Meet the Jury 2025

This year’s jury features an accomplished team of firm leaders representing a wide range of practices and perspectives. We extend our sincere thanks to Jury Chair David Adjaye, Hon. FAIA, for assembling this distinguished group of architects to evaluate submissions to AIAPV’s 2025 Excellence in Design Awards. We look forward to the excellence their deliberation will recognize.

2025 AIAPV Jury:
David Adjaye, Hon. FAIA [Chair] – Adjaye Associates, Ltd.
Sean Canty – Studio Sean Canty
Joe Franchina, AIA – Adjaye Associates
Sumayya Vally – Counterspace

David Adjaye, Hon. FAIA [Jury Chair]
Founder and Principal
Adjaye Associates, Ltd. – London, United Kingdom

Sir David Adjaye OM OBE is a Ghanaian-British architect who has received international acclaim for his impact on the field. In 2000 he founded Adjaye Associates, which today operates globally with studios in Accra, London, and New York. Adjaye’s most well-known project to date is the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, which opened on the National Mall in Washington DC in 2016 and was named Cultural Event of the Year by The New York Times. In 2017 Adjaye was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and was included in TIME’S 100 Most Influential People List. He is also a recipient of the 2021 RIBA Royal Gold Medal, considered one of the highest honours in British architecture for significant contributions to the field internationally. In 2022, Adjaye was appointed to the Order of Merit, selected by the late Queen ERII, in recognition of distinguished service in his field. He is also the recipient of the World Economic Forum’s 27th Annual Crystal Award, which recognizes his “leadership in serving communities, cities and the environment.”

Sean Canty
Founder and Principal
Studio Sean Canty – Cambridge, MA

Sean Canty is an architect and educator whose work explores the capacity of architectural form to reorganize spatial norms and forms of social life. He is the founder of Studio Sean Canty (SSC), an independent architecture practice based in Cambridge, MA. SSC introduces novel geometries and materials to enrich the spaces of everyday life—working across domestic, cultural, and civic programs. The studio’s design approach draws from drawing, model-making, and immersive visualization to choreograph spatial adjacencies that balance solitude and collectivity.

Canty is also a cofounder of Office III, a collaborative design collective with offices in New York, San Francisco, and Cambridge. The group was a finalist in the 2016 MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program and designed the Welcome Center for Governors Island in New York City. Their work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art and other venues.

He is currently Associate Professor of Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he teaches and coordinates Core Design Studios and offers courses in design media and techniques. His pedagogy emphasizes abstraction, representation, and typological invention, drawing connections between architectural form, spatial organization, and visual communication. Prior to joining the GSD, Canty held teaching appointments at the Cooper Union, UC Berkeley, and California College of the Arts.

Joe Franchina, AIA
Associate Principal
Adjaye Associates, Ltd. – New York, NY

Joe Franchina is an Associate Principal at Adjaye Associates. He has led a number of local and international projects of varying typologies, including Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC, Sycamore & Oak Interim Retail Pavilion on St Elizabeth Campus, Washington DC, Princeton Art Museum, Princeton NJ, West Heating Plant Residential Development, Georgetown Washington DC. Studio Museum Harlem, New York, Ruby City San Antonio Texas, Cresent Park, New Orleans LA, Denver Contemporary Art Museum, Denver CO.  

Additionally, he was highly involved in Rivington Place, London UK, Bernie Grant Performing Arts Center, London UK, British Pavilion 2003 Art Biennale Venice Italy, Sifang Art Museum Light Box project, Nanjing China. Alongside his project work Joe is part of the Design Excellence Board of Adjaye Associates.

Joe is a member of The American Institute for Architects and is registered in New York, USA.

Sumayya Vally
Founder and Principal
Counterspace – Johannesburg, South Africa

Renowned as an Honorary Professor of Practice, Sumayya Vally stands at the forefront of architectural innovation and cultural redefinition. As the founder and Principal of Counterspace, a design, research, and pedagogical entity, Vally's work seeks to articulate the identities and landscapes of African and Islamic contexts, both rooted and diasporic, with a particular interest in the complex relationships between territories. Recognized as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and listed in the TIME100 Next, she has been named as a force poised to redefine architectural practice and canon.

Her pioneering spirit has garnered international acclaim, earning her accolades such as the title of Emerging Architect of the Year at the esteemed 2023 Dezeen Awards, and recognition as one of Financial Times Readers’ Women of the Year 2023. Vally's design prowess is exemplified by her commission as the youngest architect ever to design the Serpentine Pavilion in London, which opened to critical acclaim as being one of the most radical pavilion designs to shape the commission.

Sumayya Vally Full Bio