Alumni Q&A: Megan Panzano MArch ’10
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.
Category: Featured
News Updates
GSD Podcast Roundup
The GSD presents two podcast series featuring in-depth interviews with leading design practitioners from around the world.
Advancing GSD Urban Economics with Generous Gift from Samuel Plimpton MBA ’77, MArch ’80
In December 2018, a gift from Samuel Plimpton MBA ’77, MArch ’80 and his wife, Wendy Shattuck, established the Plimpton Professorship of Planning and Urban Economics. The professorship will advance the GSD in the field of urban economics, fundamental for understanding the economics of cities, as well as land use, planning, and real estate decisions in…
An Interview: Peter Coombe MArch ’88
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…
Greetings from Dept. of Landscape Architecture
Dear Landscape Architecture Alumni,Before I share news and updates from my fifth year as Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture, I would like to invite you to the upcoming GSD reception at the ASLA Annual Conference on Landscape Architecture in San Diego. One of the great satisfactions for me as Chair has been to reconnect with alumni…
Industry Advisors Help GSD’s Laboratory for Design Technologies Take Flight for Future of Air Travel
With industry leaders—including Boeing and Clark Construction—and world-class academic researchers joining forces, the Harvard University Graduate School of Design’s (GSD) Laboratory for Design Technologies is undertaking its first project: “The Future of Air Travel.”
A Momentous Year: Highlights from 2018-2019 at Harvard Graduate School of Design
A look back at a few of the projects and moments that marked the past year at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. June 2018 Thirty-five students are awarded fellowships through the GSD’s Community Service Fellowship Program. The Program provides opportunities for GSD students to apply the skills they have developed in their academic programs through…
“You belong here”: Naisha Bradley’s vision for community-building at the GSD
As I approach my work, I assume good intent from those I’m engaging and listening to. We have to create the space for more conversations and do so with forgiving ears and with the understanding that people are going to make mistakes.
The GSD’s 2018-2019 Unsung Heroes
On April 12, 2019, during a celebration at the Frances Loeb Library, the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) Alumni Council honored three current students—Chantine Akiyama MArch ’19, Sidra Fatima MUP ’19, and Natalie Wang MDes ’19—with the 2019 Unsung Hero Book Prize.
Harvard GSD Establishes Planning, Urban Economics Professorship With Gift from Samuel Plimpton MBA ’77, MArch ’80
The GSD is pleased to announce the establishment of the Plimpton Professorship of Planning and Urban Economics, made possible by a gift from Samuel Plimpton MBA ’77, MArch ’80 and his wife, Wendy Shattuck
The Inaugural Eduard Sekler Scholarship Recipient: Francisco Colom MDes ’19
As the first Eduard Sekler Fellow, Francisco Colom MDes ’19 is embracing the legacy of the beloved Professor Sekler through his work in conservation and the tensions between progress and tradition.
Alumni Q&A / James Lord MLA ’96 and Roderick Wyllie MLA ’98, SURFACEDESIGN INC.
Through leadership and innovative design, James Lord MLA ’96 and Roderick Wyllie MLA ’98 of SURFACEDESIGN INC. have established an international reputation in urban design and sustainable landscape architecture. Founded in 2001, the award-winning practice creates dynamic parks, plazas, waterfronts, civic landscapes, and private gardens. Highlights include the Smithsonian Master Plan, Auckland International Airport, Golden…
Using the Arboretum’s Living Lab in Hands-on Fieldwork
Just beyond the old iron gates of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, a creative experiment in pedagogy has been bringing the concept of plant sciences to growing, changing life.
Irving Innovation Fellowship Enriches Student Research, Bridges Academy and Practice
The Irving Innovation Fellowship exemplifies many of the ideals at the heart of the Harvard Graduate School of Design community
Alumni Q&A / Sol Camacho MAUD ’08, RADDAR
Sol Camacho is an architect and urban designer who founded and directs RADDAR, an architecture firm based in São Paulo and Mexico City.
A Fall 2018 Update from the GSD
As the GSD embarks on another academic year, 966 students, including 361 new students, have settled in at Gund Hall ready to engage in an array of core and option studios; public lectures and events; exhibitions; and travel opportunities.
Herzog & de Meuron, Beyer Blinder Belle selected for transformative expansion of Gund Hall
The project is designed to advance School’s commitment to cross-disciplinary collaboration and innovation.
The Impact of the GSD Alumni Community: Key Findings from the 2018 Alumni Research Initiative
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.
Alumni Q&A: Sameh Wahba MUP ’97, PhD ’02, KSGEE ’13
Alumni Council member Sameh Wahba MUP ’97, PhD ’02, KSGEE ’13 is a true Harvard citizen with his Master in Urban Planning (MUP) degree from the Graduate School of Design (GSD), his PhD from the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and completion of the Kennedy School of Government Executive Education’s International Finance Corporation Infrastructure Executive Program.
Dean’s Year in Review: Highlights from 2017–2018
The end of each year invites the opportunity both to reflect on our community’s accomplishments and to look ahead to future potentials. This year involved several major milestones for the GSD and for Harvard, including an energetic final year of our Grounded Visionaries campaign and the University’s capital campaign.
Alumni Council Honors Students with 2018 Unsung Hero Book Prize
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.
Alumni Q&A: Jungyoon Kim MLA ’00 and Yoonjin Park MLA ’00 of PARKKIM
Jungyoon (Yuni) Kim MLA ’00 and Yoonjin Park MLA ’00 are Founding Principals of PARKKIM. This Spring, they are Design Critics in Landscape Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) co-teaching the option studio “Korea Remade: Alternative Nature, DMZ, and Hinterlands” with Professor Niall Kirkwood.
Miami Welcomes the GSD’s Future of the American City effort with $1 million from Knight Foundation
To engage Miami residents in creating new approaches to address pressing urban issues—including affordable housing, transportation and sea level rise—the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is granting $1 million in support to the GSD.
Announcing Appointments of Jeanne Gang MArch ’93, Sharon Johnston MArch ’95, and Mark Lee MArch ’95 as Professors in Practice of Architecture
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.
The GSD and Perkins+Will Celebrate the First Phil Freelon Fellow
The Phil Freelon Fellowship Fund was established last year to expand academic opportunities for African American and other under-represented students of design.
2017 Black in Design Conference examines where and how design and activism intersect
Empowering; uplifting; sobering; timely; necessary. An event that evades simple distillation, the Harvard Graduate School of Design’s 2017 Black in Design Conference evoked a range of immediate reactions, as well as a charge for sustained dialogue over the many issues it positioned within its programming.
Recent GSD Alumni Faculty Appointments and Promotions
Seven alumni are among the promotions and appointments recently announced by Dean Mohsen Mostafavi, which are effective July 1, 2017.
The GSD Premieres the Wimbledon House and the Richard Rogers Fellowship
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.
Alumni Q&A / Jose Castillo MArch ’95, DDes ’00 and Saidee Springall MArch ’96
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.
Alumni Q&A / Colonel Chris Castle DDes ’99, Defense Health Agency
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.
GSD Student Fellowship Reception 2017 Launches the Thomas Payette Financial Aid Fund
The GSD celebrated the newly created Thomas Payette Financial Aid Fund and the power of the fellowships and financial aid during its second annual fellowship reception on Wednesday, April 12, 2017.
Opening of the Sarah and Rolando Uziel AB ’57 Exhibition Wall in the Loeb Library
The Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) is pleased to announce the opening of the Sarah and Rolando Uziel AB ’57 Exhibition Wall in the Frances Loeb Library.
Faculty and alumni to participate in 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial, “Make New History”
The Chicago Architecture Biennial has announced its 2017 roster of participants, selected by 2017 Artistic Directors Sharon Johnston MArch ’95 and Mark Lee MArch ’95 of the Los Angeles–based firm Johnston Marklee and including a range of Harvard Graduate School of Design faculty and alumni.
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.
GSD’s First MOOC Developed and Taught by K. Michael Hays
For the first time, starting February 28, GSD alumni and architecture enthusiasts around the world will be able to study architecture through a new HarvardX course orchestrated by Michael Hays, the GSD’s Eliot Noyes Professor of Architectural Theory and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, as well as Interim Chair for the Department of Architecture.
Global Challenges Need Designers
With your help, the GSD can continue to bring the most talented students to Harvard to explore, analyze, and confront the global challenges facing society today and in the future. Your donation to the GSD Fund provides immediate support to the activities and experiences which are hallmarks of a GSD education.
Harvard GSD, Perkins+Will, and Phil Freelon LF ’90 Announce the Phil Freelon Fellowship
The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), along with global architecture and design firm Perkins+Will and Phil Freelon LF ’90, Managing and Design Director of the firm’s North Carolina practice, announces the establishment of the Phil Freelon Fellowship Fund at the GSD
Celebrating and Honoring Dame Zaha Hadid
This year, the global design community mourned the passing of Dame Zaha Hadid (1950-2016), the first female recipient of both the Pritzker Architecture Prize (2004) and the RIBA Gold Medal (2016). As her untimely passing saddened friends, clients, and admirers, her legacy inspired the GSD to find a way to celebrate her extraordinary contributions to…
Urbanism + Citymaking: Confronting the Challenges of Modern-day Cities
The School’s generous donors are acknowledging the GSD’s leadership in topics related to urbanism and citymaking. Whether through the establishment of a fellowship honoring a former faculty member, or for a student to study affordable housing, or the generous gift of two friends in support of a new design prize in real estate, GSD donors are sustaining the School’s ongoing commitment to the essential challenges facing cities today.
Dean Mostafavi Talks Innovation with Blueprint Magazine
As the GSD looks ahead to an ambitious academic year of groundbreaking initiatives, including our inaugural class of Design Engineering students and broadening research agenda, the topic of innovation is salient. Dean Mostafavi sat down with Blueprint magazine to talk innovation, invention, and collaboration. I think a lot of the time when you talk about innovation,…
Alumni Q+A: Allyson Mendenhall AB ’90, MLA ’99
As the Chair of the GSD Alumni Council, Allyson Mendenhall AB ’90, MLA ’99, is passionate about the Council’s role as ambassadors to the greater alumni body and for current students who are “alumni-in-training.” She also serves as a GSD Appointed Director to the Harvard Alumni Association working to raise the School’s profile. In support of her aspiration…
Student-designed Alpine Shelter Skuta Honored in Core77’s 2016 Design Awards
A Harvard Graduate School of Design student design project has been named the 2016 Student Winner in the Built Environment category of Core77’s annual Design Awards. Core77 awarded the honor to Alpine Shelter Skuta, designed by Frederick Kim, Katie MacDonald, and Erin Pellegrino (all MArch ’16). The trio designed the project as part of Fall 2014 option-studio…
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…
GSD Winter Events around the Globe
The year has been off to a vibrant start for our community bringing together alumni, friends, and distinguished speakers for stimulating conversation and thought-provoking discourse. Over 400 GSD alumni and friends from around the world connected with colleagues and the GSD during ten events in Berkeley, Jakarta, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Taipei, and Cambridge….
GSD and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners collaborate on London symposium
The Harvard Graduate School of Design (Harvard GSD), with Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP), is pleased to announce the symposium Collaboration: The Lineage of an Architectural Practice, to be held Thursday 17 March from 4.00pm – 8.00pm at the Leadenhall Building in London. RSHP’s history offers a remarkable lens on the task and the potential of…
Form, setting, space, light: Calvin Klein speaks at the GSD
What does architecture have to do with fashion? If you’re designer Calvin Klein, actually quite a lot. Speaking before an overflow crowd at Gund Hall Monday evening as part of the Rouse Visiting Artist Program at Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), Klein discussed how form, setting, space, and light have deeply informed his work as a…
Returning to Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy
Reacting to a St. Louis nonprofit group dedicated to improving the quality of life on the nearly 900 streets across the nation named for King, D’Oca began teaching a new studio course this semester that asks students to use urban planning and design, architecture and landscape architecture to help local residents begin to remake their neighborhoods.
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.
Alumni Q+A: Inga Saffron LF ’12
Going from covering suburban planning-board meetings to witnessing sectarian violence in the Balkans may not seem like the most obvious career path, but for Saffron, it was a natural progression that ultimately led to her current role as the architecture critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Faculty Profile: Ali Malkawi
Professor Malkawi shares his reflections on joining the GSD faculty, founding and directing the new Harvard Center for Green Building and Cities, and his professional inspirations and aspirations.