Sarah M. Whiting, dean and Josep Lluís Sert Professor of Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), has been named the recipient of the 2026 AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education , the highest honor in North America for an architectural educator. Presented jointly by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), the Topaz Medallion recognizes individuals whose teaching, scholarship, and leadership have shaped architectural education for at least a decade.
The AIA and ACSA citation highlights Whiting as a “transformative leader in architectural education,” noting her impact on students, institutions, and the discipline through her dual role as educator and practicing architect. As dean of the GSD and previously of the Rice School of Architecture , Whiting has helped redefine how architects are trained, emphasizing a healthier studio culture, a more inclusive and expansive architectural canon, and a stronger sense of architecture’s civic responsibility.
At the GSD, Whiting has championed interdisciplinary collaboration across architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, and real estate, encouraging students to see design as a form of public engagement and a tool for addressing complex social and environmental challenges. Her scholarship—from the influential 2002 essay “Notes from the Doppler Effect and Other Moods of Modernism ,” co-authored with Robert Somol, to her work as founding editor of the series Point: Essays on Architecture —has reshaped contemporary architectural discourse and inspired generations of students and colleagues.
Whiting’s teaching career has included appointments at Princeton University, the University of Kentucky, and the Illinois Institute of Technology, alongside her practice with WW Architecture , the firm she co-founded with Ron Witte, GSD professor in residence of architecture. Colleagues and former students describe Whiting as a generous mentor and incisive critic whose work has “made all of us better off in architectural education, and in architecture,” as architect Michael Maltzan, FAIA (MArch ’88), observed in his support for her nomination.The GSD community joins the AIA and ACSA in celebrating this recognition of Whiting’s leadership, scholarship, and ongoing commitment to advancing architectural education and the built environment it shapes.
Since 1976, the Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education has been awarded annually. Previous GSD faculty recipients include Toshiko Mori, Robert P. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture, in 2019; and Jorge Silvetti, Nelson Robinson Jr. Professor of Architecture, Emeritus, in 2018.
