There were 990 applicants, but only 35 came out on top. The American Academy in Rome (AAR) has announced the 2025–26 Rome Prize winners. Starting in September, these architects, designers, preservationists, artists, and scholars will reside at AAR’s historic Roman compound designed by McKim, Meade, and White for several months. Rome Prize architecture winners are: Akima Brackeen of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; and Cory Henry, founder of Los Angeles–based Atelier Cory Henry. Separate but related, Brackeen is also a research fellow in the 2024–25 Exhibit Columbus. Her project, Pool/Side, will take place outside I. M. Pei’s Bartholomew County Public Library. Brackeen also contributed to the second annual Chicago Sukkah Design Festival, curated by Could Be Design’s Joseph Altshuler. Tameka Baba, Sean Burkholder, and Karen Lutsky are winners in the landscape architecture category. In the design category, Heather Scott Peterson, an architecture professor at Woodbury University; and Minnesota-based ceramicist Ginny Sims-Burchard also took home Rome Prizes. Claudia Chemello and Paul Mardikian are winners in the historic preservation category. (Claudia Gori) American Academy in Rome also awarded residencies. Susan Chin, 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale U.S. Pavilion co-commissioner; and Lesley Lokko are architecture residents AAR listed. The jury included several architects, designers, preservationists, and landscape architects: Deborah Berke, Dorothée Imbert, Carlos Jiménez, Beka Sturges, Gregory Wessner, Nicholas de Monchaux, Francesca Casadio, among them. In a statement, Peter N. Miller, American Academy in Rome president, said the Rome Prize winners will have an opportunity to “return home with perspectives profoundly enriched by their immersion in an interdisciplinary community set in Rome.” “Fellows credit their time at the Academy with reshaping their understanding of their disciplines, inspiring them to think more broadly and act more boldly in their creative and scholarly endeavors,” added Calvin Tsao, chair of AAR’s board of trustees. “For decades,” he continued, “the most promising American scholars and artists have honed their craft at the Academy and have been transformed into luminaries for their disciplines. We are committed to supporting this evolution for years to come.” On April 24, an exhibition at New York’s a83 gallery, Roman Thresholds, will tell the AAR’s multifaceted history, dating back to its creation in 1894. That show will stay open through May 24.