Harvard Graduate School of Design students, faculty, and alumni were recognized this month in two of the field’s major design awards programs: Architectural Record’s 2026 Record Awards and The Architect’s Newspaper’s 2026 Best of Design Awards.
A Core IV studio project by Joe Russell and Emma Sheffer (both MArch ’27) took top student honors from Architectural Record, The Architect’s Newspaper, and the Association of Licensed Architects, while faculty and alumni were honored for built work in Tbilisi, Rochester, and beyond.
2026 Record Awards
The Record Awards winners were celebrated on November 4 at a reception and ceremony following Architectural Record’s Innovation Conference in New York City.
- Unbuilt (Students): Joe Russell (MArch ’27) and Emma Sheffer (MArch ’27) won for Theseus: A New Housing Typology, a proposal sited in Chelsea, Massachusetts. The project was developed in the GSD’s Core IV studio, advised by Warren Techentin.
- Adaptive Reuse: Neri&Hu won for the Telegraph Hotel in Tbilisi, Georgia, which converts a Soviet-era brutalist post office into a hotel. Neri&Hu cofounder Lyndon Neri (MArch ’92) is the Kenzo Tange Design Critic in Architecture at the GSD.
- Innovator: Thomas Robinson (MArch ’00), founder of Portland, Oregon–based Lever Architecture, received the 2026 Innovator award.
- Performance Spaces, Honorable Mention: Michael Maltzan (MArch ’88) was recognized for the RIT Performing Arts Center in Rochester, New York.
AN 2026 Best of Design Awards
The Architect’s Newspaper announced its 2026 Best of Design Awards on November 5.
- Student Work: Russell and Sheffer won for Theseus.
- Adaptive Reuse–Commercial: Khoa Vu (MArch ’22), design critic in architecture, won for Ts VEIL, a renovation of a three-story villa in Ho Chi Minh City.
- Interior–Residential Renovation: Vu won a second award for Ts Lunar Cavern, a duplex residence in Ho Chi Minh City.
ALA Student Merit Awards
At the Association of Licensed Architects’ annual gala on November 5, Theseus was named the Gold winner of the 2026 Student Merit Awards. The annual competition, open to architecture students, is judged blind by the ALA Board of Directors.
