The GSD Celebrates the Centennial Birthday of I. M. Pei MArch ’46 with Special Events and Exhibition
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.
Category: Alumni
News Updates
A New Beginning for Trash: Arthur Huang MArch ’04
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…
Alumni Q&A / Sara Myerson MUP ’11, Director of Planning, Boston Planning & Development Agency
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.
Honoring International Women’s Day: Q+A with Pussyhat Project Co-Founder Jayna Zweiman MArch ’08
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…
Candidates for Overseers and HAA Elected Directors Announced
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,…
Alumni Q+A / Yvonne Szeto MArch ’79 of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
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.
Jonathan Franzen and GSD Converge on St. Louis and the Urban Condition
The GSD has engaged with the city of St. Louis from various approaches over the past few years—an illustration of the School’s broader commitment to tackling the challenges facing America’s cities.
Master in Urban Planning Degree Program Faculty News: Spring 2017
Neil Brenner, Professor of Urban Theory, has recently published three books that focus on the theoretical, conceptual, and methodological dimensions of urban questions. These include Critique of Urbanization: Selected Essays (Basel: Bauwelt Fundamente Series, Birkhäuser Verlag, 2016), Teoría urbana crítica y políticas de escala (edited and translated by Alvaro Sevilla-Buitrago; Barcelona: Icaria, colección Espacios Críticos,…
Architect as Agent of Change: Michael Murphy MArch ’11
Michael Murphy MArch ’11 delivers TED Talk: Architecture that’s built to heal.
Architectural Imagination HarvardX Course to Launch in February 2017
Architecture engages a culture’s deepest social values and expresses them in material, aesthetic form. In this Graduate School of Design (GSD) HarvardX free massive open online course (MOOC) offered via the edX platform, you will have exclusive access to a GSD alumni cohort to continue your design studies. The ten module course will start February…
Call for Alumni Submissions: Harvard GSD 2017 Wheelwright Prize
The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is pleased to announce the fifth cycle of the Wheelwright Prize, an open international competition that awards $100,000 annually to a talented early-career architect to support travel-based research.
Professors Toni L. Griffin LF ’98 and Alex Krieger MCP ’77 Intended Appointees to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts
President Barack Obama has announced his intent to appoint two Harvard Graduate School of Design faculty members to the United States Commission of Fine Arts: Toni L. Griffin LF ’98, professor in practice of urban planning, and Alex Krieger MCP ’77, professor in practice of urban design.
An Engaged Community: 2015-2016
The impact of the GSD alumni community spans the globe with expanding opportunities for thought-provoking discourse and building rewarding connections with fellow alumni and the School.
Fall 2016 Engagements
The GSD welcomed a host of alumni and guests to campus in September and October for an exceptional roster of alumni events, exhibitions, and public lectures.
Alumni Q+A: 2016 Reunion Participants
For the October GSD Alumni Q+A, we asked four alumni to reflect on their experience attending their 50th, 30th, 10th, and 5th reunions during the 2016 Reunion weekend in Cambridge. Their responses reveal what they find most surprising about current student work, how the GSD’s innovative studio model and transdisciplinary approach are uniquely training students…
Imagining a New Model for Cross-disciplinary Design
Interdisciplinary, experimental design is integral to the work of Sheila Kennedy, FAIA, MArch ’84 and J. Frano Violich, FAIA, MArch ’84. Their firm, Kennedy & Violich Architecture (KVA MATx), located in Boston’s emerging Newmarket District, has established a new model for practice that integrates material research with the practice of architecture.
Alumni Council Shaping Engagement of the GSD Community
With the aspiration of promoting engagement of the alumni community and advancing the Graduate School of Design’s impact in the world, the Alumni Council is the primary representative body of the GSD. These distinguished practitioners and academics are highly engaged in contemporary design, planning issues, and their communities’ professional, governmental, civic, and business affairs. Council…
A Preview of GSD Reunion 2016 | 9/30-10/1
GSD Reunion 2016 classes: 1951, 1956, 1961, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001, 2005, and 2011 GSD reunion classes will descend on the hub of design discourse, Gund Hall, on September 30-October 1, 2016 for a festive weekend marking their 5th to 60th reunions and those years in between. We hope you…
Alumni Q+A: Ila Berman MDes ’91, DDes ’93
In August 2016, Ila Berman MDes ’91, DDes ’93 will join the prestigious list of GSD alumni who have been appointed to deanships in recent years when she assumes the role of Dean of the University of Virginia School of Architecture. Other GSD alumni in deanship roles include: Amale Andraos MArch ’99 of Columbia University Graduate…
University Alumni Plimpton, Poorvu Create Real Estate Prize at the GSD
The Plimpton–Poorvu Design Prize to recognize students who exemplify excellence, innovation, and enhancement through their work at the GSD.
New GSD Faculty Appointments of Four Alumni
Dean Mohsen Mostafavi recently announced faculty appointments and promotions—all of whom are GSD alumni. The appointments will strengthen the intellectual underpinnings of cutting-edge pedagogy and research at the GSD. In the Architecture Department, Jeannette Kuo MArch ’04 was appointed Assistant Professor in Practice of Architecture. In the Urban Planning Department, the appointments include Daniel D’Oca…
Alumni Q+A: Susannah C. Drake MArch ’95, MLA ’95
Making urban environments more resilient is a charge taken on with urgency for many city leaders, the United Nations, and recently the Rockefeller Foundation with its 100 Resilient Cities initiative. For over a decade, Susannah C. Drake MArch ’95, MLA ’95, has tackled challenges of resiliency and ecologically productivity with her firm DLANDstudio, an award-winning…
Get Hired! (No Promises) Panel and Reception Connects Students and Alumni
On Tuesday, January 26, 2016, over 100 GSD students and recent graduates filled Piper Auditorium for Get Hired! (No Promises) panel discussion and reception. Alumni and friends from the GSD’s core disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, urban design, and design studies shared their expertise on the hiring process and career navigation. Sponsored by Development and…
Alumni Q+A: Ralph Johnson MArch ’73
Designing some of the world’s most respected cultural institutions at global design firm Perkins+Will has garnered Ralph Johnson MArch ’73 much national and international acclaim. Johnson is a humble visionary who was honored to hear the news in October 2015 that he was elected to the National Academy – an institution devoted to building and sharing the heritage of the arts in America – for his profound contributions.
GSD Community Tops DesignIntelligence Rankings
DesignIntelligence’s 2016 ratings recognize the GSD for excellence in education and education administration. The architecture and landscape architecture programs were named first in the nation in its 2016 “America’s Best Architecture & Design Schools” ranking. Additionally, Dean Mohsen Mostafavi and three notable alumni were named to DesignIntelligence’s “25 Most Admired Educators” list. DesignIntelligence’s annual survey,…
Fall Event Highlights
The GSD recently hosted a number of events engaging with alumni and friends in Miami, New York, and Cambridge. On campus, the fall lecture series continued with distinguished speakers like the inaugural lecture of the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities featuring Norman Foster held on Thursday, November 5, 2015. Just two days later, on November 7, 2015,…
An Engaged Community
The GSD recently hosted a number of engaging events for our community of alumni and friends. On campus, the fall lecture series kicked off with an amazing start, featuring such varied topics as landscape urbanism, architectural writing, public art interventions, and the role of communities of color in the design industry. For its annual Alumni + Friends Weekend in early October,…
Alumni Q+A: Rolando A. Kraeher MArch ’95
As the GSD community grows increasingly diverse, with more than 40% of our current enrollment from outside the U.S., it is not surprising that our alumni cohort reflects a similarly international base. While Rolando A. Kraeher MArch ’95 may be emblematic of this cohort, his story is hardly typical. One of 5 children of a Swiss-French…
Housing that reflects the world
These are crucial tenets behind Harvard’s Graduate School of Design (GSD) teachings on housing, and now the results of those lessons are on display for the community to see. Initiated by GSD Dean and Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor of Design Mohsen Mostafavi and produced by a curatorial research team of the School’s faculty, staff, and students, “Living Anatomy: An Exhibition About Housing,” a multimedia show in the lobby of Gund Hall, just opened and will be on display until December 20.
Alumni Q+A: Carlos Garciavelez MAUD ’12
New York City-based designer, architect, and urbanist discusses his foray into the fashion industry and talks about his time at the GSD.
New Leadership of GSD’s Alumni Community
The Alumni Council promotes the engagement of the alumni community and the advancement of the GSD in the world.
GSD Appoints Anita Berrizbeitia to New Role
Last month, Anita Berrizbeitia MLA ’87 and Diane Davis assumed their new role as Chair of the Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning and Design department, respectively. Read more as Berrizbeitia shares her vision and goals in the GSD’s series profiling leadership within the School and beyond. Stay tuned for an interview with Diane Davis in October.
Building Community in Their Cities
Alumni volunteers led the way and hosted local events in Philadelphia, Denver, Boston, and Cambridge.
Harvard Magazine: The Couple Who Lit Up “Lawn on D”
Harvard architect couple are transforming Boston’s landscape.
Harvard Magazine: Rick Lowe Questions the Concept of “Value” at GSD Class Day
The 2002 Loeb Fellow speaks to GSD’s Class of 2015.
Meet Brad Quigley, Director of Alumni Programs
Brad is the newest member of the GSD Development and Alumni Relations team. Read more about his background and what he hopes to bring to our community.
Spring Events Bridge Alumni Community
GSD alumni and friends from all over the globe connected with each other at events hosted by the School this spring.
Anita Berrizbeitia MLA ’87 Appointed Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture
Berrizbeitia will assume the position on July 1, 2015.
Alumni Q+A: Sean Chiao MAUD ’88
The president of AECOM Asia Pacific shares why he’s passionate about urban design, and fondly recalls his time at the GSD.
Henry N. Cobb MArch ’49 Awarded Architectural League of New York’s Highest Honor
The founding partner of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners receives the President’s Medal.
Artist and MacArthur Fellow Rick Lowe LF ’02 to Speak at GSD’s 2015 Class Day
Lowe will address graduating students and their families on May 27.
Harvard Magazine: Good Design
A public interest movement redefines architecture.
Sert Council Tours Eric Owen Moss Architects
Members of the Josep Lluís Sert Council gathered at EOMA studio in Culver City, California, for a first-hand look at the architect’s work and vision.
Jeanne Gang MArch ’93 Visits Cambridge
The founder and principal of Studio Gang Architects spoke about her firm’s compelling work and research-based approach to design at the GSD on February 12.
GSD Reception at Your Harvard: China
Alumni, friends and faculty gather in Beijing to celebrate Harvard’s continued engagement in China.
Alumni Q+A: Riki Nishimura MAUD ’03
An interview with the Director of Urban Strategies in the San Francisco office of the global design and consulting firm, Woods Bagot.
Harvard Gazette: Making Print Modern
New look for Harvard Design Magazine deepens focus on ‘Wet Matter.’
Alum and Director of Exhibitions Dan Borelli Featured in Boston Globe
The 2012 graduate of the GSD’s Master in Design Studies program talks about his research into his hometown of Ashland, MA.
GSD Alumni + Friends Reconnect at Harvard Design: Miami
For the third year running, the School presented its annual Alumni + Friends Weekend in a new host city.
The Class of 1961 Holds a Mini-Reunion
Former classmates reunite over Thanksgiving weekend in Reston, Virginia.
GSD Alumna Receives 2014 Bradford Williams Medal
Jennifer Cooper MLA ’10 honored with award for her article titled, “The Art of Taking Apart.”