Welcoming Fall 2025 New Faculty
August 22, 2025
We’d like to welcome our new faculty joining us this semester!
Paige Davidson is a designer, educator, and co-founder of the design practice Gluten. She is currently an Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech’s School of Architecture, and has previously taught at the University of Arkansas, SCI-Arc, and UCLA.
Before co-founding her practice, Paige worked as a Senior Designer at Snarkitecture, where her projects received international recognition and became part of Cooper Hewitt’s permanent collection. During this time she led projects all over the world and exhibited at Salone del Mobile, The National Building Museum and the Chicago Navy Pier to name a few.
Her work explores the lens of mediation in architecture, how design mediates between material, digital, and cultural worlds. Her teaching focuses on bridging these analog and digital design workflows with radical experimentation.
Julia McConnell is an architect, educator, and filmmaker whose work operates at the forefront of design, visualization, and emerging technologies. Currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Practice at Virginia Tech, she has taught across undergraduate and graduate programs at SCI-Arc and the University of Arkansas while leading international design projects for global tech headquarters, cultural installations, and award-winning short films. As co-founder of the design studio Gluten, McConnell pushes the boundaries between architecture, media, and cultural production, with research exploring the intersections of AI, storytelling, and the built environment.
Leandro Piazzi is an Argentine architect and educator. He is co-founder and principal of Balsa Crosetto Piazzi, an award-winning architecture office based in Argentina and the United States, and an Assistant Professor of Building Design in the School of Architecture at Virginia Tech’s College of Architecture, Arts, and Design (AAD).
The work of Balsa Crosetto Piazzi is characterized by an interest in local construction techniques, precise geometries, and a sustained exploration of radical typologies. This approach has earned recognition in national and international competitions, including the Architectural League of New York Prize (2025), shortlisting for the Lisbon Triennale Debut Award (2025), and selection as Argentina’s representative at the Latin American Architecture Biennial (BAL, 2025).
Robert Vance is a registered architect, Assistant Professor at the Virginia Tech School of Architecture, and Owner/Principal of Vance Design Company. He serves as Co-Director of the Housing Innovation Challenge, an international collegiate design-build competition advancing off-site construction, housing innovation, and industry-academic collaboration. His expertise centers on prefabrication, modular systems, and integrated design-build delivery, informed by award-winning projects such as FutureHAUS. Vance’s professional background includes leadership roles at CannonDesign, ModularDesign+, and Perkins\&Will, where he applied industrialized construction methodologies to projects across healthcare, housing, and civic architecture. His work bridges entrepreneurial practice, academic research, and public engagement to accelerate innovation in the built environment.