Students in Adjunct Professor Vincent Marchetto’s architecture studio are redesigning an abandoned railroad right-of-way in Jersey City as a 21st century urban greenway. Reconnection: The Bergen Arches studio focuses on the mile-long Erie Cut, a 60-foot-wide channel blasted from the live rock of the Palisades to a depth of 40–75 feet and crossed by four monumental arches.
Jessica Dineen did not arrive at NJIT expecting to become an interior designer. But over time, she found a field that matched the way she wanted to think, create and solve problems.
Now, as the Bronx native and first-generation college graduate prepares to begin her next chapter as a junior designer at Fogarty Finger in Tribeca, Dineen is leaving NJIT with more than a degree. She is leaving with a stronger sense of purpose, a sharper professional vision and the confidence to trust herself when the path ahead calls for both ambition and risk.
Carolyn Toledo did not come to NJIT with years of digital design experience already behind her. What she did bring was a lifelong love of art, a curiosity about technology and a growing sense that the future of creativity would demand both.
Two teams from NJIT's New Jersey School of Architecture won top awards in the Princeton Kiosk Design Competition. The design competition is one of several of American Institute of Architects (AIA) New Jersey 125th anniversary events. Launched in May of 2025 in collaboration with the municipality of Princeton, submissions were juried in March of 2026.
Giovanni Crocco is a third-year digital design student, the Autodesk ambassador, 2026 design showcase honoree, and has earned top recognitions for his work at animation festivals in the tristate area. Like so many other creatively inclined individuals who have come up through the digital design program at the Hillier College School of Art + Design, he is an artist, a storyteller and very technically proficient.
What kinds of skills and personality does it take to be an animator?
Nicholas J. “Nick” Netta ‘88 has spent decades shaping the built environment across New Jersey and beyond, but just as importantly, he has helped shape the people who will carry the profession forward.
This year, the Hillier College of Architecture and Design (HCAD) will honor Netta with the Distinguished Alumni in Leadership Award at the Design Showcase 2026, recognizing a career defined not only by design excellence, but by mentorship, service and a sustained commitment to the next generation of architects.
NJIT’s Hillier College of Architecture and Design (HCAD) marked a major milestone, celebrating the 20th anniversary of its Design Showcase — the college’s signature annual event that brings together students, alumni, faculty, benefactors and friends of Hillier College for an evening centered on design excellence, community and support for future generations of architects and designers.
At NJIT’s inaugural Artificial Intelligence Exploration Day, the Hillier College of Architecture and Design (HCAD) helped show just how far artificial intelligence is reaching across the university. Through faculty presentations and student-led demonstrations, HCAD’s contributions examined AI from multiple vantage points — as physical infrastructure, as a design tool and as a creative medium.
Jeanne Perantoni has spent a lifetime thinking about how buildings shape people long before they ever open their doors.
As the daughter of an architect, she grew up on construction sites, learning early to see the built environment not just as a structure, but as a story. More than four decades into her career, that instinct still guides her work — and it also helps explain why her relationship with NJIT’s Hillier College of Architecture and Design (HCAD) has meant so much over the years.
Michael Higgins ‘90 believes the true measure of architecture is not the building itself, but what happens around it over time. The families who move in. The storefronts that open. The sidewalks that fill. The community that grows.
As managing principal and CEO of MHS Architecture, he oversees large-scale mixed-use and transit-oriented developments that are reshaping communities across New Jersey and beyond. His work spans entire blocks, neighborhoods and public spaces. Yet the philosophy guiding that work began years ago in the studios of NJIT.
