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2020-2021 Highlights from the GSD
The 2020-2021 academic year was about flexibility and adapting to change. Thanks in part to virtual events, connections, and innovations, we were here for each other and encouraged the next generation of design leaders. What follows are highlights from the unforgettable year. -
With the launch of the Student Emergency Fund in spring 2020, the GSD took swift action to present comfort, care, and opportunity amid the fear, emergencies, and job losses of COVID-19. During the 2020-2021 academic year, 415 students received emergency aid to assist with the loss of income or loss of family support due to the pandemic’s effects on the economy, as well as work-from-home support for tech or other costs incurred due to remote education. -
The GSD turned the Druker Design Gallery, established by Ron Druker LF ’76, and other spaces within Gund Hall inside out with installations shown through a series of exterior projections on the building's facade. The series, aptly entitled “Inside Out,” spanned the spring semester and rotated through a weekly roster of shows that revealed timely preoccupations among GSD faculty and students. -
During a year when many of our activities moved online, the GSD refreshed and relaunched the GSD’s Alumni and Friends website. The site enhanced how alumni and friends can listen, learn, and engage with the GSD. Community members can visit the site to engage with the Development & Alumni Relations team, meet members of the various volunteer councils, join virtual events, and much more. -
Honoring the legacy of an urban design pioneer
The GSD renamed the 50th Anniversary of Urban Design Program Lecture for Jaqueline Tyrwhitt, a GSD associate professor who worked to establish and fortify the urban design program during its founding years. The Jaqueline Tyrwhitt Urban Design Lecture will be delivered each year by a visionary urban planner, designer, scholar, or leader who has opened novel directions in urban-design thinking and traced new intersections between urban design and other disciplines. Moshe Safdie, Lee Cott MAUD ’70, and Jay Chatterjee MAUD ’65 played a key role in establishing the original lecture in 2010 and fortifying its energy since. -
The Unsung Hero Book Prize celebrates GSD students who act in selfless ways to make the School a better place. The four 2021 Unsung Heroes were recognized for being instrumental in creating community during a year of virtual instruction, building connection and engagement however possible. These women also worked tirelessly to elevate the perspectives of women and BIPOC in design, and they showed leadership in their many roles, including teaching assistant, resident adviser, and student government representative.
Bailey Morgan Brown MArch ’22, MDes ’22
Heidi Brandow MDes ’21
Mary Taylor MUP ’21
Kathlyn Kao MArch ’22
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Rising to the challenge
Solving global challenges through design is at the heart of all the GSD’s work. To make a positive impact in the lives of students and the larger design community, the GSD committed this year to funding the following initiatives:
An initiative to promote the presence of African Americans in design and address representation gaps in the industry. The Nexus showcases the craft of Black designers, explores different geographies of design practice, and works to inspire change within design institutions by elevating Black designers.
The most crucial and esteemed course that design students undergo at the GSD. The Regional Studio Fund fosters growth and design education for students, while at the same time supporting a design solution for a community.
A collaborative platform that investigates the challenges and opportunities at the intersection of design technology and the built environment. It advances design as a catalyst of change and leverages innovative research methods to understand the architecture of complex issues. -
Committed to addressing systemic racism and inequity at the GSD, the Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DIB) implemented programming and initiatives to:• Promote anti-racist practices• Expand recruitment and retention strategies of historically marginalized individuals• Deepen internal DIB competencies as part of a holistic approach to institutional transformationThe 2020-2021 DIB Annual Report was created to serve as a step toward building a shared understanding of the progress, partnerships, and initiatives of the Office. -
For his Urban Design 50th Anniversary Lecture, Alex Krieger MCP ’77, professor and former chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design, took viewers on a virtual version of his tour of Boston. Stopping at locations key to the growth of the city—from East Boston, which was once five islands that were consolidated in the late 18th to 19th century, to the Shawmut and South Boston Peninsulas—Krieger spoke of the historic and contemporary geographical, infrastructural, and racial conditions of Boston, a city in “constant need to create land.” -
On May 27, 2021, the GSD gathered virtually to honor the 298 members of the class of 2021 and confer their hard-earned degrees. The GSD remains committed to holding in-person events for our 2020 and 2021 graduates in the future.
Take a quick look at the Graduate School of Design in 2020-2021 from a bird’s eye view.
Photo by Jovi Ripert, courtesy of Elizabeth Price MDE ’21.
