Awards & Honors

We are thrilled to report that Spitzer student Mouhamadou Dieng B Arch  ’25 is included in CCNY’s Great Grads highlight publication this year!

Mouhamadou Dieng’s parents immigrated to New York from Senegal. Born and bred in Harlem, Dieng is thankful to have attended CCNY in his hometown, a place he describes as the backdrop of his conscience.

As a B Arch student, Dieng won the 2024 Recipe for a Room competition, hosted by the AIANY Interiors Committee. The model-making contest—about building spatial, sculptural, miniature rooms—benefits a non-profit organization supporting newly arrived immigrant children and families. Dieng won in the Audience Favorite category for his project “METROSOFT,” which was in collaboration with Nicole Vlado Torres, fellow for Design Trust for Public Space.

Dieng’s favorite memories of CCNY included working on the built project “Generative Histories Harlem” and other Spitzer wall exhibits. Dieng spoke at the ARCH@60 Symposium and completed research under an ORCA grant. In 2023, as part of Assistant Professor of Architecture Jerome Haferd’s Advanced Studio, Dieng presented “Regrounding Harlem” to the Caribbean Cultural Center Africa and Diaspora Institute. The positive response he received was meaningful, and proved pivotal for Dieng, as it was from individuals actively engaged in the contentious Harlem African Burial Ground issue. This experience proved that he wanted to engage the people who live in the actual spaces designed by architects.

Studying at CCNY, Dieng realized that design is a living political agent. He was mentored by Haferd, whom he greatly admires. After graduation, he plans to continue his education and research at the graduate level, and to become a licensed architect who always considers architecture as an agent of change.