Graduating Students’ Final Reviews & Exhibition
Tuesday, May 13 12
B.ARCH
Wendy W Fok
WAH 207
14
B.ARCH
Eric Haas
WAH 208
10
B.ARCH
Kate Yeh Chiu
WAH 209
22
M.ARCH Wes Jones
WAH 200
30
M.ARCH Gillian Shaffer Lutsko
WAH 201
20
M.ARCH Sascha Delz
Upper Rosendin
36
MHC
Cindy Olnick & Trudi Sandmeier
Verle Annis
8
B.ARCH
Rob Berry
WAH 207
16
B.ARCH
Jimenez Lai
WAH 208
18
B.ARCH
Hadrian Predock
WAH South Hallway
26
M.ARCH Lisa Little
WAH 200
24
M.ARCH Andy Ku
WAH 201
28
M.ARCH Ryan Tyler Martinez
WAH 209
32
MLA
Verle Annis
Wednesday, May 14
2
Esther Margulies
USC Architecture
2025
This program provides an overview of USC’s final-year Undergraduate Architecture, Graduate Architecture, Graduate Landscape Architecture + Urbanism, Graduate Heritage Conservation, and Graduate Building Science students. XPO 25 spans two days of presentations addressing urgent disciplinary and contemporary issues. Critics join in dynamic discussions and receptions celebrating graduating students, their final projects, and additional Spring ’25 work from across USC Architecture. Thank you for joining us. We’re grateful to all the students, faculty, and interlocutors from near and far who, throughout the year, make this work possible and the USC School of Architecture a vibrant and groundbreaking institution. XPO
Final Reviews & Exhibition
3
4
USC Architecture
2025
XPO
Final Reviews & Exhibition
5
1
2
6
USC Architecture
2025
Undergraduate
Architecture
Public Exchange Architecture is inherently public. Our work as architects necessarily engages with the concerns of the world around us. We do not (and cannot) work in isolation; rather, through our actions, we enter into an exchange with the interests and welfare of the common good. Any act of architecture—building, drawing, idea—is a public proclamation about the world as we would like it to be. Each act, as a reasoned declaration, engages with an ongoing, collective set of political, social, and cultural conversations. The forms of architecture’s public exchanges are broad and robust, difficult and complex; the world is a messy place, after all. How does architecture effectively enter into this public dialogue? What role does architecture play in setting an agenda for such discussions? How do the disciplinary concerns of architecture converse with the diverse motives of culture at large?
3
Students
Madison Ashby Erik Babakhani Dan Chen Jenna Cover Janna De Vera Ghazal Farhangi
Faculty
Rob Berry
Date & Location
Wednesday, May 14
XPO
Final Reviews & Exhibition
Arturo Mendoza 3 Ethan Santana 1 Daniel Silva 2 Miguel Torreblanca Lilly Tung
WAH 207 7
Taking Stock Architecture, and the making of architecture, can be accounted for in endless ways. Buckminster Fuller once asked Norman Foster, “How much does your building weigh?”—a simple question at once easy or impossible to answer, containing values, critique, and a challenge. Taking stock involves rigor and attention to detail—a rehearsal of simultaneously broad and narrow perspectives that can reveal complex systems of many scales and kinds. To take stock is to question how things work in theory by attending to how they unfold in practice. Such accounting may be data-driven, narrative, and/or visual and, as technique, can guide one to a project’s conceptual site: loopholes, overlooked opportunities, and alternative ways of working. Accounting is also often a trick, as all accounts contain erasures and the biases of authorship. This studio takes stock and explores accounting as a mode of research and a starting point and method for design.
1
8
USC Architecture
2025
Undergraduate
Architecture
2
3
Students
Emmanuel Aranda Akshay Atapattu 1 Isabella Atkinson 3 Mario Avendano Indie Bloom Sunnie Chou
Faculty
Kate Yeh Chiu
Date & Location
Tuesday, May 13
XPO
Final Reviews & Exhibition
Karim Fouad Yassine Idhali Mariya Idris Justin Kaczender Noa Kanani 2
WAH 209 9
Hidden Infrastructures
Cultural Edition
‘Hidden Infrastructures – Cultural Edition’ is an exploration into the novel, playful, and critical discourse of architectural disguise, related to topics of data and fossil fuel (oil) in cities and suburban neighborhoods. With a focus on LA28, the cultural programming and institutional architectural typography, this edition of “hidden infrastructures” studio focuses on the urban and adaptive reuse of brown sites to challenge the cultural and architectural discourse. Premised on data as the new form of oil, this thematic research studio challenges the contemporary American (or, perhaps international) “vernacular architecture,” through the S, M, L, XL lens of hidden infrastructures embedded into our phygital world. “The true vernacular architecture, at least in my opinion, in the United States, is the trailer, or the module, or the mobile house.” – Paul Rudolph Institute of Modern Architecture As architects, we often build physical spaces and megastructures that host various infrastructural and architectural typographies. Through the study of various architectural buildings and paradigms, we will look at how to convert, conceal, reveal, and challenge buildings that veil their original intentions.
1
10
USC Architecture
2025
Undergraduate
Architecture
2
3
Students
Hunter Barnett 2 Brian Chen Anne Cheng Paige Crittenden Panchenchen Feng Akram Karimi 3
Faculty
Wendy W Fok
Date & Location
Tuesday, May 13
XPO
Final Reviews & Exhibition
Qian Long Jaydine Mendoza Cayetana Moncayo Barreiros Yolanthe Van Der Most Van Spijk 1
WAH 207 11
1
2
12
USC Architecture
2025
Undergraduate
Architecture
Control Points Le Corbusier reportedly said things were easier for Ledoux, 150 years his senior, because he didn’t have to deal with plumbing. He didn’t know the half of it. For today’s students, 115 years younger than Corb, the complexities of meaningfully contributing to the built environment have grown even more formidable. How does one ensure potency by finding points in the process to operate upon, or from, to maintain relevance? Are they handles, pivots, origins, pinpricks? Geometrically, points have no dimension, so their essence is about energy, not matter. We are looking to harness those potent sources of transformation.
3
Students
Adrian Aranda Justin Best EllyKira Chai 2 Rohit Dsouza 1 Han Isozen Tristan Lindner
Faculty
Eric Haas
Date & Location
Tuesday, May 13
XPO
Final Reviews & Exhibition
Yujun Miao 3 Sakiko Tanaka Abriella Terrazas Asaf Zairi Justin Zhu
WAH 208 13
2
1
3
14
USC Architecture
2025
Undergraduate
Architecture
A SLICE OF 1/4 LIFE, AT ‘25 (or, 100x100x100) Large Models and Drawings
In this thesis group, each student will construct a large model at roughly 100x100x100cm (or max out at 48”x48”x48”). This studio calls for each thesis project to be articulated in the medium of architecture, completing the B.Arch degree with an oversized model. Additionally, each student will produce a large axonometric composite drawing that tells the story of the building. While every student will be tackling a specific topic of their own choice, a thesis within an architecture school as a professional degree begs a key pedagogical question: do thesis projects have to use architecture to think about a societal issue? In this thesis group, we will answer this question with a hypothetical “yes.” While thesis is an excellent platform for a student to project concerns about the world beyond our discipline only, the medium of the output remains a subject of inquiry. In the many chapters of architectural education past, the spectrum of output can exit architecture and transformatively articulate a thesis by way of an adjacent discourse. Bauhaus, for instance, ambitiously considered graphic design, furniture, fashion, and many other related disciplines to be welcomed allies. However, 1/4 of the way into the 21st Century, the possible outcome of what an architect can do is so rapidly expanding that one can be trained in architecture but be qualified as a professional in many other fields. In this thesis group, we simply want to give it a try: what if we actually did architecture, for a change?
Students
Ashley Altmann 1 Melissa Larot 3 Andree Anzurez Ryan Liang Genesis Clara-Martinez Christine Natal 2 Izabella Flores Nadia Nogueda José García Juwon Seo Shreya Gottumukkala Annie Tran
Faculty
Jimenez Lai
Date & Location
Wednesday, May 14
XPO
Final Reviews & Exhibition
WAH 208 15
1
2
16
USC Architecture
2025
Undergraduate
Architecture
Adventures in the Artful Ordinary Architecture of the built environment (and reality in general) is overwhelmingly ordinary. This ordinariness is represented through a range of architectural expressions: the generic, the copy, the perfunctory, the banal, the useful, the bare logics of capitalism, etc. Arguably some of the stranger and more compelling recent forms of visual expression exist much more closely to the ordinary and the everyday then the extraordinary. This is the territory of deep fakes, mis-readings/understandings of physics/composition, and even AI “hallucinations.”
3
Students
Manny Bernardino Jr Clarisse Cao Jose Flores Joshua Kim Sean Le 2 Alice Lin
Faculty
Hadrian Predock
Date & Location
Wednesday, May 14
XPO
Final Reviews & Exhibition
Jake Scheckelhoff Jihee Seo Caroline Skoglund 3 Manuel Velazquez Megan Wang 1 Allison Yen
WAH South Hallway 17
1
The 470AB capstone course sequence is designed for degree candidates in the Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies Program. The course positions itself as both a capstone and threshold. As a capstone, it is a culmination of a four-year BSAS course of study, as a threshold, it encourages the production of speculative research and final work that can be further developed in graduate school and/or help guide a professional career trajectory. Students identify a topic of inquiry, organize supportive literature and other research-based resources, create an annotated bibliography, and develop a succinct proposal for a final research paper, design project, or faculty-approved hybrid. 18
USC Architecture
2025
Undergraduate
Architectural Studies
Students
Josiah Herfurth Venezia Wilkes-Garcia EMj Lee Jihee Seo Maria Florencia Xinghan Zhuang 1 Rodriguez Winkelmann
Faculty
Lee Schuyler Olvera
XPO
Final Reviews & Exhibition
19
1
2
20
USC Architecture
2025
Graduate
Architecture
ADAPTIVE P/RE-USE
Under New Ownership –Nonspeculative Models for Equitable & Ecological City Housing This studio aims at developing new forms of collective, affordable housing by exploring the two conceptual frameworks of Adaptive P/Re-use and Under New Ownership. The notion of Adaptive P/Re-use frames design activities along a subtle yet radical challenge: How can we design and build housing based on the concept of re-use, where recirculation and repurposing of materials, existing buildings, social structures, and environmental settings are a given necessity? And how can we conceive, design, and build based on the premise of pre-use, where future adaptation, transformation, reassembly, disassembly, as well as social and environmental change are an integral part of design considerations? Under New Ownership additionally challenges the pervasive system of real property and individual ownership. Most forms of real property are not primarily based on housing as a home anymore but have transformed housing into a speculative asset and a key pillar within the current economic system (1618% of the US GDP). The function of housing as real estate has become a major factor contributing to affordable housing crises. Under New Ownership thus seeks to explore forgotten, transform existing, envision new, as well as develop collective, shared, democratic, communal, public, and hybrid forms of ownership. These new models of ownership will not only advocate for nonspeculative, affordable long-term homes for everyday people, but are deemed to set the stage for innovative housing designs.
Students
Daniel Cureno Anne Debertin 1 Yesenia Hernandez Nour Kaddoura Charles Lafon Cynthia Leon
Faculty
Sascha Delz
Date & Location
Tuesday, May 13
XPO
Final Reviews & Exhibition
Hearty Mills Dhriti Pangasa Macintyre Schnell 2 Anna Simpson Hanying Zhu
Upper Rosendin 21
AI /n/ U In its brief history in architecture, AI has been used exclusively as an agent of novelty. Architects have seen it as a form finder and fantasy generator, and this has prevented it from being considered a tool for serious architecture. This thesis section investigated the possibilities for AI within the field as such a tool. Students attempted to use AI to flesh out their own history of projects to provide a catalog of precedents that could then be analyzed to discover a thesis within them and then use AI to figure out what’s next, as their thesis project.
22
USC Architecture
2025
Graduate
Architecture
Students
Divya Balachandran Chloe Bentitou David Hill Tammy Kuo Bryan Lee
Faculty
Wes Jones
Date & Location
Tuesday, May 13
XPO
Final Reviews & Exhibition
Delaney Ryan 3 Jack Somers 4 Qinyi Wang 2 David Wright 1 Linghui Yu
WAH 200 23
Cultural Assembly Cultural engagement enhances social, spiritual, and leisure activities. It involves assembling events, happenings, and spaces to bring people together. Cultural participation is a shared experience that promotes a sense of belonging and connection with others. This Directed Design Research course studies architecture and design approaches that support cultural vitality and practice - concentrating on developing design goals to strengthen the community and individual well-being. Building such an assembly requires diligence for cultural care and social awareness. Examining and collecting model observations of cultural experiences and phenomena initiates a direction and concerns for advancing design research.
1
2
24
USC Architecture
2025
Graduate
Architecture
3
Students
Brandon Bui Jianghui Qu 3 Kenechukwu Ekwueme Brian Tew Gregor Tillman Miles Fredrick Eric Yu 1 Hieu Huynh Tianya Zhou Wang Nian Long 2 Christopher Paliungas
Faculty
Andy Ku
Date & Location
Wednesday, May 14
XPO
Final Reviews & Exhibition
WAH 201 25
1
2
26
USC Architecture
2025
Graduate
Architecture
Hallucinations and the Fabrication Gap Prominent theorists and critics within the discipline contend that architecture is once again approaching a paradigmatic shift, catalyzed by the rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence tools. Yet, a critical disjunction remains between the generative potential of computational design and the material realities of fabrication. This section of the thesis investigates and develops novel design methodologies oriented toward the realization of three-dimensional physical models, as opposed to the predominantly two-dimensional visual outputs characteristic of current AI-assisted architectural design. In this context, fabrication is not merely an afterthought but is re-integrated as a vital design parameter—one that actively engages with AI-generated hallucinations and other emergent computational strategies within the creative process.
3
Students
Mackenzie Bower Xin (Marco) Chen Gabriel Harmon Yuntong Jiang 1 Etulan Joseph
Faculty
Lisa Little
Date & Location
Wednesday, May 14
XPO
Final Reviews & Exhibition
Tannya Lokwani 2 Ernest Tse Kaidi Yang Evan Wilson 3
WAH 200 27
A Model for Later In this section, we discussed “A Model for Later” as a framework for the thesis. We evaluated this through four topics: Problem (What), Context (Where), Technique (How), and Theory (Why). These topics were used to create an architectural thesis proposal. The aim was to create a body of work that operated in parallel with traditional architectural contingencies—such as site, program, precedents, codes, politics, and social engagement— while also focusing on individual authorship, form, representation, and theory. Students worked independently to develop their thesis and research throughout the semester. Central to this section was the idea that we create things for later, explored through physical models as tools for discovering emerging questions about organization, material thickness, and contemporary representation.
1
28
USC Architecture
2025
Graduate
Architecture
2
3
Students
Janette De Los Santos 2 Kensuke Shimmon Jackson Hamilton 3 Elizabeth Sit Jose Munoz Maria Luisa Sta. Maria Aliza Rosenkranz 1 Alec Sweeting Negin Sabouhi Lucy Wu
Faculty
Ryan Tyler Martinez
Date & Location
Wednesday, May 14
XPO
Final Reviews & Exhibition
WAH 209 29
1
2
30
USC Architecture
2025
Graduate
Architecture
TRANSLATIONS Architectural models, traditionally understood through their representational or aesthetic roles, can also be conceptualized as generative instruments within broader cultural and epistemological frameworks. As Kersten Geers observes, a model is capable—like a plan—of producing other models, objects, and ideas. Reframing model making as a cultural technique reveals its capacity to participate in the circulation of images and the construction of knowledge. Through practices such as digital manipulation, photographic abstraction, and parallax documentation, models operate at the intersection of reality and representation. Within this mediated condition, architectural models serve as critical tools for engaging the complexities of contemporary urbanism—where questions of climate, geopolitics, cultural identity, and technological transformation intersect with the spatial and discursive production of the city. 3
Students
Nayla Alejandre 1 Lauren Brown David Crawford Khun Yeyint Hein 3 Jennifer Dominguez Hernandez 2
Faculty
Gillian Shaffer Lutsko
Date & Location
Tuesday, May 13
XPO
Final Reviews & Exhibition
Rita Jirjees Bingqing Li Christopher Panzella Aditi Amol Pawar Chien-Hua Yu
WAH 201 31
1
Urban Park Futures
Testing Grounds — Exposition Park As the future feels infinite and change inevitable, the value of parks has surged, but their design has seen little change in a century. This studio asks students to imagine how Exposition Park can be the most valuable open space in the Southern California region for the surrounding community, and for people from around the globe. Students are investigating relationships between public space and human physical and mental health, how we can decolonize public space via cultural meaning, adapt to ecological and climate futures, create queer time and space, and how Expo Park can extend the impact of learning. 32
USC Architecture
2025
Graduate
Landscape Architecture
2
Students
Jordan Fucci Kavya Gudihal 2 Rongkun Lu Mark Reid
Faculty
Esther Margulies
Date & Location
Wednesday, May 14
XPO
Final Reviews & Exhibition
Saria Vega Yun Xing Shuyi Zhang 1
Verle Annis 33
MBS Thesis In the Master of Building Science program at USC, the written thesis is one of several important elements of the overall academic program. ARCH 692A and ARCH 692B are the major components of a two semester long thesis series of courses for preparing and guiding students through their thesis development and completion. The thesis is based on their purposeful and detailed research activity. In addition to mastery in other courses, to graduate with an MBS degree, the thesis student completes serious and scholarly scientific research and then documents the process and its results.
1
34
USC Architecture
2025
Graduate
Building Science
2
Students
Ali Ali Tsz Him Ian Chiu 2 Ghazal Chizarian Jennifer Knop
Akshayaa Shree Krishnan Muni Zhilong Liu Luana Quinn 1 Zicheng (Ray) Xie
Faculty
Douglas Noble
Karen Kensek
XPO
Final Reviews & Exhibition
35
2
1
3
36
USC Architecture
2025
Graduate
Heritage Conservation
MHC Thesis Master of Heritage Conservation students learn how to strengthen communities using existing places and the stories they tell. Each student selects a thesis topic that fuels their passion, pushes the boundaries of the field, and has very real consequences for the built environment. How do we use places to advance racial equity and social justice, address climate change, and foster healthy communities? How do we choose which places and stories matter? This course introduces and explores topics to help students develop a thesis prospectus and directed research toward the completion of their master’s thesis in heritage conservation.
Students
Alex Clark 2 Mel James 3 Leslie Madrigal Mark Malan Melissa Miller Jade Mothé Sai Ravikumar Isabella Ryan
Ryan Holcomb 1 Evan McAvenia
Faculty
Trudi Sandmeier
Cindy Olnick
Date & Location
Tuesday, May 13
Verle Annis
XPO
Final Reviews & Exhibition
37
Academic Leadership Brett Steele
Dean
Amy Murphy
Associate Dean, Faculty Affairs
Trudi Sandmeier
Associate Dean, Academic Affairs Director, Master of Heritage Conservation
Alvin Huang
Director, Graduate and Post-Professional Architecture Programs
Kyle Konis
Director, Master of Building Science
Esther Margulies
Director, Master of Landscape Architecture + Urbanism
Lauren Matchison
Interim Director, Undergraduate Programs in Architecture Director, USC A-Lab / Pre-College Programs
Coordinators Kate Yeh Chiu
XPO Coordinator
Eric Haas
Undergraduate Thesis Coordinator
Ryan Tyler Martinez
Graduate Thesis Coordinator
Undergraduate Architecture Degree Project Advisors Rob Berry
Wendy W Fok
Jimenez Lai
Kate Yeh Chiu
Eric Haas
Hadrian Predock
Graduate Architecture Thesis Advisors Sascha Delz
Andy Ku
Ryan Tyler Martinez
Wes Jones
Lisa Little
Gillian Shaffer Lutsko
Graduate Landscape Architecture & Urbanism Thesis Advisor Esther Margulies 38
USC Architecture
2025
Graduate Building Science Thesis Advisors Karen Kensek
Doug Noble
Master of Heritage Conservation Thesis Advisors Trudi Sandmeier
Cindy Olnick
Staff Nadia Afghani
Digital Fabrication Manager
Jon Barker
Facilities Manager
Natalie Costello-Hartley
Senior Coordinator, Events
Natalie Farrar Adams Assistant Dean for Advancement Liz Iracki
Senior Officer, Major Gifts
Jacob Laux
Executive Assistant to the Dean
Alicia Martinez
Assistant, IT Services
Keiko McNally
Assistant Dean, Communications and Marketing
Michael Navarrete
Assistant Dean for Finance and Administration
Jennifer Park
Assistant Dean for Student Services
Marija Radisavljević
Art Director
Dipak Shirke
Supervisor, IT Services
Will Shanahan
Budget/Business Analyst
Antonio Vigil
Facilities Coordinator
Student Assistants Asia Gaines XPO
AJ Tang Final Reviews & Exhibition
Joseph Wan 39
Tuesday
May 13
Wednesday
May 14
Published by: Bloom Press 850 Bloom Walk, Suite 204 Los Angeles 90089
See all student projects:
This event is open to all eligible individuals. The USC School of Architecture operates all of its events consistent with the University’s Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor.