For the second year in a row, B.lab students received the AIASF 2026 Leadership Award. This time, for the for 16th Street Visioning Project.

Jury comments:

What the jury saw was not just a beautiful body of work — though it was that — but a demonstration of what students can accomplish when it meets real world urgency.

Working in partnership with the Oakland Heritage Alliance to support historic designation for a building at risk of disappearing, these students documented, modeled, engaged, and advocated. They created posters, built physical models they donated to the community, and brought neighbors into a process that too often excludes them.

The result was consequential: historic preservation status was achieved for a civil rights monument – this building was the headquarters of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first Black union in the United States.

The jury was moved by the thoroughness, the scale of community engagement, and the depth of commitment this team brought — and by the reminder that student work, at its best, can change what gets saved.

Congratulations to the students!

Yao, Kouassi Simon, B.Arch

Abdulhabeb, Mohammed, B.Arch

Rivera Villalobos, Allen, B.Arch

Nguyen, JD, B.Arch

Luc, Jeffery, B.Arch

Boyd, Alexander, B.Arch

Hope, Aric, B.Arch

Shutko, Evangelina, B.Arch

Vera, Raquel, B.Arch