Stanislas Chaillou MArch ’19 publishes a new book with Birkhauser: “The Architect’s Sourcebook: Dimensions and Files for Space Design.” The book is the result of 2 years of work done at Rayon, the company he co-founded after graduating from the GSD.
This new publication offers a lighthearted and illustrative space planning manual for architects, while providing readers with the download link of roughly 1000+ CAD items to plan space directly in their software; in clear this book updates the traditional space planning manual typology that we all know, and gives it the digital brush-up it has been waiting for!
The GSD remembers Fumihiko Maki MArch ’54 who passed away on June 6, 2024, at the age of 95. In 1993, he was awarded the prestigious Pritzker Prize, and in 2011, he received the Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects. “Celebrated for his modernist approach, Maki was responsible for significant works, including the 4 World Trade Center, a skyscraper at the site of the former World Trade Center in New York. Maki was recognized in the architecture industry various times, including receiving the Pritzker Prize and becoming the 67th AIA Gold Medalist. His influence in inventing a unique modernist style of Japanese origin cannot be underscored.”
Born in Tokyo in 1928, Maki’s academic journey started at the University of Tokyo, followed by advanced studies at the GSD. He later went on to teach both architecture and urbanism at the GSD and Washington University.
At the GSD in 2014, Maki provided retrospective reflections on his six-decade-long architectural career as part of the Grounded Visionaries campaign launch. He reminisced on his work with many of the school’s earliest leaders in the 1950s.
Read more about Maki’s life and legacy.
Five GSD alumni have been honored with the 2024 Young Architects Award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Each year, the Young Architects Award honors individuals who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and made significant contributions to the architecture profession early in their careers.
The GSD congratulates:
- Bethany Lundell Garver MAUD ’14
- George Gard MAUD ’14
- Matthew Teismann MDes ’15
- Rachelle Hassan Ain MArch ’10
- Sae Kim MAUD ’12
For the full list of 2024 Winners, visit the AIA website.
Jill Neubauer MArch ’88 was featured earlier this month in Boston Magazine in the article “An Architectural Marvel in West Falmouth Raises Eyebrows.” The article explores the home that Jill designed on Chapoquoit Beach in West Falmouth, Massachusetts.
“Jill Neubauer knew that the home she designed on Chapoquoit Beach in West Falmouth would garner controversy. After all, to meet FEMA regulations, the house would be elevated on steel beams. As such, it would be prominent in the landscape. In an area that prizes its classic architecture and natural environment, most people preferred that the home remain a ubiquitous New England beach cottage barely visible in the dunes.”
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Gia Wolff MArch ’08 was featured on the cover of the June 2024 issue of Architectural Digest in the article “Inside Diplo’s Private Jungle Paradise.” The piece reveals the DJ’s tropical compound that celebrates the landscape and culture of Jamaica. “The house design by Freecell architecture and Gia Wolff orchestrates a pas de deux of light and shadow.”
“Architectural designer Gia Wolff, a frequent Freecell collaborator who focuses on the performative aspects of architecture and the reciprocal relationship between the user and the environment, was an integral part of the team.”
@giawolff.com
Four members of the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) community are among the 31 winners of the 2024–25 Rome Prize. Awarded annually by the American Academy in Rome (AAR), this prestigious fellowship includes a stipend, workspace, and room and board for up to ten months at the Academy’s campus, located on the Janiculum Hill in Rome, where recipients undertake advanced independent work and research in the arts and humanities.
Michelle Jaja Chang MArch ’09, current Assistant Professor of Architecture at the GSD, is the winner of the Arnold W. Brunner/Frances Barker Tracey/Katherine Edwards Gordon Rome Prize in Architecture. Chang focuses on the techniques and histories of architectural representation. Her project, to be explored during her time at the Academy, is titled Material Resistance to Symbolic Form.
Anthony Acciavatti MArch ’09, Diana Balmori Assistant Professor at the School of Architecture at Yale University and principal of Somatic Collaborative in New York City, is the recipient of the Gilmore D. Clarke and Michael Rapuano/Kate Lancaster Brewster Rome Prize in Landscape Architecture. Acciavatti works at the intersection of architecture, landscape, and the history of science and technology. His AAR project is titled Groundwater Earth: The World before and after the Tubewell.
Dan Spiegel MArch ’08 and Megumi Aihara MLA ’07 are the joint recipients of the Garden Club Prize of America/Prince Charitable Trusts Rome Prize in Landscape Architecture. The two are principals of the Spiegel Aihara Workshop (SAW), a San Francisco–based a design firm that operates at the intersection of architecture, landscape, and urban design. In addition, Spiegel is a Continuing Lecturer at the College of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley. Spiegel and Aihara’s project at AAR is titled Landscapes of Fire.
“The Rome Prize is one of the most storied fellowship programs in the United States,” said AAR President Peter N. Miller, as quoted in the AAR’s recent announcement. “Over a thousand people compete for the chance to live and work in Rome, inspired by the city and one another. The Rome Prize winners represent a bridge between the United States and Italy, but also between a present of potential and a future of achievement.” This year’s Rome Prize recipients were selected from 1,106 applications (a record number), for an acceptance rate of 2.9 percent.
This story was originally published on the GSD website.
Updated May 8, 2024
James Carpenter LF ’90 will be inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters award ceremony in May 2024. James is one of 19 new members and four honorary members that will be honored.
Membership in the Academy is limited to 300 architects, visual artists, composers, and writers who are elected for life. The honor of election is considered the highest form of recognition of artistic merit in the United States.
The American Academy of Arts and Letters was founded in 1898 as an honor society of the country’s leading architects, artists, composers, and writers.
Follow James’ work at Studio James Carpenter/JCDA Inc.
Among this year’s recipients of the American Academy of Arts and Letters 2024 Architecture Awards, the practices of two GSD Alumni were honored.
Julie Bargmann MLA ’87 and Stella Betts MArch ’94, co-founder and principal of LevenBetts architecture firm, have been awarded 2024 Architecture Awards that “recognize American architects whose work is characterized by a strong personal direction.”
Read the full press release.
Follow Stella’s work with LevenBetts on Instagram.
Follow Julie’s work with D.I.R.T Studio.
Four GSD alumni and faculty have been elevated by the 2024 Jury of Fellows from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) to its prestigious College of Fellows. The honor recognizes architects who have “achieved a standard of excellence in the profession and made a significant contribution to architecture and society on a national level.”
The GSD congratulates:
- Nicole Anne Hollant-Denis MDes ’00
- Hao E. Ko MArch ’97
- J. Leora Mirvish MArch ’87
- Anath Ranon MArch ’90
For the full list of 2024 Fellows, visit the AIA website.
Pichler & Traupmann Architekten, an architectural firm lead by Christoph Pichler MArch ’92, was awarded the Austrian State Prize for Architecture 2023 in the category Administration/Research for the Future Art Lab of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna project. Every two years, the Federal Ministry of Labor and Economic Affairs awards the State Prize for Architecture for outstanding architectural achievements based on the decision of an independent jury of experts. Since 1992, Christoph has been running the Vienna based architectural office Pichler & Traupmann Architekten together with Hannes Traupmann and since then they have worked together on a wide range of building projects of various typologies. In the meantime, the office has gained another four partners.
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Gena Wirth MLA ’09, MUP ’09 has released a new book “Silt Sand Slurry: Dredging, Sediment, and the Worlds We Are Making” with co-authors Rob Holmes and Brett Milligan (AR+D, 2023). This book is a visually rich investigation into where, why, and how sediment is central to the future of America’s coasts.
“The topic and our approach to it is timely. Climate change, environmental transformation, and the design of equitable, effective responses are pressing concerns for coastal regions throughout the United States and globally.”
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Alejandro Saldarriaga Rubio MArch ’23 has been nominated for the fifth cycle of the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize for Emerging Practices (MCHAP EMERGE). The Prize was founded by the IIT in Chicago and it is a biennial award for outstanding built works architectural works of the 21st century in North, South, and Central America. Saldarriaga was nominated with his firm, Alsar-Atelier, on the project titled Alhambra’s Cross, a mid-pandemic outdoor chapel made with repurposed scaffolding. The project was done in collaboration with German Bahamon and the Colombian Society of architects.
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A talk by Joseph M. Madda MArch ’76, Streamline Moderne and the Rise of American Industrial Design, will be delivered on April 10th, 2024 at the Glencoe Public library about the effect of American industrial designers after World War I. “Glencoe architect and art commentator Joseph Madda will delve into the amazing worlds of the Big Four—designers Walter Dorwin Teague, Norman Bel Geddes, Henry Dreyfuss, and Raymond Loewy—as they changed the way America looked, from Art Deco to Streamline Moderne and beyond.”
Joseph was also recently featured in an article with Storied Stuff where he speaks about highlights in his forty-year career as a licensed architect.
Follow Joseph on LinkedIn.
Kyle Dugdale MArch ’02 has published the book “Architecture After God: Babel Resurgent” (Birkhäuser, 2023). A vivid retelling of the biblical story of Babel leads from the contested site of Babylon to the soaring towers of the modern metropolis, and sets the bright hopes of early modernism against the shadows of gathering war. Dealing in structural metaphor, utopian aspiration, and geopolitical ambition, the book’s narrative exposes the inexorable architectural implications of the event described by Nietzsche as the death of God.
For a preview of the book, visit Issuu.
For more information on Kyle, visit his Yale Faculty Profile.
Kenneth Hasegawa, AIA MArch ’20 has rejoined ELS as a principal to launch its newest studio in San Diego. As part of ELS’ leadership, he is working to broaden the firm’s coverage in San Diego and Southern California. Kenneth is now leading the design on the new master plan and aquatics center for Memorial Park in Santa Ana. He has collaborated on notable ELS projects including the Legends Aquatic Center at UC Berkeley, Uytengsu Aquatics Center at USC, and Hillsdale Shopping Center in San Mateo.
Prior to rejoining ELS in May 2023, he helped shape prominent cultural, residential, and higher education projects at Michael Maltzan Architecture in Los Angeles; Kengo Kuma & Associates in Tokyo; and PARA Project in New York. He holds a Master of Architecture degree with distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he was awarded the Araldo A. Cossutta 2018 Prize for Design Excellence. He also received a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture with highest honors from the University of California, Berkeley, with a minor in Sustainable Design.
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Jessica Yuan MArch ’20 has been named the winner of the Airlie Prize with her poetry collection Slow Render, releasing April 2024. Teeming with maps and histories, journeys and landscapes, Yuan’s collection weaves together worlds with tender and incisive lyricism. Told in three parts, this book unveils as it journeys, slowly rendering into landscapes of childhood warped by memory. These poems wrestle with images of spatial order and disorder within the city, the planet, the home, and the body. From expansive world building sequences to the tight interiority of room sized sonnets, Yuan’s poems interrogate how our environments are imagined, constructed, represented, and lived in. With piercing and visceral language, Slow Render sings of longing and belonging in this stunning, unique collection.
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A popular downtown Minneapolis city park built in 2007 designed by Thomas R Oslund, MLA ’86, has won the prestigious 2023 GOOD DESIGN® Award presented annually by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies. Gold Medal Park is a 7.5-acre urban park that has become an iconic and beloved fixture marking the heart of the vibrant and thriving Minneapolis Mill District. This project won in the Environments category.
Founded in Chicago in 1950 by Eero Saarinen and Charles and Ray Eames, GOOD DESIGN remains the oldest and the world’s most recognized program for design excellence worldwide. Last year, the Museum received a record number of submissions from the world’s leading manufacturers and industrial and graphic design firms representing the most important and critical mass of influential corporations in the design industry from over 55 countries, representing the best consumer design ranging from the ‘spoon to the city’ for sustainability, superior design, and unparalleled function. The 73rd GOOD DESIGN jury convened to select over 1,100 product designs and graphics from over 55 nations worthy of the GOOD DESIGN Award for their Design Excellence.
Follow Thomas’ firm, O2 Design, on Instagram.
Andrew Gutowski MArch ’78 was profiled by the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce recognizing him for his contributions to the real estate industry. The article displays Andrew’s expansive career with emphasis on his work in architecture and real estate development.
“As Gutowski’s journey exemplifies, the real estate industry is not limited by geographical boundaries. In an interconnected world, the ability to work across borders and collaborate with individuals from diverse backgrounds is not only a valuable asset; it can often benefit stakeholders across society.“
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Veronica Peitong Chen MArch ’21, MDes ’21 has taken her innovative design skills to new heights with her work with Adobe. As a trailblazer in the field, she led the design of Adobe Firefly, the most successful beta launch in Adobe’s history. Through her expertise in defining generative AI design patterns and advocating for an equitable approach, Chen bridged the intersection between design and emerging technologies. With Firefly, users generated 3 billion images in 6 months and leveraged generative AI easily across their creative process in other Creative Cloud Suite products. Her work also impacted Harvard’s Generative AI guidance and policy, and Chen’s design approach and commitment to reimagining the creative process continue to make an impact in the industry.
For more about Peitong’s work, visit her Adobe Profile.
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The GSD remembers Chien-Chung (Didi) Pei MArch ’72 who passed away on December 13th, 2023 at the age of 77. Didi was a distinguished member of the architectural community. His architectural firm, PEI Architects, “dedicated to design excellence in the creation of architecture that serves and enriches people and their environments” was founded in 1992 with his brother, Li Chung (Sandi) Pei MArch ’76. They both learned the craft of architecture from their father, world-renowned architect, I.M. Pei MArch ’46.
From PEI Architects on Didi Pei:
As 2023 draws to a close, our hearts are heavy with the loss of a remarkable leader and mentor, Chien Chung Pei, affectionately known as “Didi” to his family and friends. A distinguished architect, Didi’s journey began with academic excellence, graduating cum laude in Physics from Harvard College in 1968 and later attaining a Master’s Degree in Architecture from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design in 1972.
Steeped in the legacy of his father, the renowned architect I.M. Pei, Didi grew up immersed in the foundational principles of visionary design, unwavering commitment, and the highest professional standards. These early influences shaped his approach to architecture, guiding him in the creation of significant and enduring structures. Today, as we reflect on the passing of this extraordinary individual, we honor not only his impressive career but also the profound impact he had on the world of architecture and those fortunate enough to be touched by his wisdom and guidance.
Didi Pei blended science, art, and culture to create architectural landmarks that surpass physical form, leaving lasting imprints, serving function, and enhancing surroundings with beauty, purpose and standing the test of time. Through hands on involvement in all his design projects Didi embodied the core ideology of the firm he and his brother, Li Chung Pei, created, PEI Architects – “Respect for the past and responsiveness to the present in the pursuit of enduring architecture.”
Here you can read more about Didi Pei’s life and legacy.
The GSD remembers Peter M. Coxe MArch ’67 who passed away on Novemeber 5th, 2023 at the age of 82. Peter had an accomplished 40-year career in architecture, including 20 years as the sole proprietor of Peter Coxe Associates until his retirement in 2007. Some of his best known work is in architectural lighting design in the Boston Public Library, Boston’s Custom House Tower, Trinity and Old South Churches, Boston Waterfront Park, the USS Constitution (Charlestown Navy Yard) and Pilgrim Memorial/Plymouth Rock.
Peter’s family will honor him in a Celebration of Life in 2024.
Here you can read more about Peter M. Coxe’s life and legacy.
David Buckley Borden MLA ’11 has been appointed the Fuller Design Fellow at the Fuller Initiative for Productive Landscapes (FIPL) for a third and final year at the University of Oregon. The funded design-research appointment enables Borden to document, exhibit, and publish his three-year interdisciplinary collaboration with FIPL and the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest, where he has been a Long-Term Ecological Research designer-in-residence since 2021. Borden’s initial exhibition and public talk about his landscape-ecology initiative in the Pacific Northwest will take place at the College of Forestry, Oregon State University on November 9, 2023. The exhibition and public talk will feature a series of collaborative landscape-futures work, some of which was featured in this fall’s Arnodia, the Arnold Arboretums’ quarterly journal. Learn more about David work on his website.
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Junko Yamamoto MArch ’17, a founding principal of iVY, was selected to exhibit her installation work at Nakanojo Biennale 2023, an International Contemporary Art Exhibition in Gunma, Japan. The Biennale invites artists from Japan and abroad to exhibit their works at around 40 different sites in Nakanojo, attracting over 400,000 visitors each year. Her work used more than 400 sheets of kitchen-produced bioplastic and gelatin glue. Persimmon tannin, traditionally used as paints, stains, and dyes in Japan, was used to create color gradation. The exhibition was open for a month, from September 9th to October 9th, 2023. You can learn more about Junko’s work on her website.
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Miguel Guitart MArch ’03 has edited the book “Approaching Architecture: Three Fields, One Discipline” (Routledge/Taylor&Francis, 2023). The book explores the necessary and relevant overlaps and connections between three major fields of the architectural discipline – research, pedagogy, and professional practice. In so doing, this important text works as a collective reflection around the problematics of professional fragmentation existing between the learning and teaching of architecture and its impact in the built environment of our cities. The book sustains that the most comprehensive approach to the discipline is through the simultaneous exercise of the three field areas.
The book is particularly timely and generous in its cultural and geographic scope, and takes on the mission to represent a large group of academics, pedagogues, and practitioners from almost all continents – Antarctica is not represented. The United States, Canada, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Spain, the Netherlands, Finland, Switzerland, South Africa, China, Japan, are all represented in the 18 carefully edited contributions. They manifest a shared common ground: that of the critical interaction between the three fields in the everyday exercise of the profession, inside the classroom and out. With an introduction by former Cooper Union’s Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture Dean Nader Tehrani, the book is endorsed by prestigious scholars including Marc J. Neveu (Arizona State University), Beatriz Colomina (Princeton University), Ozayr Saloojee (Carleton University), and Alberto Campo Baeza (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid).
Follow Miguel Guitart on Instagram: @miguel.guitart
Shlomo Shyovitz MAUD ’77 has published his first novel, “Borne Back” (Thaler, 2023)
Offical Biography from book release: Shlomo Shyovitz grew up in Haifa, Israel. During high school, he spent a semester in New York as an exchange student at the Horace Mann School. After completing his high school studies and army service, he returned to the United States and earned degrees in architecture and urban design from RISD and Harvard. Based in the U.S., he has worked with architectural firms on both domestic and international projects. His passion for writing developed in his teens when he reported for a youth magazine. During his army service and professional career, he wrote short stories as well as a multigenerational history of his family. Borne Back is his first published novel. He is preparing a short story collection for publication and is working on a second novel. He lives in suburban Philadelphia.
Oorvi Sharma MArch ’18 has been profiled by the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. A video showcasing her work was released by the Guggenheim Museum’s press channels in August 2023. Additionally, as part of Oorvi’s independent practice, her writing about the environment and material ecologies has been recently published in Disegno Journal (2021), ICON Magazine (2023), SVSA Life Magazine (2023), and Temes De Disseny (2023).
Her latest journal article for Temes De Disseny is titled ‘Radical Territoriality and Temporality: Dilli Chalo and Roadway Occupations in India’ and it investigates entanglements between the hard materiality of infrastructure and the socio-political claims expressed in recent uncivil obedience protests and mobilisations in India.
Follow Oorvi on LinkedIn and Instagram.
Marina DeFrates MArch ’23 has been selected as part of the second cohort of the U.S. Digital Corps supporting key priorities of the Biden-Harris Administration. Marina will spend the next two years working at the General Services Administration (GSA) supporting ideas from federal employees about how technology can improve customer experience as part of the 10x program. Marina was one of 48 Fellows selected from an extremely competitive applicant pool of over 1,355 applicants from across the country. Learn more about Marina and her work.
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Matt Fajkus’ MArch ’05 practice, Matt Fajkus Architecture, has been awarded a 2023 Design Award of Merit by AIA Austin for their Filtered Frame Dock. The award was presented to the team at the AIA Austin Design Awards Celebration on May 17, 2023. The award presentation included a video with images and commentary from the judges. Watch the video on the AIA Austin YouTube channel.
The dock’s design has also been recognized with awards from the Society of Registered Architects New York, Residential Design Architecture Awards, Builder’s Choice Awards, and Architecture Masterprize.
Follow Matt Fajkus Architecture on Instagram and Facebook.
Five GSD alumni have been elevated by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) as fellows for their exceptional contributions to the landscape architecture profession and society at large. Election to the ASLA Council of Fellows is among the highest honors the ASLA bestows on members and is based on their “works, leadership and management, knowledge, and service.” ASLA formally recognized its 2023 Class of Fellows during the annual conference in Minneapolis on Saturday, October 28th.
- Taewook Cha MLA ’98
- Kenneth Francis MLA ’05
- Kathryn Kennen MLA ’05
- Willett Moss MLA ’97
- Kirt A. Rieder MLA ’94
For the full list of 2023 Fellows, visit the ASLA website.
Emily Schlickman MLA ’12 has recently published “Design by Fire: Resistance, Co-Creation, and Retreat in the Pyrocene” with collegue Brett Milligan (Routledge 2023). Across the world, the risks of wildfires are increasing and expanding. Due to past and current human actions, we dwell in the age of fire – the Pyrocene – and the many challenges and climate adaptation questions it provokes. Drawing upon fieldwork, mapping, drone imagery, and interviews, this publication curates 27 global design case studies within the vulnerable and dynamic wildland-urban interface and its adjacent wildlands.
The book catalogs these examples into three general approaches: those that resist the creative and transformative power of fire and forces of landscape change, those that embrace and utilize fire while also trying to guide landscape forces, and those that intentionally try to retreat and minimize human intervention in fire-prone landscapes coevolved to human agency. Rather than serving as a book of neatly packaged solutions, it is a book of techniques to be considered, evaluated and tested for the cascading, compounding, and aggregating challenges of wildfire.
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Zeerak Ahmed MDes ’18 was profiled in TIME Magazine following the making of his Matnsaz iOs app, an innovative Urdu keyboard that provides a more refined user experience with the language.
This year, Zeerak has become a member of the GSD’s Alumni Council serving as the first member of the Alumni Council from the Master in Design Engineering program
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The Oberlander Prize, an initiative of The Cultural Landscape Foundation, includes a $100,000 award and two years of public engagement activities focused on the laureate and landscape architecture
The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) has named Kongjian Yu DDes ’95 the winner of the Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize (Oberlander Prize), a biennial honor that includes a $100,000 award and two years of public engagement activities focused on the laureate’s work and landscape architecture 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.” Kongjian is the second recipient of this prize with Julie Bargman MLA ’87 as the inagural recipient in 2021.
Hear from Kongjian Yu
More on Kongjian’s Work
The GSD remembers Claude Cormier MDes ’94 who passed away on September 15th, 2023 at the age of 63. Claude was known for his joyful and submersive designs, particularly in public spaces. Some of his most well-known designs include the fountain at Berczy Park in Toronto and Place d’Youville in Montréal.
GSD Chair of Department of Landscape Architecture, Gary Hilderbrand MLA ’85, shares a remembrance of Claude Cormier.
Here you can read more about Claude Cormier’s life and legacy.
Matthew Allen MArch ’10 released Flowcharting: From Abstractionism to Algorithmics in Art and Architecture published with gta Verlag. This book is based on dissertation research at the GSD with advisors Antoine Picon, Michael Hays, Catherine Ingraham, and Molly Wright Steenson. Matthew holds bachelor degrees from the Univeristy of Washington, a Master of Architecture and Doctor of Philosophy in history and theory of architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
“By the time the computer arrived on the architectural scene, its place had been prepared by decades of avant-gardist experimentation. The modernist program of rationalizing creative practice took a decidedly bureaucratic turn between two generations of constructivists in the 1930s and 1960s. From Paris to Cambridge, painters, poets, designers, and architects poured their energy into cracking the code of artistic genius in hopes of democratizing the creation of better environments, thus stimulating a nascent repertoire of algorithmic techniques. The motivation to use these new techniques emerged from attempts to understand art and architecture through serial effects. By reformulating their disciplines in terms of flowcharting procedures developed in the field of scientific management, artists and architects enacted a paradigm shift that had long been a cherished dream of modernism, replacing composition with organization as the basis of design.” – Matthew Allen
Available online at gta Verlang.
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Ronald M. Druker LF ’76 will be honored at the 2023 Franciscan Dinner with The Pope Francis Award. This award is presented by the St. Anthony Shrine, a Catholic landmark in Boston, founded by the Franciscan Friars. This event will take place on November 1st, 2023 at the Museum of Fine Arts.
“The Pope Francis Award is presented to an individual whose lifework mirrors the charism and mission of St. Francis of Assisi, lover of the poor and the alienated. It honors one who embodies the Franciscan values of humanity, compassion, respect, and dignity of all people, and lives out the Gospel.” St. Anthony Shrine.
For more information, visit here.
Migrating Futures, a project by N H D M Architects, founded by Nahyun Hwang MArch ’01 and David Eugin Moon MArch ’01, was presented at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of Venice Biennale. Exhibited as a part of the Korean Pavilion curated by Soik Jung and Kyong Park, the project investigates the historical and contemporary geographies of diverse diaspora communities and transnational migrant workers within Korea and across Asia in relationship to new futurity.
For more on Migrating Figures, visit here.
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A. Krista Sykes PhD ’04 has published the book Vincent Scully: Architecture, Urbanism, and a Life in Search of Community (Bloomsbury, 2023). This intellectual biography of Scully’s life and career traces the formative moments in his thinking, mapping his relationships with a constellation of architects, artists, and cultural personalities of the past one hundred years. Scully’s extensive body of work, with its range spanning centuries and civilizations, coalesced around the core beliefs that architecture shapes and is shaped by society, and that the best architecture responds, above all else, to the human need for community and connection. Sykes’s timely appraisal provides a platform for reassessing the legacy of these values as well as how we write and think about architecture in the twenty-first century.
For more information, visit here.
For more on Krista Sykes.
Sarah Dennis-Phillips MLA ’00 has been announced as the new Executive Director of the Office of Economic and Workforce for City of San Franscisco. She previously worked at Tishman Speyer in executive leadership as well as at the Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD) and now returns as Executive Director. Sarah, an experience urban planner, began her commitment to San Franscisco in 2005, initally within the Planning Department before advancing to Deputy Director of Developmemt at OEWD in 2019. Her work includes revitalization, speadheading development initiatives and played a pivitol role in forstering an urban community characterized by affordability, ample public spaces and efficient transit systems. She holds degrees in urban planning and design from the University of Virginia and Harvard Univeristy Graduate School of Design.
For more information, visit here.
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Ruderal, a design firm founded by Sarah Cowles MLA ’05, with landscape architect Ben Hackenberger MLA ’20, was featured in the April Issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine.
The article, written by Jessica Bridger MLA ’09, describes the context of Ruderal’s studio and field practice in the country of Georgia, from gardens and master planning to the planting plan for the Tbilisi Urban Forest: “As Cowles adventures further into the wild, wild west of Georgia’s landscape-driven international development, Ruderal gets deeper in the reality on the ground, in all its tourism-driven, developer-funded, NGO-engaged mix of terrible and glorious. Many designers avoid this unglamorous, common reality of actual development and global practice, losing the world to stay in the confines of the safe, and dream of idealized projects. In contrast, Cowles is out on the range, getting things done.”
Ruderal was founded by Cowles in 2019 to support and train a new generation of landscape architects in the Caucasus. Based in Tbilisi, the firm pursues a wide range of projects in the Black Sea region and Central Asia as well as in Europe and the United States.
Follow RUDERAL: @_ruderal_
Follow Ben Hackenberger: @bhackenberger
Vaissnavi Shukl MDes ’20 has recently been awarded a Graham Foundation grant to advance her project Architecture Off-Centre. Architecture Off-Centre is a podcast highlighting contemporary discourses that shape the built environment but do not occupy the centre stage either in the architecture curriculum or in professional practice. It features conversations with artists, journalists, policymakers, lawyers, educators, and cultural entrepreneurs, whose work is deeply engaged in comprehending and mitigating the current challenges of civic life and whose scholarship contributes to the ever-expanding discourse of architecture.
The podcast currently spans over four seasons with 37 episodes and guests from over 12 countries, with at least 50% identifying as women. With this production grant, she aims to make the podcast content more accessible to a global audience by publishing interview transcripts, providing resources for detailed research and inviting guests from varied backgrounds.
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Flatland, a multifaceted architectural installation by Mais al Azab MArch ’11 received a highly commended recognition in the inaugural Dia al-Azzawi Prize for Public Art from the Tamayouz Excellence Award. This project was created initially in Amman, Jordan in the context of the city’s 2017 design week. The prize was initiated in 2021, is named after the internationally celebrated Iraqi artist and one of the pioneers of modern Arab art and looked at artworks that had a transformative impact within their urban context between 2016 and 2021.
The news was published in November 2022 with an award ceremony that took place in Muscat, Oman in January 2023 as part of the larger Tamayouz Excellence Award program during which Mais al Azab received a certificate and medal designed and handed by the artist Dia al-Azzawi, which the award is named after.
The Jury’s comment on Flatland installation was: “A stunningly successful blend of architecture and art, with ideas in place that are both subtle and elegant in their relevance to regional historical typologies. It is quite exciting to see how the shadows work with the ephemeral pavilion. Flatland raises a question about functional sculptures and how they interact with their surrounding”.
For more on the Jury and Flatland
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Acheson Doyle Partners Architects, an architectural firm led by Michael Doyle MArch ‘77 and David Acheson MArch ’77, has been awarded the prestigious Chairman’s Award from the New York Landmarks Conservatory.
The New York Landmarks Conservatory Chairman’s Award was started in 1988 to recognize companies, businesses and individuals who have helped to protect the cities remarkable architectural legacy. Acheson Doyle Partners Architects was also honored in June at the 2023 Charman’s Awards Luncheon in New York City.
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Joaquín Pérez-Goicoechea MArch ’02, Principal and Founding Partner at AGi Architects, together with the architects, researchers and educators Sharifa Alshalfan and Sarah Alfraih present The Multiplex Typology: Living in Kuwait’s Hybrid Houses with DOM Publishers. Here, for the first time, the authors explore everyday life in these hybrid homes, arguing that the one-size-fits-all housing model of the past is both outdated and unsustainable. This book is an urgent and timely call for alternative approaches to housing that are sustainably driven, culturally rooted and responsive to future change.
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AGi Architects, the design firm founded by Joaquín Pérez-Goicoechea MArch ’02 and Nasser B. Abulhasan MArch ’02/DDes ’07, won the public competition for the construction of an Elderly Care Facility & Day Center in La Rioja, Spain.
The design focuses on people, in their sense of belonging, autonomy and well-being. It is based on a sustainable architecture that minimizes its impact on the landscape, brings nature into the building, and fosters social, psychological and physical well-being.
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Lauren McClellan MArch ‘16 has recently launched Threshold Office, an architecture practice based in Brooklyn, NY. Threshold Office offers full-scope architecture services from pre-design through to construction administration. Current projects include a Brooklyn brownstone, a house in Sweden a house in Toronto, and some commercial renovation projects in Canada.
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East Architecture Studio, led by principal and founding partner Nicolas Fayad MArch II ’10, was awarded the Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2022 for the renovation of a Niemeyer designed Guest House located in Tripoli, Lebanon. The Aga Khan Award is one of the largest in the field of Architecture and is governed by a Steering Committee chaired by His Highness the Aga Khan, including Dean Sarah Whiting, Dr. Nasser Rabbat and Sir David Chipperfield.
The Niemeyer Guest House Renovation project is one of this cycle’s six winners, selected by an independent master jury, including Francis Kéré, Amale Andraos MArch’ 99, Anne Lacaton and Nader Tehrani MAUD ’91. The Master Jury cited the renovation as an “inspiring tale of architecture’s capacity for repair, at a time of dizzying, entangled crisis around the world, and in Lebanon in particular, as the country faces unprecedented political, socio-economic and environmental collapse”.
Founded in 2015, East Architecture Studio is a collective practice committed to architectural design and experimental research. The studio yields innovative built environments of various scales ranging from master planning to interior design and adaptive reuse, engaging both contemporary society and traditional culture. Projects emerge from the studio with optimism, translating visionary ideas into an architecture of the present. A reality that the team embraces, with a particular interest in intellectual pursuits and design research. Emphasis on history, culture and the territory are an integral part of the adopted design methods, defining an architectural response that engages with the challenges of our time. Along with a growing team of talented architects, partners, and consultants, the practice is constantly evolving in the shifting landscapes of modern life.
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“Landscape Approach: From Local Communities to Territorial Systems” edited by Hannes Zander MLA ’15, Shelagh McCartney DDes ’12, MDes ’07, Samantha Solano MLA ’16, and Sonja Vangjeli MLA ’16 has recently published by Applied Research & Design. The book promotes a landscape approach to understand and address complex interdependent issues of environmental change, ecological degradation, and socio-cultural inequalities. Through a variety of landscape-informed narratives, it aims to provide strategies which can help envision futures that are socially and environmentally just and sustainable.
“Landscape Approach” is the second book publication by the International Landscape Collaborative which formed at the GSD in 2016, a group of emerging scholars and practitioners who are interested in questions related to landscape and territory. The book features twenty-three essays from different geographic contexts across six continents, many of them written by GSD alums, and with a foreword by GSD Visiting Professor in Landscape Architecture Nina-Marie Lister.
McCLAIN + YU, a design and architecture firm led by Kristina Yu MArch ’95 and Raimund McClain ’00, has been awarded the Top 2022 Jeff Harnar Award Prize of Contemporary Architecture in the Southwest for their SKYROOM project in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.
The JEFF HARNAR AWARDS program was created by Garrett Thornburg in 2007 to honor the memory of Jeff Harnar and help continue his groundbreaking work in the area of contemporary design. In 2018, the award program was expanded to include Unbuilt Work and Landscape Architecture.
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David Rosenwasser MDes ’21 and Jeremy Bilotti, co-founders of Rarify, have been featured in a Forbes interview examining the story of their company and what is on the horizon.
“Rarify uses the history of design to tell a story, educate our audience about the importance of notable designers, and push toward the future, bringing to light noteworthy manufacturers and designers that aren’t known or recognized to the degree that that they deserve…Furthermore, we’re working to make furniture and design more interesting for a Millennial and Get Z audience too, as we’ve been bored with dull e-commerce sites and unimpressed with resources for design education in a digital way.”- Rosenwasser
Based in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, their business has 40,000 square feet of warehouse and showroom space in a former Bethlehem Steel railroad spike plant, packed floor to ceiling full of classic furniture design icons.
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Kuth Ranieri Architects has promoted Michael McGroarty, AIA, LEED AP, MArch ’01 to Principal. Michael joined Kuth Ranieri in 2013 to help lead the firm’s transition to larger institutional and municipal projects. His 25-year professional career, spent in Boston, San Francisco and Portland, includes a diverse array of project types including aviation, recreational facilities, higher educational, cultural, office, retail, residential, animal care and mixed-use affordable housing. He has led many of the firm’s successful partnerships with local design firms and has been an integral leader on the San Francisco International Airport Terminal 1C project. He received his Master of Architecture degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Penn State University.
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