Faculty, students win AIA St. Louis Design Awards

Several faculty members and students are among the winners of AIA St. Louis’s 2026 Design Awards. The juried awards recognize outstanding achievements in architectural design and construction craft.

Associate Professor Pablo Moyano Fernández received a Distinguished Award in the small project category for his concrete bird blind at the Audubon Center at Riverlands, Avis Spiralis. The 120-foot-long spiraling concrete wall provides an observation space for visitors while exploring material innovation through his casting system, Opus Versatilium.

Lecturer Cody Heller received a Merit Award in the unbuilt category for The Levee, which reenvisions Laclede’s Landing as both civic amenity and disaster infrastructure while restoring public investment in the riverfront.

Teaching Professor Jonathan Stitelman received an Honor Award in the drawing category for “Perspective Arc,” which shows the systematic perspectival construction of an ancient Roman fresco painting.

Associate Professors Kelley Van Dyck Murphy and Heidi Aronson Kolk received an Honorable Mention for their work, “Building a World After the War: Japanese American Design at Midcentury.” The thoughtfully layered 80-foot piece is on view at Lambert International Airport.

Several graduate architecture students were also named among the award winners. Michael Chmiel, Lydia Roberts, JP Stegman, and Chris Tobin received a Merit Award in the small project category for their work, Across the Grain, as YES show curators. Daniel Moroze received an Honorable Mention in the drawing category for “Machine: Cow and Combine.”

The awards were juried by chair Arthi Krishnamoorthy of TenBerke Architects, Michelle Amt of VMDO Architects, and David Whitehill of Shepley Bulfinch, with the drawing category chaired by Jerome Tryon of Yale University.