Our Priorities
1. OUR CLIMATE RESILIENCE / CLIMATE JUSTICE INITIATIVE
Working at the intersections of climate change and design, our faculty and students are leading interdisciplinary collaborative research on coastal resiliency, flood mitigation, bio-based materials for architecture and construction, and urban sustainability across regions from the Arctic to India and South America, and from coastal Virginia to here in Charlottesville. Learn more about our current climate-based research through our faculty spotlights.
2. OUR JEDI INITIATIVE
Cultivating shared humanity across difference, the A-School community is working together to create a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive shared culture, led by empathy and care. The School of Architecture’s Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Initiative articulates and guides our collective commitment (as leadership, faculty, staff, and students) to building, promoting and sustaining a culture of justice, equity, diversity and inclusion within and beyond the University.
3. MAKING THE A-SCHOOL ACCESSIBLE + AFFORDABLE
Driven by our mission as a public university committed to the public good, we are committed to increasing student support: through scholarships, fellowships and financial aid; through mentorship and professional development; through engagement opportunities and resources for well-being and student success. Learn more about how our Academic Support Fund provides focused financial support to our students towards the hidden costs of higher education, such as material and technology expenses.
4. FACULTY + STAFF EXCELLENCE
Central to our educational and research mission, we work to attract, recruit, retain and promote faculty and staff who excel in research, teaching, service and professional practice, while promoting a collaborative, supportive and intellectually rich academic environment. At the core of this priority is shared governance, led by Faculty and Staff Councils that working closely with the School's Executive Leadership Team.
5. A DEDICATED SPACE FOR COLLABORATIVE DESIGN
At the School of Architecture, we work across design, planning, policy, the humanities, construction, entrepreneurship, and more with a deep commitment to ethical engagement with our community partners. As we grow, we are also building a long-term plan to house an innovative research hub for our community-facing design work that enhances collaboration across Grounds and with our Charlottesville and regional neighbors.
The Foundation Board of Trustees
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| David Haresign (BSArch 1976) PRESIDENT |
Jeff Murphy (BSArch 1981) VICE PRESIDENT |
Shelby Pruett (BSArch 1984) TREASURER |
Silvia Erskine (BSArch 1982, MLA 1986) SECRETARY |
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| Frank (Rusty) M. Conner, III (COL 1978, JD 1981) |
Elizabeth Fain-LaBombard (BUEP 2002) |
Barbara J. Fried (COL 2004) |
Eric D. Groft (MLA 1984) |
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| John Grove (MLA 1988) |
Elizabeth (Liz) Haile Hayes (JD 1978, Parent 2013) |
Catherine Heath (BSArch 1988) |
Zena Howard (BSArch 1988) |
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| Marcus Hurley (MArch 2000) |
Roger Patton Janssen (BSArch 1987) |
Mark Luellen (President's Rep) VP for UVA Advancement |
George Keith Martin (BOV Rep) McGuire Woods |
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| Sharon Ann (Samm) Miller (BSArch 1986) |
Hosea Mitchell (COL '81, MP '83) |
Sylvia Smith (MArch 1979) |
Scott J. Sottile (BArH 2001) |
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| Robert Sponseller (MArch 1992) |
Alexandra (Alex) Valmarana (BArH 1996) |
Floyd Worsley, Sr. (BSArch 1990) |
Woody Wingfield (COL 2007, Staff Liaison) Executive Director, UVA School of Architecture Foundation |
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| Genesis Rodgers (BSArch '21, MUEP '26, Student Representative) |
Malo André Hutson (Ex-Officio Member) Dean of the UVA School of Architecture |
John Comazzi (Ex-Officio Member, Faculty Rep) Associate Dean of Academics |
The Dean's Advisory Board
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| Morgan C.B. Miles (BSArch 2006) CHAIR |
Adam Ruffin (MArch 2002) VICE CHAIR |
Ross Altheimer (MArch + MLA 2004) |
Katie Bailey (BUEP 2015) |
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| Janet Bloomberg (BSArch 1987) |
Hallie Boyce (MLA 1992) |
Lydia Brandt (MArH 2006, PhD in Art and Arch. History 2011) |
Mark Buenavista (BSArch 2006, MArch 2009) |
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| Tom Chung (BSArch 1994) |
Beata Corcoran (MArch 1995, MLA 1997) |
Chris Cornelius (MArch 2000) |
Maurice Cox (public member) |
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| Gina Haney (MArH 1997) |
David Hill (MArch 2005, MLA 2005) |
Kevin Holland (BSArch 1988) |
Sandra (Loughran) Joslyn (BSArch 1994) |
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| Stephanie Landrum (BCP 1998; MBA 2010) |
Tim Love (BSArch 1984) |
Kathryn Rogers Merlino (MArH 1999, MArch 1999) |
Ryan Moody (MArch 2007, MLA 2007) |
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| Liz Ogbu (public member) |
Matt O'Malley (BSArch 2000) |
Azadeh Rashidi (BSArch 1995, MArch 2000) |
Nakita Reed (BSArch 2006) |
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| Jennifer C. Reut (MArH 2004, PhD 2011) |
Shawn Rickenbacker (MArch 1994) |
Sam Roberts, II (BSArch 1998, MArch 2001) |
Eugene Ryang (MA in Cultural Anthropology 1995, MLA 2000) |
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| Marc Tsurumaki (BSArch 1987) |
Kim Wong Haggart (Staff Liaison) Director of Engagement and Alumni Initiatives |
Mira Davis (Ex-Officio Member, AYAC Rep) |
My-Anh Nguyen (Ex-Officio Member, AYAC Rep) |
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| Malo André Hutson (Ex-Officio Member) Dean of the UVA School of Architecture |
Matthew Jull (Ex-Officio Member, Faculty Rep) Associate Professor, Architecture |
A-School Young Alumni Council (AYAC)
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| Mira Davis (BSArch 2021) CO-CHAIR |
My-Anh Nguyen (BSArch 2018) CO-CHAIR |
Mert Kansu (MArch 2019) VICE CO-CHAIR |
Jenni Rogan (MUEP 2023) VICE CO-CHAIR |
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| Rafi Alam (MArch 2022) |
John Daryl Barber (MUEP, Urban Design Cert. 2016) |
Jonathan Bernard (MArch 2012) |
Collette Block (BSArch, BA Media Studies, 2019; MArch 2022) |
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| Karim El-Araby (BSArch 2020, MArch 2022) |
Emma Gallaugher (BSArch 2023) |
Caroline Grant (BSArch 2020) |
Josh Hadley-Goggin (BSArch 2016, MArch 2020) |
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| Maura Ikharo (MUEP 2017) |
Sam Johnson (MArch 2019) |
Michelle Kahl (MLA 2024) |
Audrey Kelly (MArH, Historic Pres. Cert. 2019) |
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| Katie Kelly (MLA 2019) |
Andrew Knuppel (BUEP 2017, MUEP 2020) |
Seshi Konu (BSArch 2020) |
Kaitlin Kreinheder (BSArch 2022) |
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| Daniel Langford (MArch 2024) |
Jane Lee (MLA 2021) |
Veronica Merril (BArH, BA Music 2021) |
Anna Meyer (MUEP 2025) |
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| Jacqueline Restrepo (BSArch 2016) |
Lily Roberts (BUEP 2023) |
Kari Roynesdal (BSArch 2015) |
Karen Salazar (BSArch 2022) |
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| Peter Sikorsky (BSArch 2019) |
Matthew Tepper (BSArch 2024) |
Tim Victorio (MArch 2022) |
Kate Wietor (MArH 2024) |
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| Thomas James Thomal Wyatt (MArch 2023) |
Emily Zekany (BSArch 2021) |
Kim Wong Haggart (Staff Liaison) Director of Engagement and Alumni Initiatives |
Mohamed Ismail (MArch 2016, Ex-Officio Member, Faculty Rep) Assistant Professor, Architecture |
PRIZE AMOUNT AND ELIGIBILITY
This $5000 cash prize recognizes the UVA student who produces the best scholarly or creative work engaging a building, place, or landscape. Accepted submissions include, but are not limited to, writing, design, poetry, painting, legal/business briefs, scholarly/research essays, film, and photography. The prize winner will be selected by a small committee of University faculty selected by the Chair of the Department of Architectural History.
Richard Guy Wilson asked that the award provide student support — fitting given his tireless focus on excellence in teaching and in helping students not only in architectural history, but also throughout the A-School and University. The Richard Guy Wilson Prize is a wonderful tribute to RGW, and the Architectural History department, the longest standing of its kind in American higher education. It also underscores how many departments and schools across UVA Grounds are enriching their disciplines with spatial, material, and geographic approaches. We welcome submissions from students in all schools of the University.
RGW PRIZE PAST WINNERS:
2025
Prize Winners:
Lincoln Lewis (PhD Candidate in the Constructed Environment)
William "Andy" Packwood (BSArch '25)
Tides of Time: Documenting Tangier Island's Built Environment & Cultural Landscape, May 2023–May 2025 (cross-level collaboration bridging doctoral research and undergraduate design inquiry into a holistic documentation effort that explores Tangier Island's endangered working landscape)
Honorable Mention:
Jasmine Wang (Program in Political and Social Thought)
The Haunted 'Home': Living with Diasporic Ghosts, 2025 (undergraduate thesis paper examining how Asian diasporic artists and thinkers reimagine "home" and belonging)
2024
Prize Winner:
Pierce Lockett (PhD Candidate, Department of French)
Building Babel at the Bibliothèque Nationale: Finding Aurélien Bellanger’s Le vingtième siècle (The Twentieth Century), 2023 (graduate seminar paper investigating contemporary French literature's engagement with the built environment)
2023
Prize Winner:
Ethan Starr (MArH '23)
Building the Excavated City: Material Excavation and the Making of Kansas City, Missouri (Master of Architectural History Thesis)
Honorable Mentions:
Joyce Fong (MLA '24)
Grounding Communing: Re-envisioning a tangible future of communities in Richmond (a design proposal mapping historic patterns of environmental injustice in Richmond, Virginia & proposing new public commons)
Makshya L. Tolbert (MFA Creative Writing, '24)
Shade Is a Place (poems that are, in the author’s words, part of “a creative, scholarly, and social practice in curating relief and putting more tree shade on the ground across Charlottesville, Virginia")
Note: Due to COVID, The Richard Guy Wilson Prize was not awarded in 2020, 2021, and 2022.
2019
Prize Winner:
Piers Gelly (MFA '19)
Light Work (extended excerpt of a novel completed while a student in the MFA Program in Creative Writing)
Honorable Mentions:
Brian Cameron (Program in Political and Social Thought)
Unaffordable Injustice: Segregation, Gentrification, and Urban Policy in Charlottesville, Virginia
Adriana Giorgis (BSArch '19)
Villa Marittima: The Presence of Absence
Natasha Roth-Rowland (PhD candidate, Department of History)
The New Jewish Underground: Occupation, Excavation, and Neoliberalism in East Jerusalem
2018
Prize Winner:
Madelyn Hoagland-Hanson, Sarah Pate, Ru Wu (all MLA '19)
Turn Park (design proposal in response to the land-building and management strategies of the Meadowlands of New Jersey)
Honorable Mentions:
Lee Block (Department of Anthropology)
Sweetgum’s Amber: Animate Mound Landscapes and the Nonlinear Longue Durée in the Native South
Claire Weiss (McIntire Department of Art)
The Construction of Sidewalks as Indicator of Social and Economic Interaction in Ancient Roman Cities
Elizabeth Spach (Department of History)
The Accidental City: Race and the 1963 Virginia Beach Merger
Heidi Siegrist (Department of English)
Modern Town
2017
Prize Winner:
Claire Eager (PhD, English, '17)
Complicit Paradise: Invasive Species and Collaborative Design in Donne and Bedford’s Twick(e)n(h)am (chapter from PhD dissertation)
Honorable Mentions:
Matthew Scarnaty (MArch and MLA, '17)
Cultural landscape analysis of the history of local food production in downtown Charlottesville
HOW TO APPLY:
APPLICATIONS ARE DUE ON FRIDAY, MAY 22, 2026 AT 5PM (EASTERN TIME).
To apply, submit the application form and upload your application materials through the same form (applications should be submitted as a PDF file with a maximum file size limit of 25MB). Media such as audio, sound, film, artistic works, etc. can be hyperlinked through the submitted PDF - please be sure to check that your hyperlinks are working prior to uploading your file.
Please read through the FAQs section below prior to submitting your application.
QUESTIONS:
Please contact rgwilsonprize@virginia.edu
Is there a limit on length for submissions?
The file size limit is 25MB. While there is no hard limit for length of submissions, if the submission draws from a thesis or dissertation, please include only a selected, single chapter.
Media such as audio, sound, film, artistic works, etc. can be hyperlinked through the submitted PDF - please be sure to check that your hyperlinks are working prior to uploading your file.
What kinds of work is eligible for submission?
Any work, scholarly or creative, produced while a student at UVA that concerns architecture or landscapes. All formats are accepted including but not limited to visual arts, music, written pieces, fiction, legal briefs, business plans, architectural or landscape design work, photography, original plays, performance art, poetry, reports, and papers.
Who is eligible to apply?
Any UVA student who is a full-time student during the academic year (during which they are applying; Fall 2025 - Spring 2026) is eligible to apply, including undergraduate students, graduate students and PhD students.
Can students graduating before the deadline submit for the prize?
Yes, as long as the work was done while a student at UVA.
Are pieces that have been published eligible?
As long as the piece was produced when the submitter was a full-time student at UVA, it is eligible for Prize submission.
Are group projects eligible?
Yes, as long as all participants were full-time students at UVA at the time the project was produced.
Can collections of multiple pieces, like a portfolio of related artworks, or a collection of short stories, be submitted as one entry?
Yes.
Are future students allowed to submit for the prize?
No. All work submitted must be done while a current student at UVA.
Please direct questions about the prize to rgwilsonprize@virginia.edu