City Life Studio Showcases Urban Housing Design Through Competition and Public Exhibit

City Life is the title of this year’s senior housing studio. Led by Associate Professor Miguel Guitart, five sections were taught with additional instructors including Associate Professor Hiro Hata, Professor Annette LeCuyer, Adjunct Instructor Gregory Serweta, and Assistant Professor Kristine Stiphany—all of whom are licensed architects.

At the start of the semester, teams of two were tasked with designing a collective housing project for Downtown Buffalo. The site, which formerly housed a downtown market, is now a large M&T Bank parking lot situated among several historic structures—the gold-domed M&T Center, St. Michael’s Church, the Market Arcade, and the Electric Tower. The lot sits in between the city’s theater district, dining, and nightlife scenes to the west and the underserved east side of Buffalo.

Their designs were to accommodate 100+ housing units along with commercial and office space, while serving a particular demographic of the students’ choice by improving neighborhood conditions, solving a problem, or filling a need. This semester, high-rise structures and low-rise, high-density schemes were considered as potential solutions.

“The studio emphasizes the importance of public space,” Guitart shared. “This includes how the units relate to the urban site and how they work across different scales, from the scale of the city to the scale of the block to the scale of the unit—those are important parts of the conversation.”

The project began with precedent studies followed by site analysis. While students developed their designs over the course of the entire semester, the process was fast-paced and demanding, and their outputs were remarkable. The results include: a recovery campus for patients, families, and healthcare workers with stable dwellings, restorative common spaces, and proximity to care; resilience towers that store water, generate power, and house essential and emergency services; housing and performance space for musicians and artists; a modular “kit-of-parts” apartment design with commercial grocery space; and a place for immigrants and refugees to live and work in a harmonious environment, among others.

Technical aspects like structure, systems, and building envelope were important components and were addressed in a series of lectures throughout the semester, led by studio instructors and other faculty members who generously contributed their expertise on specific topics.

Through this process, the students developed and honed a number of critical architectural skills, including designing domestic spaces, not in a vacuum but in consideration of the scale of a city, its demographics, and the potential effects of architectural decisions on the urban context and future residents.

“The goal is to offer a more holistic and rich approach to the design of domestic space,” says Guitart. 

Students had to address key aspects of residential design, including unit distribution, natural lighting, and ventilation, developing effective solutions as they moved from initial concept to final proposal. Beyond the technical details, they confronted the challenge of designing at multiple scales while accommodating the needs of individual residents alongside those of the broader community and creating thoughtful transitions between public areas and domestic environments.

As in previous editions of the studio, this project proved to be an excellent exercise in collaborative work as well, requiring students to engage in teamwork and communication. It involved negotiating ideas and perspectives, assigning and managing responsibilities, and potentially navigating disagreements—essential qualities for successful design practice.

Cohesion across all sections was intentionally built into the course structure through four reviews held throughout the semester, roughly every three weeks. These included “cross reviews,” where students and faculty from all five sections came together to share and discuss work, in addition to final reviews led by professionals from local firms who provided valuable external feedback.

The studio concluded with a competition, giving the ten shortlisted teams an opportunity to refine their presentation skills before an esteemed jury. This panel included Angie Jim Osman, partner at Allies and Morrison, London and Toronto; David Brown, partner at Woods Bagot; David Salomon, associate professor and chair of art, art history, and architecture at Ithaca College; and Alex Bozikovic, architectural critic for The Globe and Mail in Toronto.

“It’s been a very exciting experience for all the students,” Guitart shared. “Even beyond the studio itself, they’ve been very enthusiastic about the public competition and presentation. Having this extraordinary group of jurors has been an exceptional experience.”

Following an impressive round of presentations, the jury deliberated and announced the following winners:

First Prize: Market Redux - Owen Caserta (BS Arch '26) and Addison Moore (BS Arch '26) 

This is a mixed-use development designed to invigorate Buffalo’s downtown community through a new work/life program. Townhouses overlook both the street and courtyard where families live on upper floors while owning and operating a small business at ground level. At the center of the site is an urban-scale grocery store, providing much-needed fresh food options to neighborhood residents.

Second Prize: Terraform - Daniel Syperski (BS Arch '26) and Alec Pitillo (BS Arch '26)

This design focused on young professionals and young families, encouraging them to stay in the city rather than relocating to the suburbs. The stepping and terracing of the main structure, “the mountain,” ensures that each unit gets its own terrace, while minimizing cast shadows on the surrounding land. The structures are designed to offer outdoor spaces to all apartment units, a public valley, and an assortment of commercial spaces.

Third Prize: City Within a City - Issac Lim (BS Arch '26) and John Panepento (BS Arch '26)

These buildings were planned as spaces where diversity thrives, designed for people of different backgrounds, ages, and income levels. The exterior facades align with and reinforce frontages of surrounding streets, while facades within the site are sliced to draw people into the site, enhance daylight, and create ground-level entrances with residential balconies above. The design includes four residential buildings plus three civic buildings housing a library, grocery store, and hotel.

Following a tradition of senior studio exhibitions, all of the City Life projects are on display in the Crosby Hall Lobby with curation led by Guitart and the rest of the instructors. This exhibit is free and open to the public through January 23, 2026.

This exhibition was made possible with the support of Executive Director of the Fabrication Workshop Stephanie Cramer, Director of Exhibitions Maia Peck, and students, including Alec Pitillo, Daniel Syperski, and Zach Izzo.