Landmark Gift Supporting Professorships and Student Fellowship
The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) has received a consequential, multi-tier, multi-million dollar gift from the Robert P. Hubbard AB ’51 Trust of 1980 to endow the intellectual underpinnings of the School’s world-class faculty and to boost student access to a design education through an endowed fellowship.
Robert P. Hubbard, a long-time resident of Walpole, New Hampshire, nobly dedicated his life to teaching and philanthropy after attending Harvard College. His passion for art, culture, and the environment will live in perpetuity through his support of design thinking at the GSD with endowing two prestigious professorships. The Robert P. Hubbard Professorship in Practice of Architecture, which was generously established during Mr. Hubbard’s lifetime, will be fully endowed, and this recent gift from his trust will create a second Hubbard Professorship. Additionally, the Robert P. Hubbard AB ’51 Fellowship will provide financial aid for top design students.
“The GSD is grateful for the extraordinary generosity of Robert P. Hubbard and his recognition of the GSD as the vanguard of design education and research in addressing society’s toughest challenges,” said Mohsen Mostafavi, Dean and Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor of Design. “Our students seek excellence in teaching and opportunities to advance their impact through design—they are driven to transform lives and places. Mr. Hubbard’s gift will support two central areas of our Grounded Visionaries Campaign—bolstering our transdisciplinary, collaborative pedagogy through endowing two world-class faculty members and enabling access for top design students through established of an endowed fellowship.
The esteemed Robert P. Hubbard Professorship in Practice of Architecture at the GSD currently supports Professor Toshiko Mori. Mori, Principal of Toshiko Mori Architect, served as Chair of the Department of Architecture from 2002 to 2008. Her recent work with students includes Eco Village, an analysis of the future of rural communities that face challenges of climate change, energy independence, and retention of youths and revitalization of its community, and a master plan for a large parcel of land in Fukuoka, Japan with urban innovation strategies. The second Robert P. Hubbard Professorship in Practice of Architecture will be awarded at a later date.
“I am grateful for the immense generosity of Robert P. Hubbard whose name I carry in my professorship, which provides me with prestige and privilege,” said Professor Mori. “In turn, I teach with awareness and responsibility for teaching the future leaders of the world who will transmit their thoughts to next generations. It is a gift of spirit that keeps giving to ensure continuity for the discipline of architecture for the future generations with the intellectual rigor that marks GSD education.”
To support talented, ambitious students, the Robert P. Hubbard AB ’51 Fellowship will provide financial aid for designers of tomorrow at the GSD, which will support four students at this time. This gift will enable them in making career choices based on their passions, rather than their financial obligations and broaden the range of diversity within the GSD.
Design is an inherently optimistic pursuit. With the $110-million-plus Grounded Visionaries Campaign, the GSD is not only imagining a better world, it is also constructing it. Launched in 2014 as part of Harvard University’s $6.5-billion capital campaign, the Grounded Visionaries Campaign is increasing impact for the strategies, structures, and students to reshape our world. With its three aspirations, the Campaign aims to: boost access to innovative learning at the GSD while offering unrivaled experiences; broaden the reach of design knowledge through transformative pedagogy, research, and discourse; and build the GSD’s future through leading-edge faculty and facilities for the next century.