Princeton / Chicago Architecture Center Fellows: Here to Stay

How does a city build for permanence in an age of displacement? The new exhibit Here to Stay: Architecture After Arrival presents three visionary architectural proposals addressing this defining question of our era in the Chicago Architecture Center's Usher Lambe Gallery. 

Three architects and designers—T.K. Justin Ng, Yotam Oron and Leslie Ponce-Diaz—were selected in 2025 for the inaugural Princeton / Chicago Architecture Center Fellowship during which they proposed speculative interventions on the theme “Re: Settlement.” For their resulting exhibition, Here to Stay: Architecture After Arrival, each has created bold, generous designs that reimagine immigrant welcome as civic infrastructure worthy of Chicago's great architectural tradition, from community monuments to new urban typologies. This is architecture operating at the scale of cultural intervention, proposing what a truly welcoming metropolis could become.

“Architecture and urbanism need new insights that expand the possibilities for our built environment,” said Eleanor Gorski, CEO and president of Chicago Architecture Center. “Early-career architects can and should lead the way. Princeton and CAC are pleased to have the opportunity to support our accomplished fellows and the original work they have developed over the past months.”

“Chicago has always been a city built by immigrants,” said Marshall B. Brown, Director of Princeton Urban Imagination Center. “Here to Stay is both political assertion and architectural program – a proposition that we finally build for them with the monumental ambition our civic tradition demands. These projects demonstrate how the built environment can signal permanence and belonging at the scale essential for a sanctuary city."

Here to Stay runs through May 21 in the CAC’s Usher Lambe Gallery. Access to the exhibition is included with paid Chicago Architecture Center admission. 

About the designers
T.K. Justin Ng is the founder of Spaced Agency, where he led the design of the recently completed Small Business Innovation Hub and the expansion of historic Wo Hop Restaurant in New York’s Chinatown. Ng is also a painter whose work has been exhibited in New York and Boston, and whose sketchbooks have been published in Canada and Finland. He holds a Master of Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and is a LEED Accredited Professional in Building Design and Construction. 

Yotam Oron is an architect, urbanist and researcher, and co-founder, with Sharona Cramer, of CO53, a New York–based practice working across scales and grounded in collaborative design. A graduate of the Yale School of Architecture, Oron’s award-winning thesis on collective land ownership and community-led development continues to guide his work toward more equitable urban futures.  

Leslie Ponce-Diaz is a Mexican-American aspiring architect whose work centers on educational spaces, regenerative design and cultural heritage as pathways to support communities and their environments. Ponce-Diaz holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design, with double minors in Nature Sustainability and Latin American Cultural Studies. She recently earned her Master of Architecture II from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where she was a Dean’s Merit Scholar, the 2024 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow, and recipient of the 2025 GSD Rafael Moneo Rome Prize Award. Ponce-Diaz’s professional experience spans a range of collaborative and socially driven practices, including orizzontale in Rome, BNIM in Kansas City and both Studio Gang and Sweet Water Foundation in Chicago.

About the Princeton / CAC Fellowship
The Princeton Urban Imagination Center (PUIC) and the CAC collaborated to create a fellowship program to support new design projects by early-career architects.

Aspiring professionals need resources to develop independent projects and exposure for their work. For these reasons, the Princeton CAC Fellowship carries a specific focus on addressing urgent topics and bringing new architectural strategies into the public eye.

The inaugural fellowship comprised two parts: a research and design phase from September 2025 to January 2026, followed by the eight-week exhibition development phase. The fellows’ final work is on public view at the Chicago Architecture Center through mid-May 2026.