PAYETTE is pleased to announce the 2020-2021 recipient of the PAYETTE Sho-Ping Chin Memorial Academic Scholarship, Cornell University student Allexxus Farley-Thomas. She is the fifth recipient of this scholarship.
Allexxus Farley-Thomas
Allexxus is a third-year student pursuing a Master of Architecture at Cornell and is from Baltimore, Maryland. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Architecture at the University of Maryland. Allexxus believes in architecture as a means to improve our society through addressing the need for quality spaces and places for all, particularly in our daily lives – where we live and where we learn. She is drawn to issues that solve challenges in the realm of everyday life. She also is compelled by architecture as a means of “giving back”.
As a young designer who considers the balance of both the ideal and the practical, studying and testing design through fabrication has also been a focus of her graduate studies. She has particular interest in exploring the applications and limits of natural materials and environmental responsibility in construction.
I feel the responsibility to become a designer that engages and tackles issues larger than architecture, with architecture
Examples from Allexxus’s Portfolio:
The yearly process of giving in Sho-Ping’s name offers us time to reflect on the professional and personal values she brought to our practice, and it is an honor to select a recipient who exemplifies these qualities. As a firm, we are excited to support Allexxus and see her advance throughout her career.
The 2025 OpenLAB Boston studio work will be exhibited at Virginia Tech Monday, March 2nd through Wednesday, March 4th.
Please join us for the following events on Monday, March 2nd:
11:00am - Lecture with Parke MacDowell
1:00pm Lobby talk with Kevin Sullivan
This year’s studio identifies seven sites along the frayed edges of Boston’s Greenway. The Greenway is a one-mile-long linear park running through the heart of the city, reconnecting downtown Boston with its waterfront. Many of the parcels along its edges remain undeveloped and present mute, blank facades to the public realm. Addressing and repairing these edges through acts of infilling, layering, grafting, framing, and placemaking is the core focus of the studio—SUTURE.