Two Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) alumni, Frida Escobedo (MDes ’12) and Teddy Cruz (MDes ’97), have been named 2026 National Design Award recipients by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum .
Frida Escobedo Studio received the Architecture Award, which recognizes an individual or firm whose work makes significant contributions to the built environment. Founded in 2006, the Mexico City– and New York–based practice works across architecture, art, and design, with projects that range from residential buildings to temporary installations and adaptive reuse initiatives. Major commissions include the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Tang Wing for Modern and Contemporary Art (2022), the renovation of the Centre Pompidou in Paris (2024), and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Doha, Qatar (2025). A forthcoming book by Escobedo will be published by Harvard Design Press.
Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman received the Climate Action Award, which recognizes a design project that addresses the global climate crisis, for their University of California San Diego (UCSD) Community Stations . This project operates as a network of civic spaces along the U.S.–Mexico border, advancing climate resilience and social equity through cross-border collaboration and community-based research. Developed with local partners on both sides of the border wall, the stations draw on UCSD resources to support responses to climate change—from housing and public space to environmental conservation—while pairing research with public programming and hands-on community work.
Launched in 2000 as a White House Millennium Council initiative, the National Design Awards highlight the ways design shapes—and reshapes—everyday life. The 2026 awardees, selected by a multidisciplinary jury of design practitioners, educators, and leaders, will be honored at the Smithsonian National Design Awards Gala on May 19, 2026, in New York City.
