🎓 The AIASF Student Leadership Awards recognizes the next generation of architects who are already making an impact in our community.
🎓 We are inviting our professional network to Sponsor a Student to attend the 2026 Design Awards Gala on May 7.
To show our thanks, you and your firm will receive a special shoutout during the gala and placement in our newsletter.
⭐ Sponsor a Student Leader Awardee: $280
⭐ Sponsor a Student Leader Table: $3750
Your sponsorship provides a student awardee with the opportunity to celebrate their achievements alongside industry leaders, build critical connections, and experience the premier architecture event of the year.
🎓 Invest in the future of our industry. Email [email protected] with subject line ‘Student Leader Sponsor’ by Tuesday, April 28th.
✨ LIMITED DESIGN AWARDS GALA TICKETS LEFT: link in bio!
#StudentLeader #ArchitectureGala #DesignGala
End of year events are here! Join us as the USF Art+Architecture community opens its world to the public on:
4/22 — Places and People: Mutual Transformations
ART200: Museum Studies Exhibition @ Donohue Rare Book Room 2–3:30PM
4/25 — Annual Bay Area Undergraduate Art History Research Symposium @ de Saisset Museum 1–5PM
5/07 — Senior Honors Thesis Presentations @ Lone Mountain 355 4:30–6PM
5/08–6/28 — Echoes of Becoming
The 27th Thacher Art + Architecture Annual
@ Thacher Gallery 5/08
5/13–5/16 — Between the Lines
Design + Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition @ SOMArts 5/15, 6–9PM
5/19 — ARCH Innovation Projects / Constructions
Senior Final Studio Reviews @ the Hive Lounge 11AM–1PM
Happy #FocusFriday!
This week we’re spotlighting “Designed and Self-Designed Machines” (2025) by Matthew Peek. Created in pen on paper, the work reflects Peek’s exploration of architecture, innovative materials, and the systems that shape built environments. His practice blends design, engineering, and sustainability to imagine new possibilities for structure and space.
#FocusFriday #MatthewPeek #Architecture #Design #ContemporaryArt
Link in bio to register!!!
Join us this Friday for a Professional Development Summit! Meet industry experts, build connections, and get valuable insights over refreshments! Register now and we'll see you there!
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DM for any questions!
USF is pleased to announce that we are now accepting applications for the Ann Getty Institute Visiting Artist in Residency for the 2026–2027 Academic Year. The application deadline is March 13, 2026.
We seek candidates able to spend 8 weeks in residency at USF. The residencies are open to artist-scholars with national and/or international reputations whose ongoing research, creative activity, and teaching will contribute to USF’s creative work across the Arts. Artist-Scholars will receive a $30,000 stipend, plus dedicated office space and a budget for supplies. Travel to and from USF will also be covered up to $4,000 with receipts. Studio/creative space available depending on specialty. https://www.usfca.edu/ann-getty-institute/visiting-artist-scholar
Attn: Juniors and Seniors!
Echoes of Becoming: the 27th Thacher Art + Architecture Annual is now open for submissions!
All majors and minors in Fine Arts, Design, Architecture, and Art History/Museum Studies are invited to submit.
Submission link in our Linktree
Join us on March 5th from 4–6 PM at the @stantec San Francisco Office for a portfolio review and professional development session. The evening will include an office tour, presentation, and portfolio workshop.
10 spots available for USF Architecture students, as this a joint event with UC Berkeley. Food and refreshments will be provided throughout the event.
Please bring a printed working portfolio or any materials you would like feedback on to make the most of this session.
📝To register, please fill out the Google Form using the QR code on the flyer.
Thank you to recent USF Architecture grad Amy Zhang Jiang @rose_amy_zj for organizing this opportunity for our students.
Congratulations to Visal Lay (‘24) for earning the AIA California Urban Design Honor Award and the AIA San Francisco Unbuilt Design Award for his project “Truly TREBA.” 🏆
Developed during his time at USF, “Truly TREBA” reimagines the Tully Road neighborhood in East San Jose, an underutilized low-density commercial corridor.
Through Inside-Out Urbanism, the proposal activates overlooked in-between spaces like strip malls, parking lots, and big-box zones by treating them not as leftovers, but as opportunities for more housing, local economic growth and walkable, resilient neighborhoods.
Visal’s work demonstrates the values of the USF Architecture & Community Design program: using design to foster equity, community connection, and economic vitality.
#USFArchitecture #CommunityDesign #UrbanDesign #AIASF #AIA
We placed Top 8 out of 100+ university teams in the 2025 Walt Disney Imagineering Design Competition 🎉🎉
Our project, “A Fly on the Wall,” proposes a space of respite within what we identified as one of the most overlooked yet central spaces on campus: the Lo Schiavo Steps.
By introducing a lightweight string installation that reads as spider webs, alongside cushioned seating tucked into the negative space between structure and columns, we reimagined the steps as a place to pause. The project draws from the idea that students, like tiny bugs with 24-hour lifespans, often “fly” (no pun intended) through their four years of college in the blink of an eye. This intervention allows students to be intercepted mid-movement, and finally become a fly on the wall on their own campus: offering space to rest, people-watch, and simply take a breath. In addition to aesthetic, each set of strings direct students to important campus destination points including the school of education, business and art + architecture buildings, the cafeteria, field, etc.
Design Team:
Justine Balon
Sebastien Pierre
Karmyn De La Peña
Leo Sweeney
Faculty Advisor:
Hana Mori
👀Interest forms for our next competition: the year-long NOMA Barbara G. Laurie Competition are now open. Be sure to sign up by our first general meeting next Wednesday for a chance to join our 8–10 person team.
Our President and VP recently attended AIASF's 144th Annual Meeting and Holiday event! Our President Francene Bendicion's selection as a student affiliate through AIA SF has opened doors to valuable resources. Meanwhile, our VP Adriel Malagon's prior internship with AIA made this experience even more meaningful! Thank you @aiasf !
Join us for a noontime performance of baroque chamber music with period instruments, including a baroque flute, cello, and violin. Experience and learn about the music during the time of Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) while surrounded by his evocative etchings of Rome. The program will include Trio Sonatas by Arcengelo Corelli, Antonio Vivaldi, and George Frederick Handel, plus Violin Sonatas by Isabella Leonarda and Antonio Vivaldi.
Co-presented with USF’s Ann Getty Institute of Art and Design in conjunction with Piranesi’s Rome and the Classical Imaginary, organized by the M.A. in Museum Studies program, on view at Thacher Gallery through Feb. 15, 2026.
Italian Baroque: Music from Piranesi’s Rome with Daria D’Andrea, Vicki Melin, and Farley Pearce
Thursday, Feb. 5, 12-1 p.m., Thacher Gallery
Refreshments will be provided, free and open to the public
Do you admire landscape and architectural drawings? Do you enjoy drawing locations?
Join us February 9th, 12PM-1:30PM for a few fun and easy lessons on drawing perspective by current Architecture student Bruce Dowd. Drop by for a few minutes or come for the entire time. Supplies will be provided.
Bruce Dowd is a junior in USF’s architecture program. He has been drawing in pen and pencil for most of his life. When he’s not drawing, he enjoys playing soccer and learning how to surf.
Presented in conjunction with Piranesi's Rome and the Classical Imaginary on view in Thacher Gallery through Feb. 15, 2026.
#USFCAThacherGallery #Architecture #ArchitectureWorkshop #ThacherGallery
