Join the School of Architecture for thesis final reviews and an open house highlighting graduate thesis work. Themes include adaptive reuse, resilient transit, cooperative housing, ecological stewardship, geologic time, Indigenous knowledge, dementia care, memorialisation, nightlife, neurodivergent learning, diaspora, burn scar reclamation, and architecture in drag.
ABOUIT THE PROJECTS:
TUESDAY 5/5/2026
2-3 PM
Thomas Thilavanh
Architecture that reveals the Vietnam War’s legacy of aerial bombardment and unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Laos through material and ephemeral relationships across the sky, ground, and space below.
3-4 PM
Sham Aldura
A memorial and civic network at Saydnaya Prison that preserves testimony and gives survivors a place for memory and documentation.
4-5 PM
Aaron Wood Characters of Geologic Time, This thesis seeks to put human experience in the context of geologic time through storytelling and architecture in Portland. The geologic phenomena that make up much of the landscape of Portland are studied for their scientific understanding and are re-interpreted as characters in a story that come together to create this place. The architecture serves as a space to come in touch with these characters and the ancient forces that create landscapes
WEDNESDAY 5/6/2026
10-11 AM
Thao Mai Faith-based shelters offer families in Portland, Oregon, a pathway from homelessness to permanent housing, supported by community outreach and efforts to build healthy neighborhoods.
11AM -12 PM
Luke Player Child centered adaptive reuse of a commercial office building into co-housing for PSU students with children. Transforming a corporate ruin into a vision of collective whimsey and support.
12-1 PM
Alex Yarovaya This thesis project responds to the fragile gap between school and adulthood for young adults with autism. By combining equine-assisted spaces with career training and daily work environments, the architecture stages controlled encounters with fear, trust, and growth while preserving choice and autonomy. It merges the familiarity of barn and arena typologies with contemporary, sensory-responsive design to support independence in a world typically not built for sensory difference.
2-3 PM
Vinuar Gardi This thesis examines the Kurdish diaspora in Portland as a community shaped by displacement, political fragmentation, and the ongoing negotiation of identity in exile. It explores how collective memory, ritual, and intergenerational gathering sustain Kurdish culture within a Western urban context that often renders it invisible. The project asks how belonging can be cultivated locally while remaining deeply connected to a homeland that exists across contested borders.
3-4 PM
Kaila Zandel Burn Scar Tattoo Studio, this thesis proposes a tattoo studio for covering burn scars. Through the themes of identity, exposure, pain, and duration, the space choreographs a progression from vulnerability to reclamation.
4-5 PM
Gianna Sullivan An ecological outpost in the Great Basin that integrates small field shelters with shared work infrastructure to support long-term ecological practice. The project explores how spatial thresholds, regionally derived materials, and adaptable systems can sustain bodily presence while maintaining environmental attunement. Permanence is reframed as iterative adjustment, positioning architecture as an evolving support system for collective land stewardship.
5-6
Abby Degler Letter & Leaf Learning Campus is a calm, intuitive environment where every space is shaped to reduce cognitive load and nurture confident, joyful learning for dyslexic students. Rooted at the northern end of the Park Blocks, the campus forms a protected inner world for young learners, wrapped in a porous, community-facing edge that keeps them connected to the city without overwhelming them. Clear wayfinding, sensory-gentle materials, and human-scaled design principles shape the elementary school into a place where neurodivergent children feel grounded, capable, and truly seen.
THURSDAY 5/7/2026
12-1 PM
Abi Swain This thesis is an exploration of gender exploration through architectural representation. The architecture is a space designed for Drag King performance, which performs masculinity through a queer, feminist lens. My architecture is employing the same lens, to define what architecture in drag could be in one form. In my thesis I am asking: If Drag Kings can deconstruct and re-perform masculinity, how can architecture similarly perform gender, and what would architecture in drag look like?
2-3 PM
Razan Zainab This thesis proposes a night-centered cultural hub that integrates rehearsal spaces, performance venues, and public circulation into an immersive environment shaped by movement and sound. Inspired by street dance culture and the energy of nightlife, the project creates spaces for both spontaneous battles and formal performances along the river’s edge. The architecture becomes both stage and city, blurring indoor and outdoor realms to sustain a continuous 24-hour rhythm of music, dance, and urban life.
3-4 PM
Jannine Luter The Skyline Mushroom Outpost is a sheltered retreat dedicated to providing safe, guided psychedelic mushroom trips in a scenic forest setting.
4-5 PM
Bri Brady This thesis explores how we can create familiar spaces for people living with dementia. I'm working to develop a closed community system with visual clues that are easy to distinguish meanings and building purpose without written words.
FRIDAY 5/8/2026
10-11 AM
Nathalie Hutchinson Subversive Architecture proposes turning modern development practice on its head by leveraging collective agency through community-led investment and design. Situated in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Southeast Portland, the project tests innovative engagement strategies and defines “neighborhood triage” in the face of the housing crisis, translating research into a mixed-use community hub paired with affordable cooperative housing. By integrating a Community Investment Trust model, the project positions architecture not just as form-making, but as a financial and civic tool to redistribute ownership, stabilize housing, and build long-term neighborhood resilience
11 AM -12 PM
Meg McKean The Sxole Stewardship Center is a training and cultural heritage center dedicated to celebrating, sustaining, and transmitting the knowledge and practice of reef-net fishing. Sxole, also known as reef-net fishing, is a 1,800-year-old Indigenous fishing practice and the most sustainable salmon fishing method in the world. With only 11 reef-nets in existence today, this project proposes an architectural space for Indigenous-led knowledge transfer, cultural stewardship, and public education that positions reef-net fishing as the future primary salmon fishing practice of the Salish Sea.
12-1 PM
Jessica Snyder An aerial gondola network that functions as both everyday public transit and resilient infrastructure in the event of the future Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake. By moving circulation above vulnerable ground conditions, the project establishes an independent system capable of operating when conventional transportation networks fail. Ultimately, it positions the gondola not simply as transit, but as essential civic infrastructure that the city can depend on when it matters most.
2-3 PM
Ryan Cook This thesis examines how we must reconsider our relationship with the natural environment in the aftermath of a devastating wildfire whose impacts will shape the landscape for decades. The proposed design—a canopy walk—creates a vantage point from which visitors can observe the forest’s gradual recovery over time.
3-4 PM
Sohrab Ghasemi
Scheduled thesis review.
5-6 PM
Thesis Open House Visit thesis projects, models, drawings, and research conversations from the graduating cohort.
Free and open to the public. All are welcome.