The Harvard Graduate School of Design’s Rahul Mehrotra (MAUD ’87), professor of urban design and planning, has been named the James Marston Fitch Historic Preservationist in Residence at the American Academy in Rome. Mehrotra’s dates of residence are September 19 to October 17, 2016.
The James Marston Fitch Historic Preservationist in Residence is one of the American Academy in Rome’s prestigious fellowships and residencies that gather select groups of artists, practitioners, and scholars to pursue their work in an atmosphere conducive to intellectual exchange and innovation. Its namesake James Marston Fitch was an architect and preservationist who played a major role in the historic preservation movement of the 1960s. Among other achievements, he cofounded the Graduate School of Planning, Architecture, and Preservation (GSAPP) at Columbia University.
In addition to his teaching, Mehrotra has written and lectured extensively on issues to do with architecture, conservation, and urban planning. He has long been actively involved in civic and urban affairs in Mumbai—where his firm, RMA Architects, was founded in 1990—including service on commissions for the conservation of historic buildings and environmental issues, with various neighborhood groups, and, from 1994 to 2004, as Executive Director of the Urban Design Research Institute.
Mehrotra’s current research involves looking at India’s medium size cities and the broader emergent patterns of urbanism in India; his ongoing research is focused on evolving a theoretical framework for designing in conditions of informal growth—what he refers to as the “kinetic city.”
Mehrotra is not the only GSD faculty member in residence at the American Academy this academic year. Chris Reed, associate professor in practice of landscape architecture, will serve as Mercedes T. Bass Landscape Architect in Residence in April 2017.