To most people, trash is just a mixture of discarded things without value. However, to Arthur Huang MArch ’04, trash represents a new beginning. Huang’s Taiwan-based company, MINIWIZ, home of the remarkable TRASHLAB laboratory, revolutionizes the waste and recycling industries through innovation, technology, and design. Essentially, MINIWIZ is on a mission to unlock the upcycling…
Dear MDE Alumni, Greetings from Cambridge! Much has happened since the last newsletter, including several notable firsts: our first alumni reunion, the launch of an MDE alumni chapter, and an MDE representative (Zeerak Ahmed MDE ’18) joining the GSD Alumni Council. This is also my first newsletter as an MDE director, and the entire MDE…
Dear Architecture Alumni, Hello and warm greetings from Cambridge! During my first month as Chair of the Department of Architecture, this summer is a particularly special and exhilarating time—a chance to recharge and imagine all the possibilities for discovery through design. I look forward to working together and I am immensely grateful to Dean Sarah…
The Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) is pleased to announce Edwin “Teddy” Cruz MDes ’97, Shaun Donovan AB ’87, MPA ’95, MArch ’95, William “Bill” Johnson MLA ’57, Frank Christopher Lee MAUD ’79, and Cathy Simon MArch ’69 as the 2023 recipients of the Harvard GSD Alumni Award. In its third year, the award honors…
A Fall 2022 Message from Dean Sarah M. Whiting Dear GSD Alumni and Friends: First and foremost, I welcome students, faculty, staff, and soon alumni and friends, back to the GSD. It’s hard to believe it, but this is the first semester that we are starting fully in person since spring of 2020! Not only…
Following the launch of Harvard Design Press last spring, the Press is pleased to announce the release of three titles this fall: John Andrews: Architect of Uncommon Sense, Frida Escobedo: Split Subject, and Empty Plinths: Monuments, Memorials, and Public Sculpture in Mexico. Documenting John Andrews’ MAUD ’87 path from Australia to the United States and…
During an unprecedented time, the Harvard GSD Alumni Council created Design Impact, a leadership series that emphasized design as a tool for transformative change and healing. Design’s power has always been most potent when its practitioners can come together. In the early days of the pandemic, though, the world was folding into small, quarantined boundaries….
First Graduate School of Design alum to serve as HAA president, Allyson Mendenhall is committed to creating inclusive alumni experiences When Allyson Mendenhall AB ’90, MLA ’99, walked past the Harvard Graduate School of Design’s Gund Hall as an undergraduate at Harvard College, she never imagined that she would one day step inside as a…
In 2021, the Harvard Graduate School of Design invested in a set of short introductory education programs that are directed at sharing the value of design with the global public. Early Design Education (EDE)—which invites different audiences to “think and make” through design—includes Design Discovery Virtual, Design Discovery in-person, and Design Discovery Youth summer…
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 Julie Bargmann MLA ’87 the winner of the inaugural Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize (Oberlander Prize), a biennial…
The Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) is pleased to announce Everett Fly MLA ’77, Deanna Van Buren Loeb Fellow ’13, and Jack Dangermond MLA ’69 as the inaugural recipients of the 2021 Harvard GSD Alumni Award. The award honors outstanding leadership by GSD alumni, underscoring the essential role GSD graduates play in leading…
Perkins&Will and the Harvard Graduate School of Design (Harvard GSD) today announce the launch of the Black in Design Mentorship Program pilot, an initiative that aims to promote greater representation of Black talent in the design industry. Originally conceived by students and Perkins&Will professionals at the 2019 Black in Design Conference, the mentorship program will…
Wishing the GSD’s Alumni & Friends prosperity, happiness, and good health. After such an unfathomable year, I am glad to be welcoming a new year, one that I hope will offer renewal and connect us with the loved ones, communities, and ideas that nourish us. One of the more uplifting moments that came from this…
In this Q&A, Panzano shares insights into the Undergraduate Architecture Studies program, what makes the GSD MArch I model distinctive, and how she keeps busy outside of the GSD.
At the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD), affordable housing is an urgent concern in the pursuit of healthy, equitable cities. In this video—the first in a series of brief looks at the ways in which topical issues are explored at the GSD—Rahul Mehrotra MAUD ’87, Daniel D’Oca MUP ’02, and Farshid Moussavi MArch…
The Daniel Urban Kiley Teaching Fellowship is awarded annually to an emerging designer whose work articulates the potential for landscape as a medium of design in the public realm. The Kiley Teaching Fellow will be appointed Lecturer in Landscape Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design for the 2020-21 academic year, and is…
1. Tell us about your background and early education? I was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. I left Cincinnati in 1979 to attend college, and I spent the summer following my freshman year back in Cincinnati, but have not spent much time there since. It is, though, a remarkable place with a number of…
Dear Landscape Architecture alumni, As I reflect upon another year as Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture, I am pleased to share with you a few highlights of news, pedagogy, and programming. At a time of heightened political discord and global awareness around the hazards of climate change, I am especially excited to recognize…
Dear Architecture Alumni,It’s a privilege to write to fellow architecture alumni as Chair of the Department of Architecture. It’s been a year of enormous transitions for me, moving from sunny Los Angeles to the more variable climate of Cambridge, opening a satellite office here, and embarking on a new leadership role at the Graduate School…
Dear DDes Alumni,I hope this note finds you all well! I am reaching out to highlight some of the changes that started last spring and some new activities this year. Last spring we inaugurated a new DDes networking event, DDes Alumni Encounters. In April 2018, we hosted Carlos Cardenas DDes ’07 and GSD Alumni Council member Zenovia…
Dear UPD Alumni,It’s been my great pleasure to connect with so many of you at various GSD alumni gatherings and planning events over the course of the last few years. I am grateful for the support and vitality of our robust alumni community; the GSD is a better place because of your engagement. Despite our global…
Dear MDes Alumni,It’s a privilege to write to Master of Design Studies (MDes) alumni as Program Director. These are exciting times to be leading the program—this has been a year of productive change for the advanced studies program, which has evolved and grown considerably over its 30-year history. With 170 students enrolled, 76 of those…
With the passing of each academic year, our community has the opportunity to reflect on our many accomplishments and to anticipate and imagine future achievements.
Contributions directed to the GSD’s Community Service Fellowships have a multiplier effect in underserved communities: Current students receive funding to work with community organizations, federal and state agencies, and nonprofit institutions, assisting with design, research, or planning projects that the organizations ordinarily would not be able to access.
In its final year, the Grounded Visionaries campaign showed its global reach, most notably in the area of fellowships and financial aid. Thanks to the generosity of donors from all over the world, students from Canada, China, India, Israel, Palestine, and various Asian countries now have greater access to top-tier opportunities in design education and can learn alongside peers pursuing particular GSD programs.
Sol Camacho is an architect and urban designer who founded and directs RADDAR, an architecture firm based in São Paulo and Mexico City.
GSD alumni are using the knowledge and skills they developed at the School to make contributions to the built environment and society in impactful ways. Key findings from the Alumni Research Initiative, a comprehensive survey of its alumni, sheds light on alumni career paths and their social impact spanning a range of areas including transportation, sustainable cities, resilience, food systems, housing, and water, which are topics of inquiry and research that align with GSD priorities.
On April 12, the GSD Alumni Council honored current students with the 2018 Unsung Hero Book Prize during a celebration in the Frances Loeb Library. Sarah Diamond MLA ’19, Tim Webster MLA ’19, Ernest Haines MLA ’18, and Jasmine Roberts MDes ’18 were this year’s recipients.
Today, art and design find a natural home in the GSD exhibition galleries—in the course of a single year, GSD Director of Exhibitions Dan Borelli MDes ’12 and his team stage five major exhibitions and twelve smaller exhibitions featuring a wide variety of work.
Feedback from alumni is vital in helping the GSD to understand if and how the knowledge and skills they refined at the School have influenced their careers and professional specialties.
The Harvard University Graduate School of Design is pleased to announce three appointments to the position of Professor in Practice of Architecture: Jeanne Gang MArch ’93, Sharon Johnston MArch ’95, and Mark Lee MArch ’95, effective July 1, 2018.
Ed Meng MUP ’14 is a Senior Program Coordinator, Metropolitan Transportation Commission (San Francisco Bay Area). Hear from him about his time at the GSD and his career path.
The cohort of alumni who provide unwavering annual support to the GSD Fund for student financial aid is growing, and their total contribution has almost doubled in the last five years. Among these loyal donors are established professionals, as well as recent graduates, who understand the power of design, value a quality design education, and remain committed to the tradition of giving back.
When Eduard Franz Sekler, Harvard University’s Osgood Hooker Professor of Visual Art Emeritus and Professor of Architecture Emeritus at the Graduate School of Design, passed away last spring at the age of 96, the GSD community responded with an outpouring of letters in remembrance of the beloved educator, architect, scholar, and friend.
Four new student fellowships will change the lives of GSD students, thanks to the generosity of donors who share a passion for helping students realize their dream of a design education.
John Taylor MUP ’06 is International Project Manager, National Urban Poverty Reduction Programme (NUPRP), UNDP Bangladesh. Hear from him about his time at the GSD and his career path.
Jared Katseff MUP ’15 is Senior Associate, McKinsey & Company, Capital Projects & Infrastructure Practice. Hear from him about his time at the GSD and his career path.
Stephanie Brown MUP ’13 is an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company. Hear from her about her time at the GSD and her career path.
In June, the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) premiered Lord Richard Rogers’s Wimbledon House in London for the first time since restorations began in 2015 by British architect Philip Gumuchdjian and landscape architect Todd Longstaffe-Gowan MLA ’84.
As Richard Rogers Fellows, Mexico City natives Jose Castillo MArch ’95, DDes ’00 and Saidee Springall MArch ’96 share their experience working and living in the Wimbledon House.
Aldarsaikhan Tuvshinbat MUP ’15 is Senior Program Coordinator, Metropolitan Transportation Commission (San Francisco Bay Area). Hear from her about her time at the GSD and her career path.
Howard Kozloff MUP ’00 is Managing Partner, Agora Partners. Hear from him about memorable moments at the GSD and his career path.
For nearly three decades, Colonel Chris Castle DDes ’99 has planned and led operations of military healthcare environments that sustain and care for members of the U.S. Armed Forces on and off the battlefield, and he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for meritorious service in a combat zone.
The GSD awarded 353 degrees to its Class of 2017 during Harvard’s 366th Commencement on Thursday, May 25.
Support Our Future Design Leaders with a Gift to the GSD Fund The global challenges we face are more pressing than ever. Whether it is social equity or sustainability, public health or transportation, the Harvard University Graduate School of Design shapes the future design leaders who will address these complex issues. With a legacy of preparing…
The GSD recently honored I. M. Pei’s milestone birthday with a celebration in Gund Hall featuring a cast of Pei’s collaborators and friends.
As the Director of Planning at the BPDA, Sara Myerson MUP ’11 reflects on the growth and challenges in Boston and her time at the GSD where she learned the value of true collaboration.
By now you have most likely seen the perked ears of a pink “pussyhat” adorning the head of a friend, neighbor, or celebrity. Perhaps you have even knit one of your own. While this quiet form of protest was initially designed as a clever way to keep warm at the January 21, 2017 Women’s March…
This spring, alumni can vote for a new group of Harvard Overseers and Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) elected directors. This is the time to get informed on the candidates and important issues. Ballots will be mailed no later than April 1. Completed ballots must be received, at the indicated address, by 5:00 pm EDT on Tuesday,…
Since joining Pei Cobb Freed & Partners more than 30 years ago, GSD Alumni Council member Yvonne Szeto MArch ’79 has spent her career advancing the firm’s tradition of thoughtfully considered and well-crafted public works.
