Taubman College Announces Winners of 2026 Willeke Portfolio Competition

Taubman College awarded prizes to six graduate and undergraduate architecture students as part of the 2026 Leonard B. Willeke Portfolio Competition, the oldest and most prestigious award recognizing student architectural work at the college.

Named after the late Detroit architect Leonard B. Willeke and funded by the Willeke endowment fund, the competition recognizes students’ design excellence and innovation through their portfolio work. Winning portfolios were carefully curated and demonstrated a clear design intent.

All undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in the B.S. Arch, M. Arch, M.S.D.M.T., and M.U.D. programs were eligible to receive the award. An invited alumni jury reviewed all submissions separately and selected winners from each group.

Here are the winners and their monetary awards:

Graduate Winners

• 1st Place – Sayyoung Chang, M.Arch ’26 , ($10,000)
• 2nd Place – Katherine White, M.Arch ’27 , ($5,000)
• 3rd Place – Riley Montgomery, M.Arch ’26, ($3,000) 

Undergraduate Winners

• 1st Place – Anna DeYoung, B.S. Arch ’26, ($10,000)
• 2nd Place – Xiaoyu Xu, B.S. Arch ’26, ($5,000)
• 3rd Place – Elliot Lavigne, B.S. Arch ’26 , ($3,000)