Meet the Jurors for RECORD’s 2026 Products of the Year Competition

Architectural Record’s annual Products of the Year competition recognizes the best new building products and furnishings introduced to the North American market over the past year. The awards honor innovation across categories ranging from high-performance enclosure systems to the latest kitchen and bath offerings, and much more.

An independent jury of five architects and design professionals, together with a RECORD editor, selects the winning products based on innovation, usefulness, sustainability, and aesthetics. Entries for the 2026 Products of the Year competition are open through Monday, August 3, 2026. Applications can be submitted here.

Below are this year’s jurors, whose expertise spans residential and commercial architecture, adaptive reuse, building-envelope design, and technical detailing. The winning products will be published in the November 2026 issue of the magazine. You can also explore winners from previous years.

Jamison Guest | Principal, Heintges 

Guest joined building envelope consultants Heintges in 2007, where he leads the technical design and construction administration of complex enclosure projects. In collaboration with architecture firms worldwide, his project portfolio includes a range of building types and deep experience with facade systems for both new construction and re-clad applications. Guest hails from southeast Michigan and is proud to be leading major enclosure consulting projects in the Detroit metropolitan region that include the SHoP Architects–designed Hudon’s Detroit development and Ford Motor Company’s 2-million-square-foot campus headquarters designed by Snøhetta. He is also principal-in-charge of multiple large-scale academic building enclosure projects nationwide.

Sara Lopergolo | Co-founder & Partner, Lopergolo+ Bartling Architects 

A licensed architect with three decades of experience, Lopergolo is cofounder and partner at New York–based Lopergolo + Bartling Architects. The firm’s current projects include upgrades to the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens and the transformation of a century-old cigar factory in Kingston, New York, into the Center for Photography’s new headquarters. Lopergolo previously completed her 29-year tenure as partner at Selldorf Architects, where she was partner-in-charge for the expansion and enhancement of the Frick Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Luma Arles, Sunset Park Material Recovery Facility, and the Swiss Institute, amongst others. She has completed galleries for David Zwirner, Hauser & Wirth, and Barbara Gladstone, and exhibition designs for the Corning Museum of Glass.

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Rustam Mehta | Founding Partner, GRT Architects 

Mehta is a registered architect and founding partner of GRT Architects in Brooklyn.After studying architectural history at Brown University, Mehta designed exhibitions for the Brooklyn Museum, worked as editorial assistant at Nest magazine, and in the studio of artist Polly Apfelbaum. Mehta’s interests inform his work at GRT. Mehta spent 10 years restoring an Alfa Romeo and, in the same workshop, he prototypes architectural hardware and light fixtures which incorporate experimental finishes. These experiments often find their way into GRT’s residential and hospitality projects.

Aoife O’Leary | Partner, TM

Born in Ireland, O’Leary has been working in New York since 2013 as a lighting designer and architect. Since joining TM Light in 2015, Aoife has worked through all phases of the design process from conceptual design to completion, becoming partner in 2025. For O’Leary, lighting is not a secondary layer of systems that attach to architecture but is intrinsic to the experience of space and material.

Jejon Yeung | Co-founder, Worrell Yeung 

Yeung’s work is driven by purity, materiality, and experiential meaning. Prior to founding Brooklyn-based Worrell Yeung, a 2022 Design Vanguard firm, he was a project director at Architecture Research Office. He is licensed in New York and an accredited LEED professional with USGBC. In 2020, Jejon cofounded Design Advocates, a non-profit consortium that provides pro-bono design services, and has also served on the National Register of Peer Professional for the GSA’s Design Excellence Program.