SOM Foundation was established in 1979 by the Partners of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM). An early goal of the Foundation was to influence the architecture and engineering professions by enriching the education of the nation’s most promising young architecture and engineering students through the opportunity for travel and discovery of the world beyond their current horizons. This goal was realized when the SOM Foundation launched its Traveling Fellowship Program in 1981. The Fellowships continue to offer recent graduates the rare opportunity for travel in connection with carrying out in-depth research, to collaborate with other professionals, and to pursue independent study outside the established patterns of formal education.

As of August 2011, the Foundation has awarded more than $1.7 million to over 200 architecture, design and engineering students who have gone on to distinguish themselves in professional and academic careers.

Some notable SOM Foundation Award recipients include Marion Weiss (co-founder of
Weiss/Manfredi

Weiss/Manfredi

Weiss/Manfredi is an architectural firm headquartered in New York City, founded by Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi. Weiss currently teaches at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design...

) (1982), Werner Sobek

Werner Sobek

Werner Sobek is a German architect and structural engineer.- Life :Werner Sobek was born 1953 in Aalen, Germany. From 1974 to 1980, he studied structural engineering and architecture at the University of Stuttgart...

 (1983), Himanshu Parikh

Himanshu Parikh

-Early life:Himanshu Parikh was born in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. He graduated from Cambridge University, where he obtained both his bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering sciences with honours.-Career:...

 (1985), Santiago Calatrava

Santiago Calatrava

Santiago Calatrava Valls is a Spanish architect, sculptor and structural engineer whose principal office is in Zürich, Switzerland. Classed now among the elite designers of the world, he has offices in Zürich, Paris, Valencia, and New York City....

 (1988), and Joshua Ramus

Joshua Prince-Ramus

Joshua Prince-Ramus is an American architect. Prince-Ramus is Principal of REX, an internationally acclaimed architecture and design firm based in New York City. REX recently completed the AT&T Performing Arts Center Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre in Dallas, Texas and the Vakko Fashion Center and...

 (1995).

Awards

Currently, the Foundation awards the following prizes and fellowships:

• SOM Prize for Architecture, Design and Urban Design
• Travel Fellowship for Architecture, Design and Urban Design
• Structural Engineering Travel Fellowship
• UK Award
• China Prize

SOM Prize for Architecture, Design and Urban Design

In 2006, to recognize the 25th year of the SOM Foundation's Traveling Fellowship Program, the $50,000 SOM Prize was established as the single-most generous travel and research award available to students graduating in the design disciplines. This research and travel fellowship enables one outstanding student to do in-depth research, collaborate with other designers, and pursue independent study outside the realm of established patterns.

Travel Fellowship for Architecture, Design and Urban Design

The SOM Travel Fellowship for Architecture, Design and Urban Design is a $20,000 award that enables one student to do in-depth research, collaborate with other designers, and pursue independent study outside the realm of established patterns.

Structural Engineering Travel Fellowship

The independent travel fellowship aims to foster an appreciation of the aesthetic potential in the structural design of buildings and bridges by enabling a gifted graduate to experience works of architecture and engineering first-hand.

UK Award

Established in 1996, the UK Award is to be awarded to students of architecture in the United Kingdom. The goal of this award, conducted in association with and administered by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), is to invest in the British educational community. SOM

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP is an American architectural and engineering firm that was formed in Chicago in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings; in 1939 they were joined by John O. Merrill. They opened their first branch in New York City, New York in 1937. SOM is one of the largest...

 has had an office in London since 1986.

China Prize

The China Prize is a traveling fellowship whose goal is to help young Chinese architects broaden their education and gain an understanding of society’s need for improved built and natural environments.

Officers

• Mustafa K. Abadan - Chairman
• Anthony Vacchione - Vice Chairman
• William F. Baker
  William F. Baker (engineer)
  William Frazier Baker, also known as Bill Baker, is an American structural engineer known for engineering the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building/manmade structure....
  
   - Secretary/Treasurer

Jurors

Juries are composed of industry professionals as well as SOM partners and directors. Some of the past industry professionals who participated in juries for the SOM Foundation awards include: Henry N. Cobb

Henry N. Cobb

Henry N. Cobb is an American architect and founding partner with I.M. Pei of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, an international architectural firm based in New York City....

, Jeanne Gang

Jeanne Gang

-External links:* official website* "Jeanne Gang: The Art of Nesting"...

, Frank Gehry

Frank Gehry

Frank Owen Gehry, is a Canadian American Pritzker Prize-winning architect based in Los Angeles, California.His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions...

, Charles Gwathmey

Charles Gwathmey

Charles Gwathmey was an American architect. He was a principal at Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects, as well as one of the five architects identified as The New York Five in 1969...

, Hugh Hardy

Hugh Hardy

Hugh Hardy is a leading American architect born in Majorca, Spain in 1932. He is best known for his work designing theaters, performing arts venues, public spaces, and cultural facilities across the United States....

, Thom Mayne

Thom Mayne

Thom Mayne is a Los Angeles-based architect. Educated at University of Southern California and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 1978, Mayne helped found the Southern California Institute of Architecture in 1972, where he is a trustee...

, Charles Willard Moore

Charles Willard Moore

Charles Willard Moore was an American architect, educator, writer, Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and winner of the AIA Gold Medal in 1991.-Life and career:...

, Cesar Pelli

César Pelli

César Pelli is an Argentine architect known for designing some of the world's tallest buildings and other major urban landmarks. In 1991, the American Institute of Architects listed Pelli among the ten most influential living American architects...

, Monica Ponce de Leon

Monica Ponce de Leon

Monica Ponce de Leon is a Venezuelan-born architect and educator based in Ann Arbor, MI and Boston, MA. She is founding partner with Nader Tehrani in the award-winning firm Office dA, and Dean and Eliel Saarinen Collegiate Professor at the A...

, Charles Renfro, Leslie Robertson, Martha Schwartz

Martha Schwartz

Martha Schwartz, born 1950, is an American landscape architect. Her background is in the fine arts as well as landscape architecture, and her projects range from private to urban scale. She studied at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and graduated from the University of Michigan...

, Allan Temko

Allan Temko

Allan Bernard Temko was a Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic and writer based in San Francisco.Born in New York City and raised in Weehawken, New Jersey, Temko served as a U.S...

, Stanley Tigerman

Stanley Tigerman

Stanley Tigerman is an American architect, theorist and designer. He studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Chicago Institute of Design, and Yale University. After serving several years in the United States Navy, he assumed the role of draftsman and designer in a series of offices...

, Billie Tsien

Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects

Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects are a husband-and-wife architectural firm founded in 1974, based in New York....

, Massimo Vignelli

Massimo Vignelli

Massimo Vignelli is a designer who has done work in a number of areas ranging from package design to furniture design to public signage to showroom design through Vignelli Associates, which he co-founded with his wife, Lella...

, and Tod Williams

Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects

Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects are a husband-and-wife architectural firm founded in 1974, based in New York....