Skip to main content

2021-2022 | Annual Impact of Giving

go to navigation
  • Studio review photo

    2021-2022 Highlights from the GSD

    The academic year brought a return to campus for students, faculty, and staff to learn and work together once again. What follows are highlights from an unforgettable year.
  • Portrait of Sarah Whiting
    “With the GSD community together on campus again, we return to a world that needs thoughtful, caring designers more than ever,” begins Dean Whiting. She shares the many ways of responding directly to what is going on in the world through the GSD’s robust academic programs, events, and activities.
  • This role was established in 2019 and made possible by a generous gift from Samuel Plimpton MBA 77, MArch 80, and his wife, Wendy Shattuck. 
  • The holiday card was designed by T.K. Justin Ng MArch ’23. The watercolor illustration celebrates the delight of the winter season and the return to Gund Hall after a year of remote learning and teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  
  • Hilderbrand, Peter Louis Hornbeck Professor in Practice, has taught in the Department of Landscape Architecture since 1990, and is Founding Principal and Partner of Reed Hilderbrand. He succeeds Anita Berrizbeitia MLA ’87, Professor of Landscape Architecture. Appointed in 2015, Berrizbeitia was the 14th chair of the oldest landscape architecture department in the world, and only the second woman to hold the position. 
  • Alumni and Friends attended the second annual Town Hall event with Sarah M. Whiting, Dean and Josep Lluís Sert Professor of Architecture. It featured a panel discussion and Q&A with five student leaders, giving guests an opportunity to learn and ask about their experiences at the GSD and thoughts on the future. 
  • The Minmin Zeng Innovative Doctoral Student Research Fund

    Providing meaningful support for doctoral students, the Minmin Zeng Innovative Doctoral Student Research Fund will fund groundbreaking research by PhD and DDes students. The fund was created thanks to the generosity of Minmin Zeng MUP ’04 and will enable the GSD to attract students who will help lead the design and education fields for generations to come. 
  • Last June, Megan Panzano MArch ’10 was named senior director of Early Design Education to lead these programs in refreshed formats into the future. Hear about her plans for the EDE programs that include breaking down access barriers to design education, engaging diverse perspectives on what should drive design, and building a robust support system for students and those new to teaching design. 
  • Read news from the Alumni Council, including student Unsung Hero Award winners, Alumni Council Award winners, and Design Impact events, via the Council's refreshed digital presence.

  • Dean Whiting wrote to the GSD community to urge everyone to read the Report and Recommendations of the Presidential Committee on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery. She wrote: “As designers, planners, historians, theorists, teachers, and citizens, it is critically important to learn about and know this part of our university’s history. 
  • The GSD celebrated the Class of 2022 with Class Day and Commencement. Plus, the school hosted a Special Commencement Ceremony for the Classes of 2020 and 2021, which honored the resilient recent graduates who experienced one-of-a-kind virtual graduation ceremonies but were unable to participate in traditional, on-campus Harvard University Commencement exercises due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • In each episode faculty, researchers, alumni, and students engage in dialogue on a single topic of global significance. Episodes on the climate crisis, social justice, public health, housing, technology, urbanization, and transportation present new research on design thinking and practice, and illuminate the many, sometimes unexpected, ways in which design is engaged in questions of global politics, culture, and society. 
  • Publications released by the GSD in the past year include Harvard Design Magazine, Paris, GSD A-Z, New Geographies, and more.  

Take a quick look at the Graduate School of Design in 2021-2022 from a bird’s eye view.

Infographic of Giving from FY22
Infographics by location
Events infographic