The School of Architecture has announced Tiffany Xu as the Harry der Boghosian Fellow for the 2025-26 academic year. Xu will succeed Erin Cuevas, becoming the tenth fellow at the institution.
The Boghosian Fellowship was established in early 2015 in memory of Harry der Boghosian by his sister Paula der Boghosian. The program is designed to support emerging independent creatives, allowing them to spend a year developing design research while teaching at the school.
Fellows are integral to the school’s environment, enhancing student instruction and faculty discussions, and supporting research and curriculum development related to architectural education.
During her fellowship, Xu will teach an architecture studio and two professional electives focused on North American contemporary construction culture. Her research emphasizes architecture as a layered system with a focus on conventional framing for codification and experimentation. “The composite character of today’s construction departs from traditional architecture’s valorization of permanence and mass,” says Xu. She highlights how this system is grounded in pragmatism, vernacular references, and supply chain constraints.
Xu’s investigation will emphasize material expression, positioning contemporary architecture as a medium with flexible values based on everyday practices. Like previous fellows, she will collaborate with faculty and students within the university while continuing her research into Central New York’s relationship with modernity.
Before joining Syracuse Architecture, Xu was the Peter Reyner Banham Fellow at the University of New York at Buffalo during 2024-25. Her work there explored light timber framing conventions. She has taught at Northeastern University and worked at several architectural firms. Her designs have been published in various notable journals.
Xu holds a Master of Architecture from Rice University and a Bachelor of Science from the University of California, Berkeley. She is also a registered architect in California.
“From this fellowship I hope to further develop my skills in pedagogy…while maintaining a close relationship to building,” says Xu. She aims to bridge design thinking with construction practices.
The fellowship continues to attract emerging talents such as Maya Alam (2016-17) through Erin Cuevas (2024–25). More information about the fellowship can be found on the School of Architecture’s website.
