Celebrate Architecture 2025

Lyndon Neri co-founded Neri&Hu Design and Research Office with Rossana Hu in 2006, an inter-disciplinary architectural design practice based in Shanghai. Through his practice, Neri has reinforced a core vision: to respond to a global worldview incorporating overlapping design disciplines for a critical paradigm in architecture, while believing strongly in research as a design tool, as each project bears its unique set of contextual issues.

Alongside his design practice, Neri has been deeply committed to architectural education, and has taught and lectured in numerous universities. He was recently appointed as Visiting Faculty at Princeton University School of Architecture, starting spring semester 2024. He was appointed the Howard Friedman Visiting Professor of Practice at the University of California, Berkeley in 2023, the Design Critic in 2023 and the John C. Portman Design Critic in Architecture in 2019 and 2021 at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor in 2022 and Norman R. Foster Visiting Professor Chair in 2018 at the Yale School of Architecture.

Rossana Hu co-founded Neri&Hu Design and Research Office with Lyndon Neri in 2006, an inter-disciplinary architectural design practice based in Shanghai. Through her practice, Hu has reinforced a core vision: to respond to a global worldview incorporating overlapping design disciplines for a critical paradigm in architecture, while believing strongly in research as a design tool, as each project bears its unique set of contextual issues.

Alongside her design practice, Rossana has been deeply committed to architectural education and has lectured across the globe in various universities and professional forums. She was appointed the Howard Friedman Visiting Professor of Practice in 2023 at the University of California, Berkeley; the Design Critic in 2023 and 2021, and the John C. Portman Design Critic in Architecture in 2019 at the Harvard Graduate School of Design; the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor in 2022 and Norman R. Foster Visiting Professor Chair in 2018 at the Yale School of Architecture. Rossana was appointed as Chair of the Department of Architecture at Tongji University in 2021 and Chair of the Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design, effective spring semester 2024.

Sarah Young, AIA is an Associate Professor and Design Foundations Coordinator at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette School of Architecture and Design. She teaches first year design courses in which she emphasizes making entry into the design fields more accessible.

Sarah’s research investigates design pedagogy, imposter phenomenon in design students, and the role of writing in the design process. Her scholarship has been presented at national and international conferences, including the National Conference on the Beginning Design Student, Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, and the Architecture_Media_Politics_Society Teaching Beyond the Curriculum conference.

Sarah is an architect and partner at emerymcclure architecture, whose work will be featured at the National Building Museum this Spring as part of A South Forty: Contemporary Architecture and Design in the American South. The firm was also recently recognized in Forbes’ Top 200 Residential Architects in America 2025 list. 

Thomas Robinson is the Founder of LEVER Architecture, a leading architectural practice recognized for design excellence and pioneering material innovation

His projects encompass first-of-their-kind timber buildings for clients such as The Nature Conservancy, adidas, and The Portland Museum of Art.  He has lectured on LEVER’s work throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and South America.  Through public grants the firm has funded more than $3M in research and testing to develop new timber building systems, including a recent ten story full scale test of a resilient timber tower at UC San Diego that was supported by the National Science Foundation.  

Thomas believes in the potential of architecture as an intelligent tool that can profoundly impact the environment in ways that extend beyond any specific site to be a regenerative force in the world. The decisions architects make each day regarding the materials they use matter. Where materials come from, how they are produced, and who puts them together is directly connected to the major issues facing us regionally and globally—housing, economic equity and climate change.