Loeb Fellowship News
The Loeb FellowshiP
Engage. Reflect. Change. Renew. Connect. Learn. Explore. Loeb Fellows use words like these to describe their unique experience at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. In the middle of promising careers shaping the built and natural environment, these accomplished practitioners step away from their hectic professional lives. For one academic year, they are free to take classes at the GSD and throughout Harvard’s vast network of professional and academic schools. They read, write, talk with professors, mentor students and expand their horizons in other ways they see fit. Their goals? To become better at their craft, to step up to leadership roles, and to change the world with their unique perspectives.
The Loeb Fellowship was founded in 1970 with a gift from John L. Loeb, Harvard Class of 1924 and his wife, Frances Lehman Loeb. Mr. Loeb was distressed with the turmoil exploding in US cities at the time. He thought a year to pause, study, and reflect at a great University would enable those who designed and built our cities to return with renewed insight and energy. He would be pleased with the results of his and his wife’s generosity.
The Loeb offers multiple benefits, including a stipend and a residence in Cambridge at either Doebele House (for Fellows who come alone) or Strobel House (for Fellows whose partners or families join them). Weekly dinners with guests invited by the Fellows continue to provide a rich experience each year. Public seminars and participation in a studio course provide engagement with the pedagogical environment at the GSD. Perhaps the greatest benefit is the interaction with Loeb classmates. Each class of ten Fellows includes a diverse mix of professional interests, geographic locations, career trajectories and practitioner skills. Intentional and serendipitous encounters provide opportunity for the unhurried, thoughtful conversations that often bring the greatest learning and are so rare in normal professional life. Many classmates become lifelong friends.
The Loeb alumni/ae network now extends to over 400 active, engaged, thoughtful professionals spread throughout the world. Several events each year keep this network alive and connected. Fellows often seek each other out for good counsel or even professional work together.
