Nimet Anwar and Sungwoo Jang join the faculty as tenure-track assistant professors, and Tiffany Xu has been named the School’s Harry der Boghosian Fellow for 2025–26.
Additionally, Lawrence Davis has been promoted to full professor while Kyle Miller and Julie Larsen have been reappointed to new terms as associate dean and chair of the school’s graduate program, respectively.
Nimet Anwar
Nimet AnwarNimet Anwar joins the School as a tenure-track assistant professor. She is co-founder of NO OFFICE, a New Orleans-based architecture, design and research practice.
Anwar has been an assistant teaching professor at Syracuse Architecture since Spring 2024 and has previously taught design studio, digital media and design communication courses at the University of Texas Arlington and at the School of Architecture at Tulane University where she was a Visiting Assistant Professor. She has also worked as an architect at Studio Gang Architects in Chicago.
Anwar has exhibited drawings at a83 Gallery in New York City and installed a temporary pavilion at Space p11 in Chicago. She received an honorable mention for the Burnham Prize Competition: Burnham 20/20; was a finalist for the 8x8x300 Competition; and was shortlisted for the 2021 Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism.
Anwar holds a B.S. in Architecture from the University of Texas at Arlington and an M.Arch from Rice University.
Sungwoo Jang
Sungwoo JangSungwoo Jang joins the School as a tenure-track assistant professor. He is a principal of commonmatters, a research-based architectural practice that integrates bioclimatics and thermodynamics into novel spatial constructs where building energetic behavior is designed, rather than conditioned. Jang’s interdisciplinary research and teaching pedagogy uniquely merge technical culture with spatial practice, where climatic and energetic principles emerge as innovative design opportunities while promoting a less carbon-intensive living.
Jang is a licensed architect with over 13 years of professional experience. He also holds a LEED credential, a general contractor’s license, and has passed the HERS energy modeler test and ICA-certified home inspector training. Prior to establishing commonmatters, Jang has designed and managed a wide range of domestic and international projects, ranging from a small kiosk to multiple award-winning buildings. He has also led the design of various urban projects worldwide, including sustainable community-oriented urban renewal projects in Boston, mixed-use residential developments in China, and a 125-acre corporate campus master plan in Germany.
With his design and technical capacity combined with bioclimatic approaches at the core of his research and teaching, Jang’s work from commonmatters and his past firms has won several awards, including BSA Design Awards and Progressive Architecture Awards, and has been included in notable design websites such as Divisare and Architect Magazine.
Jang holds a Master of Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Science in Human Environment and Design from Yonsei University. He previously taught an Environmental Systems course at Northeastern University and Design Studios at Boston Architectural College.
Tiffany Xu
Tiffany XuTiffany Xu joins the School as the Harry der Boghosian Fellow for 2025–26. During the school year, Xu will teach an architecture studio and two professional electives focused on researching North American contemporary construction culture—emphasizing architecture as a layered system consisting of a skeletal frame and built-up finishes, materials based on standardized dimensions and a product-like treatment of components. Students will explore conventional framing as an area of opportunity for codification and experimentation and study how medium specific tendencies and internal conflicts might yield new approaches to design.
Prior to joining Syracuse Architecture, Xu was the 2024-25 Peter Reyner Banham Fellow at the University of New York at Buffalo, where her work explored conventions of light timber framing, culminating in the spring installation, “Lightly Speaking.” Xu has taught architectural representation at Northeastern University and was a practicing architect at the offices of Spiegel Aihara Workshop, David Jaehning Architect, and Jim Jennings Architecture. Her designs and writing have been published in The Architect’s Newspaper, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CITE Journal and Architectural Record. She has held editorial positions at the New York Review of Architecture and PLAT Journal.
Xu received a Master of Architecture from Rice University where she was the recipient of the William D. Darden Thesis award, and a Bachelor of Science from University of California, Berkeley. She is a registered architect in the state of California.
“We’re excited to welcome these exceptional new faculty members to the Syracuse Architecture community,” says Michael Speaks, dean of the School of Architecture. “Individually, they are accomplished scholars, practitioners, and educators—together, they bring a remarkable range of perspectives and experience that will enrich our school in meaningful ways.”
Anwar, Jang, and Xu begin their appointments at the School of Architecture in August 2025.
