Recent Architecture Graduate Receives 2018 Emerging City Champions Fellowship

Amir Naeem, a recent graduate from the School of Architecture, has received a 2018 Emerging City Champions Fellowship from the John S. and James. L. Knight Foundation. The Emerging City Champions program is open to people between the ages of 19-35 in the 26 communities where Knight invests. The Knight Foundation awarded fellowships to 20 young community leaders from cities across the United States this year. Naeem is one of two Charlotte 2018 Emerging City Champions.

Naeem will receive $5000 for his project to bring jukeboxes to public spaces along the Lynx Blue Line light rail, which will play music after users provide an idea or thought about the community. He developed his project concept while a student in Associate Professor Deb Ryan’s fifth-year architecture studio.

Naeem was also part of that studio’s #ShapeCLT project, which has conducted research and gathered input from Charlotte Millennials to develop a vision for Charlotte’s future growth. Learn more about that project at https://www.shapeclt.org/.