Announcements July 6, 2026

Meet Our 2026 NOMA Future Faces Fellows

Reeja Shrestha joins our Seattle studio and Angela Tampubolon joins our Chicago studio.

Talent is everywhere. Opportunity should be, too.

That’s one reason programs like the National Organization of Minority Architects’ (NOMA) Future Faces Fellowship matter. By connecting architecture students and recent graduates with leading firms across the country, the fellowship provides mentorship, professional experience, and a clearer understanding of the many paths a career in design can take.

Now in its eighth year with our firm, Future Faces continues to help participants build confidence, expand their networks, and gain hands-on experience at a pivotal point in their professional development. In a field where fewer than 20 percent of licensed architects in the U.S. identify as people of color, initiatives like this play an important role in expanding access and broadening representation across the profession.

This summer, we’re excited to welcome Angela Tampubolon, a recent graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, to our Chicago studio, and Reeja Shrestha, a recent Howard University graduate who will begin her Master of Architecture at the University of Washington this fall, to our Seattle studio.

Student holding a pink architectural model in front of design sketches on a wall, showcasing a blend of textures and layouts.

Final review for a mixed-use development exploring housing and public typologies in Berkeley, California.

The project hybridized Spanish Revival housing with the car wash typology in Central Berkeley. Angela is especially proud of how it came together, earning the Design Excellence Award.

Angela

Ask Angela what “home” means, and she won’t point to a single place. Growing up between California and Jakarta, Indonesia, she learned that home could take many forms. Sometimes it was a shared room with family. Other times it was a new neighborhood or an entirely different country. What remained constant were the people who made each place feel like home. Those experiences taught her that places are never static. They change as the people who use them change, and good design should do the same.

After earning her Bachelor of Arts in Architecture with a minor in Sustainable Design from the University of California, Berkeley, Angela found those ideas reinforced through experience. Walking home through waist-high floodwaters in Jakarta deepened her interest in climate resilience and environmental justice. Later, while helping redesign Oakland’s Frank Ogawa Plaza alongside community members and local high school students, she discovered that meaningful design begins by listening. Together, those experiences strengthened her belief that great design works with nature and starts with the people it’s meant to serve.

Angela will spend the summer with our Chicago studio. She credits her involvement with the NOMA chapter at UC Berkeley with helping her discover the many paths a career in architecture can take while providing the mentorship and community that made those possibilities feel within reach. After years of studying Chicago’s architectural legacy in the classroom, she‘s looking forward to experiencing it firsthand while seeing how designers, engineers, planners, and clients work together to bring complex projects to life.

I want my work to make spaces feel alive again. In a time when it can feel like everything is falling apart, I hope to create places that foster connection, belonging, and hope.

Architectural rendering of a multi-unit residential complex featuring a connecting walkway, landscaped areas, and community spaces. Birds fly overhead.

Rendering from NOMA BGL SDC 2025 of the team's project, Rooted in Presence, which advanced to the final round.

Group of students posing in a classroom with a presentation screen saying Welcome to NOMAS. Tables and chairs visible in the room.

The beginning-of-the-year general body meeting for NOMAS at UC Berkeley drew a full house and marked a strong start to the year for Angela and her board.

Group of eight people in hard hats posing for a photo at a construction site with wooden framing in the background during sunset.

During her freshman year, Angela joined Sustainable Housing at California (SHAC), where she helped construct a mobile accessory dwelling unit (ADU) for transitional housing in Richmond, California.

People gather around tables with displays outside a historic building under a clear blue sky. Various activities and discussions are happening.

In her Community Design Process class, Angela helped host a community outreach event at Frank Ogawa Plaza, where the team created an interactive model for local residents to explore and engage with.

Reeja

For Reeja, architecture is an act of service. She traces that belief to her childhood in Kathmandu, Nepal, where she witnessed the devastation of the 2015 earthquake and saw how profoundly the built environment shapes daily life, a sense of identity, and a community’s ability to recover. That experience gave new purpose to something she had always loved: art, creativity, and design. From then on, architecture became the way she could turn creativity into something that improves people’s lives.

After earning her Bachelor of Science in Architecture from Howard University, Reeja is preparing to begin her Master of Architecture at the University of Washington. Along the way, projects like helping revitalize an abandoned print shop alongside local residents in San Juan, Puerto Rico, reinforced her belief that the best design begins by understanding the people it’s meant to serve. That’s what continues to draw her to housing, healthcare, adaptive reuse, and public spaces that create a positive impact beyond the building itself.

This summer, Reeja joins our Seattle studio. As someone who rarely saw people with backgrounds similar to hers represented in architecture, she says NOMA gave her more than mentorship. It gave her a place where she felt she belonged. She hopes to carry that same spirit forward, using design to strengthen communities while helping create opportunities for the next generation of designers.

Person presenting an architectural project board titled The Central, showcasing design layouts and visual plans in an indoor setting.

Reeja's final presentation at Howard University, featuring a mixed-use building project titled The Central.

I believe architecture is most successful when it responds to real human needs and fosters connection.

Group of diverse individuals posing in front of a white building with handprint art and the words Estás en Victoria.

During her junior year, Reeja and her classmates traveled to San Juan, Puerto Rico, for a class project. Together, they reimagined an abandoned building to help create a more welcoming space for the surrounding community.

Group of people wearing red shirts standing in front of an MG2 sign at an outdoor event. Trees and buildings visible in the background.

During her internship at MG2, Reeja and the intern cohort designed a pop-up installation centered on the theme of "feedback" for the Seattle Design Festival.

Person standing in snow-covered landscape, with a coastal village and cliffs in the background during sunset. Clear blue sky overhead.

In 2024, Reeja traveled to Iceland, where she experienced the unforgettable Northern Lights

A woman in a black shirt looks at an artwork depicting a baby surrounded by cosmic elements on a light wall.

Reeja enjoys painting, primarily with acrylics on canvas. This piece, titled "Rebirth," is one of the works she is most proud of.

Meet Our 2026 NOMA Future Faces Fellows

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