For more than forty years, the Architectural League of New York’s Emerging Voices and League Prize programs have recognized designers across North America with distinct visions and the potential to influence the disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design. This panel gathers alumni of both prizes working in Houston, Austin, and other cities in Texas to share their subsequent career trajectories, including current projects, in a multigenerational conversation.

The League Prize (LP) is a juried portfolio competition organized around a theme for young architects and designers who have been out of school for ten or fewer years.

Emerging Voices (EV) is an invited competition for North American firms and individuals with distinct design voices and significant bodies of realized work.

Speakers

AGENCY: Ersela Kripa and Stephen Mueller (EV ’18)

Architecture Research Office (ARO): Stephen Cassell, Adam Yarinsky (LP ’96, EV ’01)

BORDERLESS STUDIO: Paola Aguirre Serrano and Dennis Milam (EV ’22) 

Carlos Jiménez (LP ’88, EV ’94)

David Heymann (EV ’00)

Departamento del Distrito: Nathan Friedman and Francisco Quiñones (LP ’22) 

Dept.: Maggie Tsang and Isaac Stein (LP ’22)

Francois de Menil (EV ’98)

Gail Peter Borden (LP ’04)

Gary Cunningham (EV ’94)

Lake Flato Architects (EV ’92)

Larry Speck (EV ’85)

Low Design Office: Ryan Bollom and DK Osseo-Asare (EV ’21)

Mark Wamble / Interloop—Architecture (LP ’95)

Rob Rogers (EV ’01 as Rogers Marvel Architects) 

Scott Specht (EV ’02 as Specht Harpman)

Troy Schaum (EV ’19 as SCHAUM/SHIEH)

Taft Architects: John Casbarian and Danny Samuels (EV ’82)

Read more about the speakers and firms below. Each photo gallery contains recent projects completed by the individual or practice, as well as a look back at work created at the time of their League Prize or Emerging Voices award.

Emerging Voice, 2018

AGENCY is a collaborative, interdisciplinary design practice based in El Paso, Texas. Founded by Ersela Kripa and Stephen Mueller in 2010, AGENCY develops architectural projects, urban strategies, and written work, often focusing on the potential for emerging technologies and modes of project to address the challenges of rapid urbanization, ecological instability, and resource depletion.

League Prize, 1996
Emerging voices, 2001

Architecture Research Office (ARO) is a New York City-based design firm led by partners Stephen Cassell, Kim Yao, and Adam Yarinsky. Founded in 1993, the practice works nationally on cultural, educational, commercial, and residential projects, often collaborating with museums and galleries, city agencies, and schools. The firm also pursues project-based and self-funded research on sustainable design and materials.

Emerging Voices, 2022

Paola Aguirre Serrano and Dennis Milam founded Borderless Studio in 2016. Currently based in San Antonio, Texas and Chicago, Illinois, the architecture and urban design practice describes its focus as “reimagining spaces collectively, fostering multicultural, multidisciplinary teams to drive collaborative design with tangible outcomes.” The studio’s portfolio includes public spaces and art works, neighborhood planning and housing initiatives, and research and community engagement projects.

League Prize, 1988
Emerging Voice, 1994

Carlos Jiménez Studio is an internationally recognized design firm based in Houston, Texas. Founded by namesake principal and lead designer Carlos Jiménez in 1983, the firm’s portfolio ranges in scale and location: from major institutional buildings for universities and museums to private residences across the country. Jiménez is currently the director of graduate studies at Rice University School of Architecture.

Emerging Voice, 2000

David Heymann is an architect and author based in Austin, Texas, where he is the Harwell Hamilton Harris Regents Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Texas. A substantial part of Heymann’s current practice involves working with his students on collaborative projects. He is the author of My Beautiful City Austin and John S. Chase – The Chase Residence, and a contributor to Places Journal.

League Prize, 2022

Departamento del Distrito is a design and research practice operating between Mexico City, Mexico and Houston, Texas. The practice is guided by “binational representation of language, culture, and history,” in the firm’s own words, and focuses on linking local sites with broader social, political and technological contexts. Founded in 2017 by Francisco Quiñones and Nathan Friedman, the office works across public, residential, and curatorial projects.

League Prize, 2022

Dept. is a landscape architecture and urban design studio based in Houston, Texas and working throughout the Gulf Coast and Southeastern United States. Founded and led by Maggie Tsang and Isaac Stein, the practice operates at a range of intersecting scales, from temporary site-specific installations and discrete park projects to urban-scale master plans. Tsang is an assistant professor at Rice University School of Architecture.

Emerging Voices, 1998

Formerly a filmmaker, Francois de Menil describes his design practice as developing “architectural solutions through the use of narrative,” in his own words. Since its founding in 1991, Francois de Menil Architect has completed numerous diverse architecture and interiors projects, including private residences, corporate facilities, and cultural institutions.

League Prize, 2004

Gail Peter Borden is an architect, artist, theoretician, and author based in Houston, Texas. He is the director of graduate programs and a professor at the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design at the University of Houston. His design practice Borden Partnership works on residential and institutional projects in addition to research and installation work. Borden is the author of numerous books, including Material Precedent (2010), New Essentialism (2017), and Assembly, forthcoming 2025.

Emerging Voices, 1994

Gary Cunningham founded Dallas-based Cunningham Architects in 1981. The firm’s portfolio encompasses cultural, commercial, religious, residential, and educational projects, mainly located in Texas and the surrounding region.

League Prize, 1995

Mark Wamble founded Interloop—Architecture in 2001 with Dawn Finley. The firm’s portfolio includes furniture and fixtures, private residences, and cultural institutions, focusing, in its own words, “on innovative building technologies, inventive forms, and precise material finishes.” In 2011, Wamble formed Architectural Safety Components (ASC), a manufacturer of life-safety equipment. He holds a number of U.S.patents associated with these products.

Emerging Voice, 1992

David Lake and Ted Flato founded Lake Flato Architects in 1984, beginning their practice with residential projects designed with local materials. Now with a staff of over 150 people, the San Antonio and Austin-based firm’s portfolio contains a variety of cultural, civic, hospitality, and urban design and planning projects, in addition to continued residential work. Committed to sustainability, the firm’s projects include a recently certified Living Building in addition to numerous LEED Platinum and Gold certified projects.

Emerging Voice, 1985

Larry Speck is currently a design principal for the architecture firm Page. With the firm’s Austin office, he has led major master planning, park, and institutional projects across Texas. Also an educator, Speck has taught at architecture programs around the globe and served as the dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Texas, Austin from 1992-2001.

Emerging Voice, 2021

Ryan Bollom and DK Osseo-Asare co-founded Low Design Office in Austin, Texas, and Tema, Ghana, in 2006. In their own words, the “transatlantic” design practice is guided by “low design,” or doing more with less. The firm’s portfolio includes residential and commercial buildings, as well as public installations, communal spaces, and design-build projects.

Emerging Voice, 2001 as Rogers Marvel Architects

Architect Rob Rogers has worked on institutional, cultural, and public realm projects across multiple typologies for over 30 years. In 2013, he founded Rogers Partners Architects+Urban Designers. Based in New York City and Houston, Texas, the studio of forty architects, urban designers, and landscape architects designs projects for urban contexts around the world.

Emerging Voice, 2002 as Specht Harpman

Scott Specht is the founding partner of Specht Novak, an architecture practice based in Austin, Texas. The firm’s residential-focused portfolio includes both built works and experimental projects such as Stealth House, a prototype for a versatile, windowless single family home designed for urban infill.

Emerging Voice, 2019 as SCHAUM/SHIEH

Troy Schaum is an associate professor at Rice University, principal of Schaum Architects, and partner at SCHAUM/SHIEH, a collaboration with Rosalyne Shieh established in 2009. Schaum Architects’ work includes cultural institutions, commercial spaces, and residential projects. While the firm’s built projects are primarily located in Texas, Schaum’s work has been exhibited globally, including at the Venice Biennale and the Museum of Modern Art.

Emerging Voice, 1982

John J. Casbarian, Danny M. Samuels, and Robert. H Timme founded Taft Architects in 1972. The firm has developed a diverse portfolio of work over fifty years including schools, civic centers, hotels, cultural institutions, and a variety of residential projects. Each founding partner has been significantly involved with academia. Casbarian is dean emeritus, Harry K. and Albert K. Smith Professor, and director of external programs at Rice University School of Architecture, where Samuels is professor in practice emeritus and was founding director of the Rice Building Workshop. In 1995, Timme took a sabbatical leave from the firm to serve as dean at USC School of Architecture, where he remained until his death in 2005.