by AIA New York | Center for Architecture
We are proud to share that, by the close of 2025, the Center for Architecture and AIA New York will have awarded $155,000 to students and early- and mid-career architects through its Grants and Scholarships program, amounting to a more than 7 percent increase over the previous year’s giving total. The program continues to grow, providing more scholarships to a broader range of students interested in the study of architecture and awarding more funding to professionals working on projects that further the research and study of architecture.
The Grants and Scholarships program is a core tenet of the Center for Architecture’s mission. The funding helps to make architecture education available to all, diversify research in architecture, and connect students and emerging professionals to AIANY members and programs. Awardees frequently present the results of their research grants at the Center for Architecture for AIANY members and the interested public. We congratulate the following 2025 awardees and look forward to seeing their projects!
POST-PROFESSIONAL GRANTS
Arnold W. Brunner Grant ($50,000 total)
The Arnold W. Brunner Grant is awarded to mid-career architects for advanced study in any area of architectural investigation that will contribute to the knowledge, teaching, or practice of the art and science of architecture. Projects are judged based on their engagement with contemporary local and global architectural issues and the usefulness of its end product. The 2025 recipients are:
- Alexandra Barker, FAIA (Brooklyn, NY), $12,000 for “Climate-Adaptive Vernacular Building Practices of Mexico City and Oaxaca—A Study of Traditional and Contemporary Biostructures Using Local and Renewable Materials”
- Andrea Lamberti, FAIA, and Sonya Falkovskaia (New York, NY), $5,000 for “Crit Collective: Enriching Design Juries at Schools of Architecture and Design”
- Christian Ayala Lopez and Jennifer Pindyck (Auburn, AL), $10,000 for “’All in the Family’ Recognizing new Typologies in Family-Owned Rural Cooperative Housing”
- Edward Kopel, AIA, LEED AP (Brooklyn, NY), $15,000 for “Raise the Rail: Architectural Responses to Suicide by Jumping”
- Neeraj Bhatia and Antje Steinmuller (Alameda, CA), $8,000 for “Forming Life in Common”
The Arnold W. Brunner Grant provides single or multiple awards of up to $15,000 each.
Stewardson Keefe LeBrun Travel Grant ($25,000 total)
The Stewardson Keefe LeBrun Travel Grant provides early or mid-career architects with the opportunity to explore unique travel research topics around the world. The 2025 recipients are:
- Elaina Berkowitz, AIA (Philadelphia, PA), $8,000 for “Designing for Deconstruction: A Disassembly Manual”
- Kevin Hai Pham (Brooklyn, NY), $9,000 for “Mekong Countercurrents: Rethinking Architecture and Ecology in the Mother of Waters”
- Lucy Navarro (Brooklyn, NY), $8,000 for “Architecture, Ecology, and the Museum Economy: Lessons from the Seto Inland Sea”
The Stewardson Keefe LeBrun Travel Grant provides single or multiple awards of up to $25,000 in total each year.
STUDENT SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS
Center for Architecture Design Scholarship ($5,000 total)
The Center for Architecture’s namesake scholarship is targeted at students seeking their first professional degree in architecture or a related design discipline from an accredited school within New York State. The dean or chair of the architectural school or accredited design program may invite up to two students from their respective college or university to apply, based on their academic performance and evidence of financial need. The 2025 recipients are:
- Emily Comfort, $1,000, Master of Landscape Architecture, City College of New York
- Sofia Luna Narvaez, $1,000, Bachelor of Architecture, Pratt Institute
- Terence Huang, $1,000, Bachelor of Science in Architecture, University at Buffalo
- Eugene Kim, $1,000, Master of Architecture, Pratt Institute. Kim also received $1,000 from AIA National as part of the AIA Component Matching Scholarship Grant
The Center for Architecture Design Scholarship offers single or multiple awards of up to $5,000.
Allwork Scholarship ($20,000 total)
The Allwork Scholarship supports architecture students with demonstrated financial need seeking their first professional degree in architecture or a related design discipline from an accredited school within New York State. In order to apply for this award, students must be nominated by the dean or chair of the school of architecture in which they are currently studying. The 2025 recipients of this merit-based scholarship are:
- Ezra Bush, $5,000, Bachelor of Architecture, City College of New York
- Janice Ng, $5,000, Master of Architecture, University at Buffalo
- Kelly-Ann Tan, $5,000, Bachelor of Architecture, Pratt Institute
- Omar Ismail, $5,000, Master of Architecture, Columbia University
The Allwork Scholarship offers multiple awards of up to $7,500 each, with the potential of an honors grant of up to $10,000.
Walter A. Hunt, Jr. Scholarship ($42,000 total)
Founded to promote and encourage the study of architecture by New York City public high school students, the Walter A. Hunt, Jr. Scholarship provides a two-year scholarship to supplement tuition and related costs during their freshman and sophomore years at a NAAB-accredited school of architecture in New York State. The scholarship honors Hunt’s dedication to the field of architecture and his wish to specifically support New York City public high school students. The 2025 recipients are:
- Andre Lages Okubaro Finamori, a graduate of The Beacon School, awarded $20,000 over two years towards the Bachelor of Architecture program at Syracuse University
- Dionysios Katsaras, a graduate of the Art & Design High School, awarded $20,000 over two years towards the Bachelor of Architecture program at the Rhode Island School of Design
- Olivia Charles, a graduate of the Fort Hamilton High School, awarded $1,000 towards the Bachelor of Architecture program at Syracuse University
- Henry Dahl, a graduate of the High School for Math, Science, and Engineering, awarded $1,000 towards the Bachelor of Architecture program at Rice University
The Walter A. Hunt, Jr. Scholarship traditionally awards two installments of $10,000 (though awards vary depending on the candidate pool) to be dispersed over the recipient’s freshman and sophomore years of college.
Douglas Haskell Award for Student Journals ($3,000 total)
The Douglas Haskell Award for Student Journals supports student journalism on architecture, planning, and related subjects, and fosters regard for intelligent criticism among future professionals. The award is not intended as a prize for individuals, but to support the ongoing publication of student-edited journals whose subject matter pertains to architectural design, history, and theory. The 2025 recipients are:
- Telesis Volume VI: The Essence, University of Oklahoma, Gibbs College of Architecture, awarded $1,500
- Module Magazine, Issue 1, Syracuse University, School of Architecture, awarded $500
- Thresholds 53: Idle, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, awarded $500
- DATUM NO. 15 Rot, Iowa State University, Department of Architecture, awarded $500
The Douglas Haskell Award offers single or multiple awards of up to $3,000.
2030 Fund ($10,000 total)
In 2022, AIA New York launched the 2030 Fund, which seeks to build a more diverse and representative profession through student loan forgiveness. The fund, created by 2021 AIANY President Kenneth A. Lewis, AIA, in collaboration with the New York Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects (nycoba|NOMA), seeks to support NOMA’s 2030 Challenge, which aims to double the number of licensed Black architects by the end of the decade.
In its third year, the 2030 Fund awarded $10,000 in loan forgiveness to five young BIPOC professionals.
Special thanks to:
2025 Scholarship Committee:
Gregory Switzer, AIA, NOMA, NCARB, Gregory Switzer Architecture, P.C.
Jennifer Sage, FAIA, LEED AP, Sage and Coombe Architects
Dan Burdzy, AIA, Henning Larsen
Sara Caples, AIA, Caples Jefferson Architects PC
Latoya Kamdang, AIA, Ennead
Sydney Maubert, Illinois Institute of Technology
Peter Robinson, Parsons School of Constructed Environments; Cornell University
Zoe Small, AIA, LEED AP BD+C
Karen-Marie Stonely, AIA, LEED AP, SPAN Architecture
Richard Yancey, FAIA, LEED AP, NCARB, Building Energy Exchange
Walter A. Hunt, Jr. Committee:
Judy Hunt, wife of Walter Hunt
Keith Frome Rosen, AIA, Gensler
Madeline Burke-Vigeland, FAIA, LEED AP, NCARB, Gensler
Joshua Katz, AIA, Gensler
Ambrose Aliaga-Kelly, AIA, Gensler
Leslie J. Jabs, AIA, CDT, Gensler
2030 Fund Selection Committee:
Anne Xiangyu Chen, AIA, ASLA, LEED AP, WELL AP
Benjamin Gilmartin, AIA
Gregory T. Switzer, AIA, NOMA, NCARB
Jesse Lazar, Assoc. AIA, AIANY Executive Director
Kenneth A. Lewis, AIA
Stephen M. Wilder, RA
Tenetia Mack, AIA, NOMA, WELL AP