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Current Initiative

GSD Racial Equity and Anti-Racism Fund

Your gift to the Racial Equity and Anti-Racism Fund will help to raise awareness of how race, racism, and racial injustice affect society (with a focus on the design fields) and promote a culture of anti-racism at the GSD.

Upcoming Events

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28 Oct 2021

GSD Public Program: Harvard Design Magazine #49: “Publics” Issue Launch and Conversation

12 Nov 2021

GSD Public Program: “Interrogative Designs: Conversations with Krzysztof Wodiczko”

Alumni Updates

Photo of Cornelia Hahn Oberlander BLA ’47 in a small group

Alumni Spotlight

In Memoriam: Cornelia Hahn Oberlander BLA ’47

IN CHONGQING, CHINA, THE 2019 HOT POT MASTER GARDEN AT THE UPPER YANGTZE RIVER CITY FLOWER ART EXPO WAS DESIGNED BY MARTHA SCHWARTZ PARTNERS.

Kate Orff MLA ’97 and Martha Schwartz GSD ’77 Named Landscape Living Legends By Cultured Magazine

Image of house with Housing Innovation Award graphic

David De Celis MArch ’98 Receives 2021 Housing Innovation Award

Architect Wendy W Fok DDes ’17 Recognized With City Artists Corps Grant From New York Foundation for The Arts and The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs

The Climate Boot Camp for Harvard Alumni

Vardhan Mehta’s MAUD ’21 Start-up Acelab Raises $3.5M in Seed Funding

Photo of his new publication Sunlight Entered His Hands p

Yoni Angelo Carnice MLA ’20 Researches the Work and Legacy of Demetrio Braceros at San Francisco’s Cayuga Playground

News

14 October 2021

Julie Bargmann MLA’ 87 Wins Inaugural Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize

23 September 2021

Opening of the 2021-2022 Academic Year

31 August 2021

Honoring the GSD’s 2021 Unsung Heroes

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Oct 20

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A look at the desks of Emilie Dunnenberger @edunnenberger and Isabel Lewis @iz.pdf (both MLA I '24) as they work through the first #LandscapeArchitecture Core I exercise of the semester, the Courtyard. The central topic for the studio this semester is landscapes in the public realm: how is the public defined? Who defines it? What is a public landscape? How do we recognize it? How is it different from private ones? What and who do they represent, and how are they funded?⁣
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Visit @gsd_mla's post for a closer look at these desks!⁣
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#HarvardGSD #LandscapeArchitectureStudent #GundHall #Repost

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Oct 19

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"Aggregate, Aggregation + Geotechnical Urbanism" by Adam Mekies @adam.mekies (MLAUD '21) — Recipient of the 2021 Urban Design Thesis Prize. Faculty Advisor: Stephen Ervin.⁣ #GSDStudentWork #HarvardGSD21⁣⁣⁣
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"Within the architectural engineering and construction industry, we have developed diagrammatic representations and software translations of cultural patterns, extruded 2D cities, and built architecture of processed materials palettes. We are not yet able to diagrammatically compute the translation (intent to manifestation) of wild contexts and materials systems. This thesis seeks a hybrid software approach to the bulk manipulations of aggregate, somewhere between that of a wild randomization and a highly refined aesthetic.⁣⁣⁣
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By developing new software tools toward the aggregation of 'wild' (e.g., rock, soils, and organic matter) rather than 'cultured' (cast-in-place concrete, steel beams, and prefabricated urbanism), we may not only achieve new opportunities in the ecological landscape definition of the terms, but also provide tooling for new forms of urban aggregate across more dynamic and less predictable cultural conditions, so called geotechnical urbanism(s). This experimentation is applied conceptually to sea level rise and coastal urbanism surrounding the Boston Harbor." Learn more about this and other prize-winning theses by visiting our 2021 Virtual Commencement Exhibition #LinkInBio⁣⁣⁣
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[Image 3 Video Description: Animated gif shows drawings of piles, merged piles, stacks, and drifts fluctuating in size.]⁣⁣⁣
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#HarvardGSD #UrbanDesign #BostonHarbor @harvardurbandesign

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Oct 18

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The course "Interpreting an Archive" recently visited @HarvardPreservation's Weissman Preservation Center as their first in-person guests since March 2020! Co-taught by Mark Lee @johnstonmarklee, Jorge Silvetti @machadosilvetti, and Inés Zalduendo #GSDSpecialCollections, the discussion-based seminar is looking at current issues on the practices of archiving architectural collections and the curation of architectural exhibitions. Book, paper, and photograph conservators and conservation interns shared a wide range of projects and hands-on exercises!⁣⁣
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Photos thanks to @harvardpreservation and @dhruv.mht. Visit their posts for more details on the materials shown here.⁣
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#HarvardGSD #Architecture #ArchitectureStudent

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Oct 15

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Oct 14

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Enjoying the beautiful weather in Cambridge this week 🍁 #HarvardInAutumn
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#HarvardGSD #GundHall

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Oct 14

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The Cultural Landscape Foundation @tclfdotorg has named Julie Bargmann @bargmannj (MLA '87) the winner of the inaugural Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize, a biennial honor that includes a $100,000 award and two years of public engagement activities focused on the laureate's work and #LandscapeArchitecture more broadly. The Prize is named for the late landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander (BLA '47) and, according to TCLF, is bestowed on a recipient who is "exceptionally talented, creative, courageous, and visionary" and has "a significant body of built work that exemplifies the art of landscape architecture."⁣
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Learn more about Bargmann, her practice D.I.R.T. studio (Dump It Right There), and the #OberlanderPrize on our website hgsd.us/bargmann21 #LinkInBio⁣
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#HarvardGSD #CorneliaHahnOberlander #LandscapeArchitect #GSDDesignNews Photo ©Barrett Doherty @barrettdoherty courtesy The Cultural Landscape Foundation

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Oct 12

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Did you know that #GSDSpecialCollections is home to The Alison and Peter Smithson Archive? The collection includes project files, architectural drawings, sketches, photographs aperture cards, clippings, correspondence, and published and unpublished texts drawn from the professional files of architects Alison and Peter Smithson. Learn more and explore digital material at hgsd.us/smithsonarchive⁣⁣
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📸: @s.rae.lloyd⁣⁣
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#HarvardGSD #AlisonAndPeterSmithson #FrancesLoebLibrary

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Oct 11

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Until the last decade, Native American, First Nations, and other Indigenous architecture has been a glaring gap in North American architectural discourse. The increased recognition of Indigenous peoples and their continued push for self-determination, however, puts a spotlight on land use on Indian reservations and in other areas with large Indigenous populations.⁣
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Prof. Daniel D'Oca @dand_oca asked students to engage with Indigenous architectural issues in two sequential studio modules last fall. The first—"This Land Is Your Land"—focused on Minneapolis, which was built on land stolen from the Dakota tribe. Minneapolis's Native American Community Development Institute (NACDI) hopes to bolster the growth of the country's only America Indian Cultural Corridor in a city home to one of America's largest urban Native American populations. The second studio—"As of Right: First Nations Reclaim the City"—looked at British Columbia, where the Squamish Nation seeks to build diverse new projects on its undeveloped reserve land, including 11 acres of the former fishing village Senakw, which lies within Vancouver.⁣
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In terms of cooperation and collaboration, the most productive genesis of a project is an invitation from a community. "I believe strongly in the philosophy 'nothing about us without us,'" D'Oca says. "For both studios, we set up a series of discussions with people who work in the neighborhood, leaders who are in touch with the desires and needs of the people in the community, and our client....I don't let students pick a project until we’ve heard a lot of different voices. The idea is for students to listen, hear what the problems are and what people are working towards, and figure out what they can do to help."⁣
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Keep reading the article "This Land Is Your Land: Students interrogate why 'urban' and 'Indigenous' are cast as opposing identities" on our website #LinkInBio. Text by Charles Shafaieh @charlesshafaieh.⁣
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Image: Elevation and section by Kyle Winston (MArch I '22). Winston's project addresses the separation of urban life and ceremony. Learn more at the #LinkInBio.⁣
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#HarvardGSD #GSDDesignNews #ArchitectureStudent #IndigenousPeoplesDay

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Oct 8

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Sculptor Jordan Weber @jordan_j_weber (2022 @LoebFellows/ @HarvardArtLab Fellow) has designed "Perennial Philosophies," a new communal meditation space for ArtLab's Yard in Allston. Weber collaborated with Amanda Gorman @amandascgorman (@Harvard '20), weaving an excerpt from Gorman's 2021 Inauguration poem "The Hill We Climb" into the sculpture: "The Loss We Carry A Sea We Must Wade."⁣
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The outdoor installation is comprised of five black obsidian boulders sourced from Minneapolis in solidarity with Weber's activism in the city during the George Floyd protests. "I use black obsidian because of its pre-colonial uses for communal self-defense as well as a tool for self-resilience in food security. Black obsidian is used in ancient rituals all over the world to block negative energy while healing the spirit."⁣
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The public artwork was commissioned with support from Harvard University Committee on the Arts (HUCA), which has initiated a series of contemporary art commissions across various disciplines, including dance, visual art, and music, in locations ranging from Harvard Yard to the Arboretum to the ArtLab. Inspired by Weber's artwork, Harvard students will be creating programming for this site throughout the year.⁣
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"Perennial Philosophies," 2021⁣
Public artwork commissioned with support from Harvard University Committee on the Arts⁣
Location: ArtLab, Harvard University⁣
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#HarvardGSD #LoebFellowship #LoebFellows #PerennialPhilosophies

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Oct 7

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#GSDInstagramTakeover This Friday–Sunday (Oct 8, 9, 10) Black In Design @gsd.bid will be hosting a takeover of the @gsdadmissions stories to share an inside look at the virtual 2021 conference, Black Matter! Organized by the GSD's African American Student Union @gsdaasu, the Black In Design conference recognizes the contributions of the African diaspora to the design fields, and promotes discourse around the agency of the design professions to address and dismantle the institutional barriers faced by Black communities. Tune in this weekend and join the conversation with #BlackMatter2021 and #BiDConference2021.⁣⁣
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🎟 If you have not bought tickets for the conference yet, it is not too late! Visit the link in @gsd.bid's bio now! Special student rates available: 🔗blackmatter.tv⁣⁣
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[Image 1 Video Description: Boomerang looking up at masked students from the Black In Design conference committee holding event posters over a balcony in the Gund Hall trays and waving to the camera.]⁣⁣
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#HarvardGSD #BlackInDesign2021 #BlackCreatives

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Oct 6

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How well do you know Gund Hall? Take our Instagram story quiz today, which features facts shared by Irving Instructional Technology Fellow Kevin Liu @kev_kev_kevvv on a recent @gsdstudentforum tour of the building. Last spring, Liu completed an MDes thesis on the history of Gund Hall.⁣⁣
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📸: @joseph_wuu⁣⁣
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#HarvardGSD #Architecture #DesignSchool #Brutalism #GundHall

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Oct 5

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"Dolvi Township Project" by Andriani Wira Atmadja @andrianiatmadja (MUP '21) and Nadege Giraudet @notnadege (MArch I '21) — Recipient of the 2021 #PlimptonPoorvuDesignPrize, Honorable Mention. Faculty Advisor: Richard Peiser #GSDStudentWork⁣⁣ #HarvardGSD21⁣⁣
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🚨 GSD Students: The 2021-2022 Plimpton-Poorvu Design Prize application cycle is now open! Course work completed during the Spring 2021 and Fall 2021 semesters is eligible. Deadline: January 14, 2022. Learn more and apply on our website at hgsd.us/ppdp⁣⁣
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"'Dolvi Township Project' aims to develop a sustainable residential prototype on a steep terrain next to the JSW Steel Plant in Mumbai Metropolitan Region of India. Initially prompted by JSW Realty to construct 800 rental apartment units exclusively for their steel plant's employees, the project was expanded by the design team to offer an additional 800 for-sale residential units, retail, public amenities, and green infrastructure that benefit the local community and the region. The proposal offers a vision for development that focuses on integrating challenging programs in an existing topography. By tailoring the township's footprint to the site's contours, and using construction materials that are produced from recycling the JSW Steel Plant’s waste, the project seeks to minimize its carbon footprint and build a sustainable living model for the community." Learn more at hgsd.us/projects⁣⁣⁣ #LinkInBio⁣⁣⁣⁣
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#HarvardGSD #Architecture #UrbanPlanning @harvardurbanplanning

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Oct 5

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Oct 3

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Oct 1

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Catnaps and curiosity from @remy.the.harvard.cat on recent visits to Gund Hall. Photos thanks to @movo28 (1), @irinagorstein (2-4), and @elliottfriedman (5).
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#HarvardGSD #RemyTheHarvardCat #GundHall

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GSD Racial Equity and Anti-Racism Fund

Upcoming Events

GSD Public Program: Harvard Design Magazine #49: “Publics” Issue Launch and Conversation

GSD Public Program: “Interrogative Designs: Conversations with Krzysztof Wodiczko”

Alumni Updates

In Memoriam: Cornelia Hahn Oberlander BLA ’47

Kate Orff MLA ’97 and Martha Schwartz GSD ’77 Named Landscape Living Legends By Cultured Magazine

David De Celis MArch ’98 Receives 2021 Housing Innovation Award

Architect Wendy W Fok DDes ’17 Recognized With City Artists Corps Grant From New York Foundation for The Arts and The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs

The Climate Boot Camp for Harvard Alumni

Vardhan Mehta’s MAUD ’21 Start-up Acelab Raises $3.5M in Seed Funding

Yoni Angelo Carnice MLA ’20 Researches the Work and Legacy of Demetrio Braceros at San Francisco’s Cayuga Playground

News

Julie Bargmann MLA’ 87 Wins Inaugural Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize

Opening of the 2021-2022 Academic Year

Honoring the GSD’s 2021 Unsung Heroes

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