Toshiko Mori, Robert P. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture and Chair, Department of Architecture

12:30pm - 1:30pm - Lunch (Portico Rooms)

• Mohsen Mostafavi, Dean
• Hannah Peters, Associate Dean for External Relations
• Michaele Pride, MAUD '01, President of the Alumni Council

Introduction by Laura Miller, MArch '88, Associate Professor of Architecture

• Fieldwork: The Butaro Hospital in Rwanda - Michael Murphy, MArch I '10; Marika Shioiri-Clark, MArch I '10
  • To create a more healing environment in Rwandan hospitals, 11 GSD students have teamed up with Partners in Health, The Clinton Foundation, and Rwanda’s ministry of health to design the Butaro Hospital, the first in the Burera region of Rwanda. The hospital aims to be a prototype of innovative health care design by seeking to reduce the transmission of airborne disease, particularly TB, through architectural solutions. Airborne disease is becoming a serious threat to global health.

    “The problem of airborne disease in developing countries is so huge and complex that a multidisciplinary approach is the only way to address these issues,” says Michael Murphy, a member of the GSD design team. “We believe that architecture can save lives through effective healthcare design, but we also understand that any effective solution must include cooperation with governments, local constituents, NGOs, and other designers. To this end, MASS, the NGO that several of us at the GSD have established, will take a holistic, systems-based approach to improving global healthcare through design.”  Michael Murphy and Marika Shioiri-Clark are both MArch I students in the second year.

• Responsibility (in)to New Orleans - Justin Brown, MArch I '10
  • As the leader of the pro bono residential reconstruction effort at Perez APC in New Orleans last summer, Justin independently met with home owners, consultants, contractors, and city officials to design, coordinate, and draft construction document sets for the renovation of five houses in three months.
    
    
• Project Khayelistsha in South Africa - Patrick Jones, MArch I '09, and Ashley Heeren, MArch I '09
  • Khaya eKasi, sponsored by ArtAidsArt for the non-profit artisan organization of MonkeyBiz, will be a new community center that combines education and economic development, addressing local needs while achieving sustainability.   Responding to the need for designers to assist in planning the center, project KHAYELITSHA, a multidisciplinary group of students at the GSD, came together to help the women bead artists of MonkeyBiz build a collective space within their community.  During the summer of 2007, five students traveled to Cape Town in order to initiate an ongoing participatory planning and design-build process.  The design for the new center thus developed from interactions with various community members as well as from conversations with local architects and contractors.  By gaining a better understanding of the craftswomen's needs and the constraints of the township environment, the students were able to propose sustainable solutions through a flexible, open design that will allow eKhaya eKasi to live up to its name and truly become a "home in the hood."
    
    
• The Urban Roles of a Semi-Dry River: Chihuahua and Its Chuvuscar River: Spring 2008 Studio Option. Introduction by Alex Krieger, MCUP ’77, Professor in Practice of Urban Design
  Maria Arquero de Alarcon, MLAUD ’08; Ahlam Abdulla, MAUD ’08; Laura Shipman, MAUD ’08; Ryan Losch, MAUD ’09
  • Humanity delights in and finds inspiration at waterfront settings, and often chooses to celebrate or express civic ambitions at water's edge. Imagine the Sydney Opera House, or the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, or even Cleveland's Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame, not juxtaposed against that city's body of water? The London Eye, London's majestic Ferris wheel, actually sits in the Thames. Much of contemporary Chicago's identity and self-image, not to mention wealth, comes from its spectacular 20-mile long facade stretching along Lake Michigan. Where else but along their portion of the mighty Mississippi would the citizens of St. Louis construct their monumental Gateway-to-the-West?
    
    In their post-industrial eras in particular, cities worldwide are rediscovering the pleasures -- and competitive advantages -- of direct adjacency to bodies of water. But what if the local river is a mere trickle for much of the year, yet prone to seasonal flooding? What if the climate is semiarid? What if the river's banks have been canalized and largely abandoned? What if a city has for years treated its river less as an amenity and more as a nuisance? What if the city is growing rapidly, yet still relatively poor in terms of modern infrastructure and amenities, but wishes to grow in a more sustainable way relative to its desert environment? What roles should its river play?

    The relationship of the Chuvuscar River to its host City of Chihuahua in North Central Mexico is the subject of this studio. The studio will develop strategies both at the citywide scale for better reconnecting Chihuahua to its river, and at individual sites requiring specific programmatic intervention and specific design solutions. The studio and a studio field trip to Mexico is being sponsored by the City of Chihuahua, whose leadership asks: how can the city take greater advantage of its river environment, both to achieve wiser environmental stewardship and to improve its citizens' quality of life?

  Historically cities needed to be near a body of water for transportation, sustenance and trade, but also to protect their citizens from those same bodies of water from floods and, not uncommonly, secure approach routes of potential enemies. As modern societies continue their millennial shift to service and lifestyle-based economies the potential civic 'uses' of rivers change. The studio will explore potential uses and how to achieve these.

6:30pm Public Lecture: "Before the Memorial" (Piper Auditorium, 1.5 AIA CEUs)

Introduction by Niall Kirkwood, Professor of Landscape Architecture and Technology and Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture

Peter Walker, FASLA, MLA '57, Partner-in-Charge, Peter Walker and Partners Landscape Architecture

8:00pm Gala Dinner (Loeb House, 17 Quincy Street)

Remarks by Mohsen Mostafavi, Dean
Seating by class year affiliation: Reunion classes (10th, 25th, 30th, 40th & 50th)