November 17, 2025
Third Annual Celebration of Design a Success
Anna Scherling
On Thursday, November 13, 2025, the Hideo Sasaki Foundation hosted our third annual Celebration of Design at 110 Chauncy in Downtown Boston, which also marked our 25th anniversary. The event saw 100+ tickets sold and raised $30,000+ to support our mission of equity in design. We highlighted Hideo’s legacy, our work over the past 25 years, and Boston’s design community, while looking to the future. Thanks to your generosity, we funded one of our 2025 Design Grants, all of our 2025 Design Grants finalist honorariums, and all nine of our 2026 DESI interns.
Thank you to our 2025 Celebration of Design event gold sponsors, BOND Building, BR+A, Consigli, Naveo Credit Union, and Northern Bank, silver sponsor, Someone Else’s Child, and bronze sponsors Callahan Construction Managers, Crowley Cottrell, and Middlesex Federal Savings.
In this milestone anniversary year, we reflected on the past 25 years of advancing equity in design with an eye toward the future.
We are a nonprofit established in 2000 to continue Hideo Sasaki’s legacy of collaborative design. We started small, awarding college scholarships to design students and sponsoring the Landscape Architecture Foundation’s Landscape Futures Initiative symposia series. We began growing our impact, supporting studios and research through the Boston Architectural College, and funding campus planning research through the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP).
In 2018, we launched a new chapter refocused on equity in design, with our own design education internships for youth and design research grants for communities. In 2020, we celebrated our 20th anniversary and not long after moved to Downtown Boston with Sasaki, expanding our programs and partnerships. Over the past five years, we’ve added DESI to our design education lineup, connected our Design Grants teams with our youth interns, and expanded our public program offerings.
Hideo Sasaki Foundation Board of Trustees Chair Mary Anne Ocampo and Executive Director Jennifer Lawrence welcome 2025 Celebration of Design attendees
2025 Celebration of Design attendees enjoying the event
In addition to learning about Hideo and the Hideo Sasaki Foundation, event attendees enjoyed an evening of food, drinks, and fun. Guests had the opportunity to design personalized event collateral with our Design Shop heat press. Individuals selected from an assortment of patches highlighting legacy projects from Hideo’s firm and our work advancing equity in design. A raffle included exciting prizes donated by a long list of Greater Boston small businesses.
Thank you to our in-kind sponsors Sasaki, EventThem, Arielly Photography, Downeast Cider House, and Samuel Adams for supporting our event experience.
During the event, we recognized four significant supporters from the past year who have contributed to our work of building a more equitable design industry.
- Lydia Lowe: Community-led Design Award for a community partner of the Hideo Sasaki Foundation focused on equity in the design process, engaging young people in design, and amplifying community voices.
- Gabriel Colombo: Excellence in Design Education Award for a design education volunteer with the Hideo Sasaki Foundation who demonstrates a passion for building a more equitable industry and a desire to work with youth.
- Ponnapa Prakkamakul: Leadership in Design Equity Award for a volunteer with the Hideo Sasaki Foundation who works across all pillars of programming, truly championing our work in the community, with young people, and within the design industry.
- Richard Galehouse: Hideo Sasaki Leadership Award for a supporter of the Hideo Sasaki Foundation who gives selflessly, truly believes in the power of collaborative design, and has proven to be a champion in our mission to build a more equitable design industry.
Thank you to the Sasaki Fabrication Studio and Hideo Sasaki Foundation design lead Alexis Mazzatta for creating this year’s (pencil) cup trophies!
2025 Celebration of Design award winners Ponnapa Prakkamakul, Lydia Lowe, and Richard Galehouse (not pictured: Gabriel Colombo)
We also celebrated 2018 Design Grants winner the Charles River Floating Wetland from the Charles River Conservancy. In 2025 the project received both a Boston Society of Landscape Architect and an American Society of Landscape Architects award in research.
Thanks to the Hideo Sasaki Foundation trustees and design education alums who volunteered to support our event, with a special thanks to Danyson Tavares, Boston Society for Architecture Executive Director, for hosting our paddle raise. And thank you to all who made this event a success! We look forward to your continued support throughout the year, and hope you’ll join us again for next year’s fourth annual Celebration of Design on November 12, 2026. And if you were unable to attend this year, it is never too late to support equity in design!