Wallpaper* US400 | Eight CED alums shaping the creative landscape
The Wallpaper* US400 list celebrates the people who are shaping the creative landscape in 2026. This year, the list includes eight CED alums who are advancing design culture. Read the full list.
Benjamin Gilmartin
BA Architecture 1992
Diller Scofidio + Renfro, New York
CED Advisory Council
From the High Line and The Shed in New York to The Broad in LA, DS+R is behind some of the early 21st century’s most celebrated buildings, now joined by new head-turners such as the UK’s V&A East Storehouse. Today, the multidisciplinary practice is led by co-founder Liz Diller and fellow partners Charles Renfro and Benjamin Gilmartin.
Michael Chen
BA Architecture 1996
MKCA, New York
Making and meaning go hand-in-hand for architect Michael K. Chen. With his New York practice MKCA, Chen works on projects including brownstone transformations in Brooklyn, a children’s library in the Bronx and an elegant apartment renovation in Paris, each rooted in craftsmanship, context and collaboration.
David Godshall
MLA 2010
Terremoto, Los Angeles
A landscape architect and co-founder of Terremoto, David Godshall operates with an ‘ecological anarchist’ ethos to create adventurous, site-specific environments. Terremoto’s work has a particular focus on labour activism, climate resilience and regional flora, making the studio a trailblazer in human-centric landscape design.
Walter Hood
MLA + MArch 1989
Hood Design Studio, Oakland
Professor Emeritus of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning
Walter Hood is one of the most decorated figures in American landscape architecture – a MacArthur Fellow, 2024 Vincent Scully Prize recipient and founder of Hood Design Studio in Oakland. His practice has shaped civic spaces including landscapes for the Oakland Museum of California, the International African American Museum in Charleston and the Nvidia Campus in Santa Clara.
James Leng and Jennifer Ly
BA Architecture 2007
Figure, San Francisco
Lecturer in Architecture
Figure, the San Francisco architecture studio founded in 2018 by Harvard GSD graduates James Leng and Jennifer Ly, works across residential, cultural and multifamily housing projects. The pair bring a strong sense of civic identity — rooted in their connection to Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in California — to everything they build.
Christopher Leong
BA Architecture 2000
Leong Leong, New York
Brothers Chris and Dominic Leong founded their eponymous practice in 2009 and have since worked on projects ranging from private residences to furniture design. Aiming to integrate aesthetic, social and ecological concerns, their multidisciplinary approach has earned them clients including Kvadrat, the Met and 3.1 Phillip Lim.
Elizabeth Roberts
BA Architecture 1995
ERA, New York
Brooklyn-based architect Elizabeth Roberts has made a career of giving old buildings new life without erasing what made them worth saving. Her firm ERA — celebrated for transformative work on brownstones, townhouses and lofts — has developed a signature aesthetic of warm minimalism.