center.

Projects

Bamboo Coworking
SYNECDOCHE

Signal-Return at LANTERN
M1DTW

Helen Moore Community Center & Ed Davis Park
PLY+ Architecture

Read more about each project:

Borum, Sauvé, and Unverzagt’s architecture firms receive 2026 AIA Michigan Awards Projects by three architecture firms founded by Taubman College faculty members were recognized with AIA Michigan Design and Honor Awards at an event hosted earlier this month.