The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) has selected renowned architect and GSD professor Toshiko Mori as the speaker for its 2016 Class Day on Wednesday, May 25, addressing the GSD’s Class of 2016 and their families at 4:00 p.m. in Gund Hall’s Piper Auditorium.
Mori is the founding principal of New York-based Toshiko Mori Architect, PLLC, and the GSD’s Robert P. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture. She joined the GSD faculty in 1995, becoming the first woman to earn tenure at the School, and received an honorary Master in Architecture from the School in 1996. She served as Chair of the Department of Architecture from 2002 to 2008. Mori is also the founder of VisionArc, a think-tank promoting global dialogue for a sustainable future, and is one of the founders of Paracoustica, a non-profit organization that promotes music in underserved communities.
Projects by Mori and her firm have been internationally recognized and exhibited, including at the 2012 and 2014 Venice Architecture Biennales and at the Louisiana Museum in Copenhagen in 2015. In both 2014 and 2016, Architectural Digest named Mori amongst its biennial “AD100” listing of top architects and designers. Among her other honors are numerous American Institute of Architects awards; the Academy Award in Architecture, from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter Medal of Honor; and the 2016 Tau Sigma Delta National Honor Society Gold Medal. She also was elected recently into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
To see a full schedule of 2016 Class Day and Commencement exercises, and for other Commencement information, please visit the Commencement webpage.