Meet the 2026 MASterworks Design Awards Jury

Isabel Castilla, Associate Partner, Field Operations

Isabel is an associate partner at Field Operations where she specializes in leading the design of large-scale, transformative public realm projects that involve extensive community engagement and complex multi-agency approvals. Her passion for public space design and its impact on communities informs her unique perspective. Isabel has led the design and implementation of notable projects including various phases of New York’s High Line; Dallas’ West End Square; the renovation of the historic Lincoln Road District in Miami Beach; the master plan and implementation of various phases of The Underline in Miami; the renovation of Manhattan’s iconic Fifth Avenue; and Bentway Islands in Toronto. Isabel also serves as a Landscape Architecture Commissioner for New York City’s Public Design Commission.

Phu Duong, AIA, AICP, LEED AP, Founding Principal, Urban X Design

Phu Duong is a Vietnamese-born American architect, urban designer, and educator committed to shaping healthy, inclusive, and resilient communities. As founding principal of Urban by Design, he advances design excellence through a collaborative approach that integrates social equity, climate-conscious planning, and purposeful impact. With nearly three decades of global experience, Phu brings visionary insight to placemaking and master planning. He has taught at City College, Columbia University, Syracuse University, and Parsons School of Design, and serves as Co-chair of the Planning and Design Committee at AIA New York, advocating for more livable neighborhoods.

Everardo Jefferson, Principal and Founder, Caples Jefferson Architects PC

Everardo Jefferson is principal and founder of the award-winning architecture firm Caples Jefferson Architects PC. He has over 40 years of design, management, and construction experience. His work focuses on design issues that engage many levels of culture and has been featured in journals and garnered awards and exhibitions nationally and internationally. His firm focuses on design for the public, with an emphasis on cultural, educational, and diplomatic projects. In 2024, Everardo was inducted as an Academician of the National Academy of Design. His firm was awarded the 2017 AIA NY President’s Award, multiple AIA design awards, a 2006 NYC DDC Design and Construction Excellence Award and a 2006 Art Commission award, and many additional local and national awards. Projects by his firm include the Queens Theater in the Park expansion and reconstruction, the Louis Armstrong House Museum’s new Education Center in Corona, and Brooklyn’s Weeksville Heritage Center in Crown Heights.

Everardo has served multiple times as a visiting professor, most recently as the Davenport Professor at Yale School of Architecture. He has lectured on design at Yale, Harvard, MIT, Oxford Brookes, the Savannah College of Art and Design, the RIBA, Cambridge University, and many additional venues. He currently serves on the board of the Neighborhood Charter Schools and has served on the boards of the Family Justice Center and AIA New York.

Daphne Lundi, Managing Director, Urban Ocean Lab

Daphne Lundi is an urban planner and climate policymaker. She is the Managing Director of Urban Ocean Lab, a national climate policy thinktank focused on the future of coastal cities. She previously served as a Deputy Director at the NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice, where she led initiatives on extreme heat, social infrastructure, and open space access. Her civic commitments include co-founding BlackSpace, and serving on the board of the Center for Zero Waste Design, and the Octavia Project.