Faculty members, students recognized with AIA Buffalo/WNY Design Awards

Pouya Pakkhesal and Patrick Scherer received the 2024 Student Project of the Year award for “DEGREE,” a housing concept designed as a solution to the challenges of the refugee, including a lack of infrastructure, cultural exclusion and a sense of displacement.

Pakkhesal, now a first-year student in the MArch program, and Scherer developed the housing concept last year for their senior BS in Architecture studio, “Housing in Place,” which emphasizes equitable, inclusive urban housing solutions. The 79-unit development was designed for a vacant lot at 1130 Niagara Street, on Buffalo’s West Side, along the Niagara River, where a critical mass of refugee and immigrant communities have settled over the past two decades.

Serving as a source of shelter, healing and connection, DEGREE imagines housing as a steppingstone to resilience for refugees. Introducing a unit-oriented typology that champions the individual and community simultaneously, DEGREE elevates the principles of light, urban farming and spaces for community building.

The scaffolded assembly stacks units at 52 degrees to optimize sunlight and spatial efficiency, creating the effect of a building leaning into the sun. At the unit level, each space is flooded with light as residents enjoy a private patio and unobstructed views.

Pouya Pakkhesal, a native of Iran, says the diverse backgrounds of the student designers enhanced their project approach.

“As an immigrant, I understand the struggles of entering a new world and searching for a sense of belonging,” says Pakkhesal, who received the UB Alpha Rho Chi Bronze Medal upon his BS Arch graduation in 2024.

“Meanwhile, as a Buffalo resident, Patrick emphasized the vital role of the refugee population in Buffalo’s growth, and therefore spaces that foster communal interaction. So, creating individual units that break from the conventional apartment typology was key to our solution to providing a true sense of home.” 

Scherer, now a designer with Architectural Resources in Buffalo, agrees: “DEGREE reimagines housing for Buffalo's West Side, offering refugees not just shelter, but a space for inclusion and opportunity. With rotated units for optimal daylight and a focus on community gardens, it breaks away from conventional design to foster a sense of belonging and individuality. Developing this project was a truly eye-opening experience in understanding the needs of a growing demographic in Buffalo."

Holding fast to the AIA Framework for Design Excellence and its principle of ‘Design for Well-Being,' DEGREE recognizes that health requires social engagement and community. DEGREE provides for this with roof gardens at each level, offering an open plan of sorts with caretaking and curation the responsibility of residents.

“A short walk to your private patio or the community roof garden on each floor becomes a transformative journey, redefining the very essence of home in the heart of Buffalo,” the students write in their project statement.

At the ground level, Pakkhesal and Scherer have designed a grand gesture to the AIA Framework’s elevation of 'Design for Integration.' The two-story entrance is an amenity space for all, featuring a fitness room, library, dining area, play lounge, immigration student services and laundry facilities. Additional recreation is afforded by a sunken plaza that unfolds as a dynamic performance area with stepping platforms that allow residents to engage in free-form, creative expression.

AIA Buffalo/WNY began recognizing studio projects in 2022 to support student design excellence and bridge the gap between professional and academic settings. Junior, senior and graduate architecture students who either attend an architecture school or live in the chapter area and are attending a NAAB-accredited architecture program are eligible to apply.

According to the jury, composed of local practicing architects and members of AIA Buffalo/WNY, the project is both technically and aesthetically superior. “The assemblage of spaces is strongly captured in the section of the building. The jury appreciated the physical model and integration into the digital rendering model. Tiering the units and introducing a central plaza is a creative solution for individuality and community interaction. This project gently aligns with the AIA Framework for Design Excellence with its thought to ‘Design for Well-being’ and ‘Design for Integration.’”

UB architecture faculty members Christopher Romano and Michael Hoover were presented with a Design Merit Award in the category of Unbuilt for their project, “DORMER/DORMER,” a bridge designed to connect two existing 150-year-old multi-family residential dwelling units.

The concept addresses two properties on a combined parcel within a Buffalo neighborhood undergoing extensive revitalization. It was developed through Romano’s creative practice, Studio NORTH Architecture, in collaboration with Michael Hoover, an adjunct professor in the Department of Architecture. Both Romano (MArch ’05, BS Arch ’03) and Hoover (MArch ’20) are alumni of UB’s architecture program.

Romano, a UB assistant professor of architecture and member of the School's Material Culture Research Group, says the challenge was to construct an elevated volume – 25 feet above grade – that merges the attic spaces between both buildings. The bridge is designed as both a technical solution and spatial element that responds to complex existing conditions, including height difference between floors, integration with masonry chimneys, and varying roof ridge heights.

He adds that the alteration concept “questions ideas of parcel division, fire separation between dwelling units, and densification within historic buildings.”

Technically, the bridge creates a continuous circulation loop via existing vertical stairwells and existing tunnel from basement to basement, ultimately creating a new living condition where a single dwelling unit can occupy two attics.

“Spatially, through the structures’ vernacular wood framing and gable-roof construction, the bridge serves as a portal,” he adds.

Extruded from an existing gabled dormer to the South and spanning from attic to attic as a faceted volume, the bridge blends into a new dormer on the North. The placement of two large triangular glazing units at the end of each dormer allows occupants to view the roofscape into the city beyond. Additionally, the 45-degree rotation of the bridge obliquely intersects the steeply pitched roofs of the vernacular structures, resulting in a space full of unexpected angles.  

Referring to the AIA Framework for Design Excellence, a series of design principles that advance a zero-carbon, resilient and just built environment, Romano says occupants experience ‘Design for Discovery’ through an outward looking view over adjacent rooftops and “an ever-changing sense of wonderment through the interplay of natural light on the interior, faceted surfaces.”  

The AIA Buffalo/WNY award jury praised the Studio NORTH submission: “Perfectly encapsulating the idealism, the theoretical, and the whimsy of an unbuilt project, DORMER/DORMER is an interesting exploration of an unconventional approach to a residential project…it is a very ‘outside-the-box’ approach to providing additional options for multi-dwelling units. The jury appreciated the illustration of the design process through a progression of forms and clean graphics. DORMER/DORMER describes itself as a portal, thereby evoking a sense of discovery and wonder in a truly transportive space. Pushing/refolding the envelope here is to be applauded.”

In addition to ‘Design for Discovery,’ DORMER/DORMER responds to the AIA’s prioritization of ‘Design for Change’ as an adaptive reuse concept that maximizes occupiable space within the existing volume of two structures. Designed as a solution for a growing family in a city lacking affordable housing, the proposal more than doubles the living space from 1,300 square feet to 3,000 square feet by bridging the two adjacent structures. This expansion strategy also advances ‘Design for Economy’ by allowing residents to remain in the apartment in lieu of finding larger living accommodations elsewhere.

AIA Buffalo/WNY, last Spring, generously and for the first time ever, approved funds for members of the University at Buffalo's chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students to attend professional conferences. The fund was initiated by the board of the AIAS under the leadership of Sumanth Thummala, 2022-23 UB AIAS president and a 2023 graduate of the MArch program. Supporting Thummala in the endeavor were Kelly Hayes-McAlonie, UB’s director of campus planning and a staunch advocate for the School of Architecture and Planning, and UB architecture faculty member Elaine Chow, who also serves as the director of student professional development.

Additionally, four UB architecture students received scholarship support from a joint award of the AIA Buffalo/WNY and Buffalo Architecture Foundation.

The 2024 AIA Buffalo/WNY Scholarship winners demonstrate a strong commitment and passion for the profession of architecture. The scholarship is open to any student in the five-county WNY area (Erie, Niagara, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Orleans) who is enrolled in a NAAB-accredited architecture program, as well as community college students enrolled in an architecture program. Winners of this year's AIA Buffalo/WNY Scholarship are:

• Joseph Amirato (MArch ’25)
• Ehler Htoo (MArch/MUP ‘25)
• Alec Pitillo (BS Arch ’26)
• Thomas Stankowski, a 2022 graduate of UB’s BS Arch program now enrolled in the University of Utah’s MArch program