Welcoming our New Faculty and Staff + Highlighting Promotions — Fall 2025
The School of Architecture is excited to announce new faculty and staff who are joining us this fall 2025 semester, as well as highlight recent promotions and appointed leadership positions.
New Faculty
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ABBEY STOCKSTILL
Chair and Associate Professor, Architectural History
Stockstill joins UVA as Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Architectural History. Her research investigates the intersection of architecture, landscape, urbanism and identity in the medieval Mediterranean, particularly in the region of the Islamic West known as the Maghrib, comprising present-day Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. She is the author of Marrakesh and the Mountains: Landscape, Urban Planning, and Identity in the Medieval Maghrib, which was published as part of the prestigious “Buildings, Landscapes, and Societies” series with Pennsylvania State University Press in 2024. In it, she traces the emergence of Marrakesh as an Afro-Mediterranean urban center, exploring the dynamic interactions among the city’s monuments and its landscape during a period of significant transformation.
Stockstill holds a Ph.D. in a Ph.D. in History of Art and Architecture with a concentration in Islamic Art from Harvard University (2018) and a Bachelor of Art in Near Eastern Languages and Civilization with a concentration in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Pennsylvania (2011). Prior to joining UVA, she was Associate Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture in the Department of Art History at Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of Art. More about Abbey.
ABINGO WU
Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track), Architecture
Jiong (Abingo) Wu is founder of AbingoWu Studio, an interdisciplinary research and design practice. She has held faculty appointments at Syracuse University, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and South China University of Technology teaching across architecture and urban design. Wu will join the University of Virginia School of Architecture as tenure-track faculty in the Department of Architecture in the spring 2026 semester.
Her research explores global housing through the lens of social agency and innovation, with a focus on multi-generational living, migrant co-housing, informal settlements, and the dynamics between village and urban middle-class housing. Wu is currently developing two books: one on typological responses to the global pandemic, and a second, sole-authored architectural ethnography manuscript focused on self-built housing in Southern China, currently under review with a university press. She received a Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley; an Advanced Master of Architecture from Berlage Institute in Rotterdam; and a Bachelor of Engineering and City Planning from South China University of Technology. More about Abingo.
ZHICHENG XU
Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track), Architecture
Co-founder of Hyperlocal, Zhicheng Xu is a designer and educator working across architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design. His interdisciplinary expertise spans ecological design, material systems, and the cultural dimensions of the built environment. Prior to joining UVA in fall 2025, he previously taught undergraduate and graduate design studios and research seminars at the Rice University School of Architecture and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Xu’s work investigates the role of architecture within broader ecological and cultural contexts, with a particular focus on material ecology and our relationships to land and non-human species. He holds a Master of Architecture degree from MIT and a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from Purdue University. Xu has previously has worked with Kennedy & Violich Architecture and Sasaki Associates in Boston, and Ecosistema Urbano in Madrid. More about Zhicheng.
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CHRISTOPHER RIPPLE
Assistant Professor (General Faculty), Urban and Environmental Planning
Christopher A. Ripple teaches in the area of law and policy and is an Assistant Professor with the School of Architecture. Ripple was previously an associate at Sidley Austin in Chicago and McGuireWoods in Charlottesville. His experience in law practice also includes a wide range of commercial and class action litigation, including antitrust, securities fraud, investment fund, and director and officer liability litigation. Ripple received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was the editor-in-chief of the Virginia Journal of International Law.
He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame, where he graduated summa cum laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. In the School of Law, Ripple has taught food systems law and policy and in the School of Architecture, his courses include Law, Land and the Environment and Land Use and Environmental Law. More about Christopher.
OZAN ŞEN
Assistant Professor (General Faculty, Virginia Architecture Fellow), Architecture
Ozan Şen is a designer and educator whose work engages contemporary urbanism and architecture through research, theory, and representation. Operating across multiple scales and geographies, he investigates and speculates on urban form, infrastructures, and public space. He joins the UVA School of Architecture as a Virginia Architecture Fellow and Assistant Professor for the 25-26 academic year, and is teaching in the third year undergraduate architecture studio curriculum.
Prior to joining the UVA, Şen taught architectural design studios at the University of Houston's Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture as an Adjunct Faculty member and practiced at SWA Group as an Associate with a focus on public open space frameworks. His projects and collaborations have been recognized in several national and international competitions, including Europan, the Holcim Awards, and the National Architectural Awards of Turkey. Şen holds a Master of Arts in Architecture from Rice University and a Bachelor of Architecture from Istanbul Technical University. He is a registered architect in Turkey. More about Ozan.
TUOMAS SIITONEN
Assistant Professor (General Faculty, Virginia Architecture Fellow), Architecture
Tuomas Siitonen has a M.Sc. in Architecture from Helsinki University of Technology and M.A. from the Graphic Design department of Helsinki University of Art and Design. Combining these skills, Siitonen launched Tuomas Siitonen Office in 2010. Prior to that, he gained experience of ambitious small-scale architecture as a project architect at Tuomo Siitonen Architects on Studio Widnäs and at Heikkinen-Komonen on Villa Frida.
Tuomas Siitonen Office's small and flexible team has worked on projects for public and private clients, including The City of Helsinki, The National Museum of Finland, HAM Helsinki City Art Museum and Design Museum in Helsinki. For private clients, they have designed a number of houses and smaller dwellings, often on demanding sites in urban contexts. He joins the UVA School of Architecture as a Virginia Architecture Fellow and Assistant Professor for the 25-26 academic year. For the fall semester, he is teaching in undergraduate architecture foundation core studio for second year students. More about Tuomas.
New Visiting Faculty, Postdoctoral Research Associates, and Lecturers
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MARTÍN COBAS
Robertson Visiting Professor
Martín Cobas is the fall 2025 Robertson Visiting Professor at the UVA School of Architecture. Cobas is Professor of Architectural History and Design and Co-director of the Ph.D. Program in Architecture at the School of Architecture, Design and Urbanism of the Universidad de la República (Montevideo), where he previously served as Chair of the Department of the History of Architecture and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies. Cobas is teaching an advanced research studio and a special topics seminar.
An architect and writer, Cobas’ research explores the histories and theories of modernization in Latin America, with a particular focus on Brazil. Drawing on extensive archival research, fieldwork, and cross-disciplinary perspectives — including ethnography, anthropology, media studies, literature, and the visual arts — his scholarship interrogates a series of oppositional narratives (e.g., nature/culture, animal/human, affective/rational) and geographic demarcations, advocating for complex continuities rather than categorial distinctions. He is a founding principal of Fábrica de Paisaje (The Landscape Factory), an award-winning practice known for pioneering an ecologically informed and territorially grounded approach to architecture in Latin America. More about Martín.
LAURA BUCKLEY
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Architecture (UVA Environmental Institute)
Laura Buckley is a postdoctoral research associate funded by the UVA Environmental Institute, with support from the UVA Strategic Investment Fund, working with Professor Jeana Ripple in the Architecture Department on the interdisciplinary project titled "Building Affordable Futures: Regulation, Risk, and Reform." Buckley is an environmental health researcher with expertise in geospatial analysis and quantifying the health benefits of climate change mitigation efforts. Her experience spans collaborations across government, industry, academia, and NGOs, translating complex scientific findings into actionable visualizations for a wide range of stakeholders.
Previously, Buckley has held a research associate position with the Center for Climate Change and Health in Oakland, California, a project coordinator role with the San Francisco Department of Health, and was a research intern with MXM Research Group, studying the impacts of greenspace on communities in Boston. Buckley holds a Bachelors of Arts in Biological Sciences and Anthropology from Fordham University, a Masters of Public Health with a certificate in Climate and Health from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Health from Boston University. More about Laura.
SHUBHAYAN UKIL
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Urban and Environmental Planning
Shubhayan Ukil is a postdoctoral research associate with the UVA School of Architecture working with Associate Professor Andrew Mondschein in the Urban and Environmental Planning Department. Ukil’s work looks at how the built environment and socioeconomic factors influence people’s travel and destination choices. This work examines travel decision-making as a complex phenomenon that needs to be analyzed by considering the impact of different mechanisms in the surrounding system. His dissertation investigates how shared and micro-mobility services are influencing the destination choices of people in the case of Chicago in the United States and Bengaluru in India.
Ukil primarily takes a quantitative approach to raw causal inferences using statistical and data science methods to analyze travel choices. In addition to his Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Michigan, he holds a Master’s degree in Urban Planning and Policy from the University of Illinois, Chicago, and an undergraduate degree in Planning from the School of Planning and Architecture, Vijayawada, India. More about Shubhayan.
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BO BIAN
Lecturer, Architectural History
Bo Bian is a Ph.D. candidate in the Constructed Environments at the UVA School of Architecture. Before coming to UVA, he earned an M.A. in Historic Preservation Planning at Cornell University in 2022. Bian received a B.Eng. in Urban Planning in 2017 and an M.Eng. in Urban Planning with a focus on urban history and preservation in 2020 from Southeast University, China. He was a visiting student at Iowa State University in the Urban Design program during Spring 2017. Bian has been involved in many international heritage preservation projects, often in China, a number of which are related to UNESCO World Heritage. His dissertation examines how China has interpreted and implemented the concept of authenticity in heritage preservation since its accession to the UNESCO World Heritage Convention (WHC) in 1985. He is a lecturer in the Architectural History Department teaching historic preservation theory and methods. More about Bo.
PETER OHLMS
Lecturer, Urban and Environmental Planning
Peter B. Ohlms, AICP is a Senior Research Scientist with the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). He researches bicycle/pedestrian, transit, and planning topics for the VDOT’s research division, the Virginia Transportation Research Council. He has over 20 years of experience in multimodal transportation planning and is usually a bike commuter and occasionally a bus driver. He holds a Master of Regional Planning degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a civil engineering degree from the University of Virginia. His research includes road diets, bike box/turn box evaluation, statewide non-motorized travel monitoring programs, and low-speed pedestrian- and bicycle-alert systems for transit buses. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the VTRC Tilton E. Shelburne Award, the VCTIR Horizon Award, and the Egan Award for Outstanding Application for Information Technology. He is teaching an Urban and Environmental Planning course on transportation planning and policy. More about Peter.
ABE WILSON
Lecturer, Architecture
Abe Wilson is a project architect and project manager at Sutphin Architecture based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Prior to joining the practice, he worked at ARCHITECTUREFIRM in Richmond, and SITIO Architecture and Urbanism and KieranTimberlake, both in Philadelphia. His professional projects include a range of scales from residential projects to large-scale commissions, a 130,000 sf development at the Philadelphia Naval Yard and the Folger Shakespeare Library addition in Washington, D.C. His projects have been selected for recognition by AIA Virginia and AIA Pennsylvania, and for awards by Architizer and Archello. This fall semester, he is teaching in the second year undergraduate foundation studio. Wilson is a graduate of the UVA School of Architecture's Masters of Architecture program. More about Abe.
New Staff
KENNY ROSTON
Facilities Manager
Kenny Roston joined the School of Architecture in summer 2025 with more than two decades with UVA, and brings extensive skills, knowledge, and experience in facility operations, including administrative services, project coordination and managing large groups of student workers. He brings a strong foundation in maintaining safe, efficient, and service-oriented environments to his role as Facilities Manager for the A-School. More about Kenny.
Promotions + Leadership Appointments
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CL BOHANNON
Associate Professor, Landscape Architecture and Senior Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs and Community Engagement
Associate Professor CL Bohannon, Ph.D. has been named Senior Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs and Community Engagement for the School of Architecture. In this role, he focuses on supporting faculty development, promotion, and recognition, while strengthening the culture of collaboration and engagement across the School. Bohannon is founder and director of the Community Engagement Lab and will use his longstanding experience in this area to deepen the School’s commitments to meaningful community partnerships and fulfilling the public mission of the university.
TIMOTHY BEATLEY
Teresa Heinz Professor of Sustainable Communities, Urban + Environmental Planning and Undergraduate Program Director
Professor Tim Beatley has been appointed as Director of Bachelor of Urban and Environmental Planning program. The director and founder of Biophilic Cities, Beatley has taught in the UEP department for over two decades and much of his work focuses on sustainable communities, and creative strategies by which cities and towns can fundamentally reduce their ecological footprints, while at the same time becoming more livable and equitable. He has taught the popular undergraduate course, PLAN 1010 Introduction to Urban and Environmental Planning, for many years introducing sustainable planning to students across Grounds.
BRADLEY CANTRELL
Commonwealth Professor, Landscape Architecture
Bradley Cantrell has been named the Commonwealth Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture. Most recently, Cantrell served as the department's Chair for eight years. He is known for his contributions to the integration of computation, responsive technologies, and ecological infrastructures in the design of the territory. His work bridges the gap between traditional landscape practices and nascent technologies that are transforming the field of landscape architecture. He is currently on academic sabbatical for the 25-26 academic year, during which he will be developing a funded research agenda that centers adaptive technologies to address complex and dynamic environments.
LEENA CHO
Chair and Associate Professor, Landscape Architecture
In the Department of Landscape Architecture, Associate Professor Leena Cho has been appointed Chair. Cho is co-founding director of Arctic Design Group (ADG), founding member of UVA Arctic Research Center (UVA-ARC), and co-principal of design practices Kutonotuk and TempAgency. Her design research resides at the intersection between science and the humanities with a geographic focus in the Arctic—a vast, heterogeneous, and rapidly transforming region that is at the frontline of climate extremes and climate change. This work has been funded by numerous federal and international agencies including the US National Science Foundation, US Embassy in Iceland, and World Bank.
SHEILA CRANE
Professor, Architectural History
We congratulate Sheila Crane on her recent promotion to full Professor. Crane's research explores urban landscapes have been shaped by histories of imperialism, settler colonialism, migration, occupation, militarization, conflict, and ongoing struggles for decolonization, as well as by everyday and often ephemeral practices of inhabitation, spatial appropriation, and urban reinvention. Her current book project, The City in the Shadow of the Shantytown: A Critical History of the Bidonville, challenges the presumptions written into the notion of urban informality and was recently awarded a David Coffin Publication Grant and a Graham Foundation Grant. Crane is on academic sabbatical for the 25-26 academic year.
MICHAEL LUEGERING
Assistant Professor, Landscape Architecture and Advisor to the Dean on Climate Initiatives
Assistant Professor Michael Luegering has been appointed as Advisor to the Dean on Climate Initiatives. Luegering is Co-Director of the Natural Infrastructure Lab (NIL) at the School of Architecture. He is the Primary Investigator for the ongoing 3 year, $3.25M Urban Planning With Integrated Natural Systems(UPWINS) project with the United States Army Corps of Engineers Engineering with Nature Program. The project also works with the United States Department of Agriculture's Natural Resource Conservation Service to perform field-scale trials for plant adaptation at the Morven Sustainability Lab.
SUZANNE MOOMAW
Chair and Associate Professor, Urban + Environmental Planning and Graduate Program Director
In addition to her leadership role as Chair of the Urban and Environmental Planning Department, Associate Professor Suzanne Moomaw will also serve as Director of the Graduate Program in the department starting Fall 2025. Moomaw has spent the last four decades observing communities through social, design, and political lens at local, regional, national, and international scales. Her innovative teaching in community economic development challenges students to consider possibilities and create transdisciplinary solutions to the “wicked” problems facing civilization. Recently, she was appointed as President of the Academy of Community Engagement Scholarship (ACES).
JEANA RIPPLE
Chair and Vincent and Eleanor Shea Professor, Architecture
Chair of the Architecture Department Jeana Ripple has been promoted to full professor and named the Vicent and Eleanor Shea Professor of Architecture. She is a registered architect, principal and co-founder of the collaborative architecture firm, Mir Collective. Her practice and scholarship focus on the extensive civic and environmental implications of architectural design, particularly in relation to building materials. Ripple recently authored The Type V City: Codifying Material Inequity in Urban America (The University of Texas Press, 2025) which provides the first comprehensive social and spatial examination of building codes and urban material patterns across American cities.
MATTHEW SEIBERT
Associate Professor, Landscape Architecture and Graduate Program Director
Serving as the Director of the Master of Landscape Architecture program at the School, Matthew Seibert was promoted to Associate Professor. Seibert research with collaborators has been published in Atlas of Material Worlds: Mapping the Agency of Matter, a publication that investigates the influence of nonliving materials in our daily lives. He is currently working on a new book project, tentatively titled The Dark Side of Green: A Narrative Atlas of the Costs and Cautions behind our Clean Energy Utopia. His research and teaching challenge dominant modes of knowledge production with specific attention to land relations.
BEV WILSON
Professor, Urban + Environmental Planning
We congratulate Bev Wilson on his recent promotion to full Professor. His research focuses on understanding urbanization processes, their cascading effects on surrounding suburbs and rural communities, and how these processes affect both the natural environment and the lives of residents. Wilson's work explores how data and technology play an increasing role in the way that we experience, understand and plan cities, as well as how these resources can be used to inform policy and decision-making. This research has been published in a variety of well-respected and impactful journals, including the Journal of the American Planning Association, Journal of Planning Education and Research, Landscape and Urban Planning, Housing Policy Debate, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, and Journal of Urban Affairs.
