DESIGN AWARDS

AWARD CATEGORIES

2026 JURY CHAIR

Andrew Thompson, AIA, NOMAC, LEED AP BD+C, NCARB

County Architect, Passaic County, New Jersey and Immediate Past President, AIA New Jersey

The 2026 Design Awards Task Force is pleased to announce that Andrew Thompson will be the 2026 Design Awards Jury Chair

Andrew Thompson is currently the County Architect for Passaic County in New Jersey. In this role, he is responsible for new county building and facility projects and renovations within Passaic County. His projects include the renovation of a historic courthouse and the planning and design of a new county facility, both in Paterson, New Jersey.

Mr. Thompson was previously the Director of Campus Operations for the New Community College at the City University of New York (CUNY), now designated as the Stella and Charles Guttman Community College. His responsibilities included the fit-out of a seven-story building in midtown Manhattan for the College’s inaugural student body. The Stella and Charles Guttman Community College is the first community college in the City University of New York (CUNY) system in more than 40 years. CUNY is the largest urban university system in the United States.

Prior to his role with CUNY, Mr. Thompson served as the Chief Architect in the Design and Construction Department for Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) for 12 years. He supervised a staff of in-house designers and managed consulting architects on multiple healthcare projects ranging from inpatient renovations to new healthcare and research facilities. MSKCC’s Construction Guidelines were created by Mr. Thompson and his staff.

Additionally, Mr. Thompson spent ten years as an architectural designer and facilities planner with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He was involved in the initial planning and design of the Air Train project at John F. Kennedy Airport. Mr. Thompson worked on various facilities owned and operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, including One World Trade Center (Tower One of the Twin Towers) and various airport facilities at the John F. Kennedy and Newark Airports.

Mr. Thompson served as a visiting professor from 1995 to 2000 at Pratt Institute’s School of Architecture. He also taught an NYC Building Code and Zoning Course in 2006 at the Mechanics Institute in New York City.

In 2006 he was cast in the pilot episode of Archi-TECHS on the History Channel. The episode had Mr. Thompson and his fellow cast members develop apparatuses and systems to evacuate occupants from high rise structures in the event of catastrophic fire conditions while also working with emergency service personnel and equipment on the scene in extremely adverse conditions.

Mr. Thompson holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Pratt Institute and a Master of Architecture and Urban Design from Columbia University. He also holds an Associate in Applied Science degree from New York City College of Technology-CUNY (also known as City Tech).

 From 2020-2021, Mr. Thompson served as President of AIA Newark and Suburban (a local component of AIA New Jersey). He also served as President of AIA New Jersey from 2025-2026.

THE TASK FORCE

Jose Noya, AIA

Notch Design

Kelly Clark, Assoc. AIA

Hanbury

Janice Wang, AIA, LEED AP

Szostak Design