Architect Wes Hiatt has joined a select group of faculty with his selection for the 2025 Cohort of the Academy for Public Scholarship on the Built Environment: HOUSING EQUITY. The program is supported by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and the ACSA Research + Scholarship Committee, in partnership with The OpEd Project.

Hiatt, assistant professor of architecture in the Department of Art, Architecture and Design, is part of a cohort of 12 architecture faculty whose scholarship addresses housing equity and aims to influence the policies and narratives that shape the built environment. The cohort will participate in The OpEd Project’s virtual “Write to Change the World” workshops, which connect participants with diverse identities, voices and ideas. Members will also engage in a series of training modules led by experts on housing equity and public scholarship, including representatives from the AIA Housing and Community Development Knowledge Community and other allied organizations working toward housing equity.

“I know I speak for everyone in the college when I say we are incredibly proud of Wes for being selected to join the 2025 Cohort,” said Robert Flowers, Herbert and Ann Siegel Dean of the college. “His dedication to advancing housing equity—through both rigorous scholarship and transformative design—embodies a model of collaborative leadership that bridges university and community, working together to create lasting, positive change.”

Hiatt is a designer and educator whose studio and design courses reflect his pedagogical interest in early-career learning and the foundational principles of design. His research focuses on coalition building, urban change, and community-led design visioning projects. He is deeply committed to reorienting architects away from traditional technocratic thought and market-based services, working instead through partnership coordination and place-based design proposals to imagine necessary change alongside communities. His work focuses on smaller cities and towns across the United States, which have historically been understudied and underserved relative to larger metros. Prior to joining Lehigh, he taught design studios at The Cooper Union, Yale University, the University of Cincinnati and the University of Southern California. 

Hiatt serves as co-director of the College of Arts and Sciences’ Small Cities Lab, an interdisciplinary research center focused on projects that reflect the interconnected nature of urban spaces. The lab supports research that bridges theory and practice across disciplines including architecture and urban design, urban planning and policy, the public humanities and social sciences, community and economic development, urban and environmental health, and climate change. Through place-based solutions that are locally relevant and nationally scalable, the lab helps close critical research gaps and strengthens the capacity of U.S. municipalities to address and proactively manage urban challenges. His work has received over $1.6 million in funding from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the New York State Council for the Arts, the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, and grants from United States Senator Bob Casey and Representative Susan Wild. 

As an architect, Hiatt is Managing Principal of Jaff Hiatt Architecture, D.P.C., an architecture practice based in Brooklyn, New York. The firm works on a range of project types at various scales and locations—from an Airstream trailer conversion in California to a back-to-work space plan for the City Parks Foundation, developed in collaboration with the nonprofit Design Advocates. Hiatt has also worked with several prominent architecture firms, including NADAAA, Eisenman Architects, Gensler and Matthew Baird Architects.