Professor Heather Roberge named 2026 AIA-LA Educator of the Year

AIA-LA has presented its 2026 Educator of the Year Award to Heather Roberge, Professor at UCLA AUD and founder and principal of design practice Murmur. The Educator of the Year Award is part of AIA-LA's annual Board of Directors Awards, recognizing individuals and organizations whose leadership, service, advocacy, and commitment to the public have strengthened both the architectural profession and the communities it serves.

This year's recipients will be formally honored during the 2026 AIA-LA Design Awards Ceremony on October 27, 2026, where the Board of Directors Awards will be presented alongside the celebrated AIA-LA Design Awards and Next LA Awards, recognizing excellence in architecture, emerging talent, and professional leadership.

Roberge is honored with the 2026 Educator of the Year Award alongside Orhan Ayyüce, Adjunct Professor of Landscape Architecture at California State Polytechnic University-Pomona.

Roberge served as the Chair of UCLA Architecture and Urban Design from 2017 to 2020, and has also directed AUD's Undergraduate Program. Her research and professional work investigate the spatial, structural and atmospheric potential that digital technologies have on the theory and practice of building. Her teaching emphasizes innovative approaches to material, computation, and manufacturing to expand the formal vocabulary and spatial implications of building envelopes and assemblies. She recently published the book Fabricating Plasticity in Aluminum, arguing for the value of the material prototype as a critical site of design innovation, through a series of design and architectural case studies.

Roberge has received numerous accolades in recognition of her distinctive work, including the 2017 ACADIA Teaching Award of Excellence, the prestigious 2016 Emerging Voices Award from the Architectural League of New York, a 2015 AIA LA Merit award for En Pointe (an installation for the SCI-Arc Gallery), and a 2011 AIA Next LA design merit award for the Succulent House; she also was selected as a Finalist in the 2006 PS1/MoMA Young Architects Program. Her work has been published in A+U, Wallpaper, Architectural Record, Log, Architect, Architects Newspaper, The New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times and exhibited in group shows in the U.S. and abroad.

Roberge earned a Masters of Architecture and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture (Summa Cum Laude) from the Ohio State University. She also participated in the International Study Program at the Architectural Association in London. Her professional training in architecture continued in the New York offices of Eisenman Architects, Architecture Research Office, and Davis Brody Bond. She has previously taught at University of Virginia, Yale University, OSU, Washington University in St. Louis, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Pratt Institute.