The Rice Architecture 2026 Spring final thesis reviews are open to the public. Please join us to see the culmination of the work from our graduate thesis students.
Visiting and Parking Information
This semester, we look forward to welcoming guest reviewers Dana Cuff (University of California, Los Angeles) and Hans Tursack (University of Texas at Austin).
Dana Cuff is a professor of architecture and urban design at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the founding director of cityLAB, a design-research center advancing experimental urbanism and housing innovation. She received her Ph.D. in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, and her B.A. in psychology and design from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Founded in 2006, cityLAB explores metropolitan possibilities through design research and has represented the United States at the 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale. Cuff’s work focuses on spatial justice, affordable housing, and the politics of place, including research that informed California accessory dwelling unit (ADU) legislation. She has authored and edited numerous publications, including The Provisional City (MIT Press, 2000), Fast Forward Urbanism (Princeton Architectural Press, 2011), Urban Humanities: New Practices for Reimagining the City (MIT Press, 2020), and Architectures of Spatial Justice (MIT Press, 2023).
Hans Tursack is an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture. A designer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he received a B.F.A. in studio art from the Cooper Union School of Art and an M.Arch. from the Princeton University School of Architecture, where he was the recipient of the Underwood Thesis Prize. He has worked in the offices of LEVENBETTS Architects, SAA/Stan Allen Architecture, and Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects. Tursack was the 2018–2021 Pietro Belluschi Fellow at the MIT School of Architecture + Planning and later served as a visiting assistant professor at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis (2022–2023). His writing and scholarship have appeared in outlets including Perspecta, Pidgin, Plat, Crop, Thresholds, Log, and ACADIA publications. His research examines media theory and representation in design, including the use of tools from animation, gaming, and creative coding for architectural concept generation, and he is currently completing a Ph.D. in Electronic Arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
We will also be joined by internal reviewers John J. Casbarian, Reto Geiser, Maggie Tsang, Shantel Blakely, Albert Pope, Amna Ansari, Brett Schneider, Andrew Colopy, and Brittany Utting.
Thursday, January 15, Schedule
Isabeau Andrews, Amna Ansari (Advisor) 10:15 a.m.—Farish Gallery
Angela Garcia, Igor Marjanović (Advisor) 11:00 a.m.—Jury Room
Fenghua Lin, Carlos Jiménez (Advisor) 11:45 a.m.—Farish Gallery
Paige Frost, Troy Schaum (Advisor) 1:30 p.m.—Jury Room
Roy Allen III, Andrew Colopy (Advisor) 2:15 p.m.—Farish Gallery
Yao Xiao, Troy Schaum (Advisor) 3:00 p.m.—Jury Room
Friday, January 16
Olga Sobkiv, Jesús Vassallo (Advisor) 10:15 a.m.—Jury Room
Alexandro Piña, Nathan Friedman (Advisor) 11:00 a.m.—Farish Gallery
Samantha Garza, Jesús Vassallo (Advisor) 11:45 a.m.—Jury Room
Shaelyn Parker, Brett Schneider (Advisor) 1:30 p.m.—Jury Room
Elliot Yamamoto, Georgina Baronian (Advisor) 2:15 p.m.—International Bridge
Nathan Ehrlich, Georgina Baronian (Advisor) 3:00 p.m.—Farish Gallery