Renowned multidisciplinary designer and educator who founded the award-winning cultural practice, Hood Design Studio, Walter J. Hood, has been named the 2025 recipient of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture.
The Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medals – sponsored jointly by the University of Virginia and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, the nonprofit organization that owns and operates Monticello – are awarded each year to recognize the achievements of those who embrace endeavors in which Jefferson – author of the Declaration of Independence, third U.S. president and founder of the University of Virginia – excelled and held in high regard. The architecture medal and its counterparts in law, citizen leadership, and global innovation are UVA’s highest external honors.
Hood joins a distinguished list of past recipients of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture, including Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, I.M. Pei, Frank Gehry, Toyo Ito, Zaha Hadid, Francis Kéré, Andrew Freear, and Kate Orff.
Globally recognized as a pre-eminent multidisciplinary designer, best known for his work in the public realm and urban environments, Walter J. Hood founded the award-winning cultural practice Hood Design Studio in Oakland, California, in 1992. Over three decades later, he now leads the studio as its creative director executing a wide range of projects from large-scale landscapes and urban masterplans to neighborhood-scaled design interventions and site-specific public artworks. For each project, Hood takes an approach that responds to context, using design to uncover the complex layers of ecological, cultural and material meaning within a place. His passion for landscape and urbanism emerges from its broad, democratic scope, allowing experiences beyond architectural constraints.
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