The Crisis in Haiti—Harvard Events and Relief Information >>

[Harvard Gazette, Feb. 4-17, 2010]

Related: Harvard Opens Haiti Relief Fund, Harvard Gazette, Jan. 22, 2010 >>

Art for students' sake

Annual show, with GSD assist, brightens Mass Hall

Walking into Massachusetts Hall’s main corridor, the first thing you’re likely to see is Mohsen Mostafavi’s gigantic statement. It’s mounted on one of the corridor’s five walls, the space for the third annual Mass Hall Student Art Exhibit, “Futures in the Present,” which was furnished by the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), where Mostafavi is dean.

Printed in black on one side of an oceanic panel, the rest of the panel drifts off into a sea of small, textural GSD logos, which let Mostafavi’s message really pop. He wrote in one section that GSD’s program, which is “aimed at the conceptualization and construction of alternative and sustainable futures, has a footing in the ethical and political realms.”

More >>

[Harvard Gazette, Feb. 4-17, 2010]

Hashim Sarkis, Aga Khan Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism in Muslim Societies, Comments on How to Help Haiti Recover and Rebuild

Haiti’s rainy season begins in April. In the face of imminent rains and hurricanes, providing shelter and adequate infrastructure for the displaced population of Port-au-Prince are critical.

More >>

[Harvard Gazette, Feb. 4, 2010]

Firm of Preston Scott Cohen Wins Progressive Architecture Award for Taiyuan Museum of Art

Architect Magazine, January 20, 2010 >>

2010 AIA Honor Awards Announced—include firm of Mack Scogin, Kajima Professor in Practice of Architecture

Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects receives the AIA Honor Award for Architecture for the Austin E. Knowlton School of Architecture, Columbus, Ohio.

View 2010 AIA Honor Award Recipients >>

New J-TERM Courses at the GSD

On January 4–15, 2010, the GSD held its first J-TERM session, between fall and spring semesters. The J-TERM offers noncredit courses that enable students to gain skills and explore new territory within an atmosphere of collaboration and interdisciplinarity.

More >>

OMA—firm of Rem Koolhaas, Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design—Wins Competition for New Chu Hai College Campus in Hong Kong

The Office for Metropolitan Architecture in collaboration with Leigh & Orange Architects has won the competition for the new campus for Chu Hai College of Higher Education in the New Territories in Hong Kong. The campus will give Chu Hai College, established in 1947, a new identity as well as a new site. The project, with a gross floor area of 28,000 sqm (301,400 sqft), consists of education facilities for three faculties – arts, science and engineering, and business – containing 10 departments and two research centers.

Read article >>

[bustler.net, January 19, 2010]

Sustainability and Tall Buildings

A Harvard Graduate School of Design Symposium on Thursday, February 25, 2010, 6:00pm–7:30pm
at the Harvard Club of New York City

More information >>

GSD Ranked #1 Landscape Architecture School
in 2010 Design Intelligence Report

View the Top 20 Landscape Architecture Schools >>

James S. Rossant, Architect and Planner, Dies at 81

A GSD Alum, James Rossant earned a Master's in City and Regional Planning in 1953.

Read obituary >>

[The New York Times, December 18, 2009]

Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, Pierre Bélanger interviews two of the most influential landscape architects in the world today: Joseph E. Brown, Chief Executive of Design & Planning at AECOM (Harvard '72) and recipient of the 2009 ASLA Medal, as well as Michael Hough, founder of ENVision – The Hough Group and recipient of the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award from both the CSLA and the Green Building Council.

Interview with Joseph E. Brown >>

[LAND Online–Landscape Architecture News Digest, December 8, 2009]

Interview with Michael Hough >>

[Journal of the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects, Fall 2009] (PDF file, page 26)

Systems Theory

Sanford Kwinter on Matthew Ritchie's The Morning Line

AMONG THE PROMINENT DEVELOPMENTS that have marked recent art has been the incursion of “method” into the heart of what has long appeared as an array of miscellaneous, even random art practices. By method, I mean nothing more than an approach in which a certain discipline is sustained over a range of executions, sustained, that is, long enough both to leave a trace of “system” in the deposited production and for that systematic quality to serve as a principal rhetorical feature of the work.

Read full article >>

[Artforum, November 2009]

Martha Schwartz receives Honorary Royal Designer for Industry Award in recognition of her “outstanding contribution” to UK design

Regarded as the most prestigious accolade in the industry, Schwartz joins a select group of designers who have previously received the award from the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. They include Vivienne Westwood, James Dyson, and English sculptor Thomas Heatherwick. 

The RSA praised Schwartz for the way in which she combines “environmentally sound practice with complex social issues, and brings a strong aesthetic focus” to create visually striking projects with a potent sense of cultural identity.

As one of the most controversial figures in landscape design, Schwartz has been combining sustainability with the highest level of aesthetics for more than 30 years. Schwartz has applied her strong sense of identity and sensitivity to complex cultural and environmental factors within projects both nationally and internationally.

Designs range from public squares, parks, master plans and mixed-use developments, to art commissions and private residences. Projects include Grand Canal Square in Dublin Docklands, the Children’s Discovery Centre in Damascus and the H.U.D Plaza in Washington D.C, as well as the award-winning Mesa Arts Center in Arizona and St Mary’s Churchyard in London.

RSA Award Announcement >>

Martha Schwartz GSD profile >>

Niall Kirkwood, Professor of Landscape Architecture and Technology at the GSD, will present the Keynote Lecture at the 47th International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) World Congress, in Suzhou, China, on May 28, 2010.

The World Congress, organized by the Chinese Society of Landscape Architects (CHSLA) and IFLA, supported by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People’s Republic of China, and co-organized by Suzhou People’s Government and Department of Construction of Jiangsu Province, has as its theme "Traditional Inheritance and Sustainable Development."

Alex Krieger, Professor in Practice of Urban Design, and Chair, Department of Urban Planning and Design, to Co-Chair Committee for "Campus Development" Phase of Allston Expansion

See transcript of "Letter to the Community" by President Drew Gilpin Faust, December 10, 2009 >>

GSD Alumni Leena Cho, MLA '09 and Matthew Jull, MArch '08
receive Special Mention for the International Garden Festival Competition
at Jardins de Metis, for their project entitled "Dirt Roll" >>

As part of the Territories Lecture Series at the Knowlton School of Architecture, Pierre Bélanger, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, lectures on "Redefining Infrastructure" at Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. Among other researchers and practitioners, the KSA Lecture Series features John McMorrough, Monica Ponce de Leon, Peter Eisenman, and Matthijs Bouw. For further information, see the KSA website.

Two other land grant institutions and public universities subsequently invited Bélanger to present his research work, including North Dakota State University in Fargo, ND on November 9th, 2009, and the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana where he delivered the 2009 Stanley White Lecture on November 30th. The UICU Fall Lecture Series features guest speakers such as Dennis Crompton, Julia Czerniak, Kongjian Yu, Sheila Kennedy, and Laurie Hawkinson.

Firm of Michael Van Valkenburgh, Charles Eliot Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture, selected as lead designer for North Grant Park, Chicago

Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA) has been selected as the lead designers of North Grant Park in Chicago, located to the east of Millennium Park and at the end of Frank Gehry's BP Bridge, which had previously been called by Renzo Piano as the bridge to nowhere. The redesign presents a complex assignment for MVVA as the park is mostly located on a large parking structure that is being refurbished due to waterproofing problems. MVVA's subconsultants include Chicago architects Krueck and Sexton (KS), who are redesigning the new Children’s Museum that will be incorporated into the park site. Competitors for the North Grant Park project selection process included Martha Schwartz, Ken Smith, Field Operations, West 8, Kongjian Yu, and Weiss/Manfredi amongst a total of 27 international firms that submitted qualifications.

See the Chicago Tribune, November 19, 2009 >>

Toshiko Mori’s design for Ordos Villa 64, will be on display at Cannon Design’s exhibition ORDOS NOW. The exhibition features designs from the Ordos Project and will be on view Nov 12- Dec 12 at Cannon Design’s gallery at Bridge 8 in Shanghai.

More >>

“Tactical Operations in São Paulo’s Informal Sector, studio run by Christian Werthmann, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, exhibited at the Parallel Cases exhibition of the Architectural Biennale in Rotterdam

More information >>

The Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, designed by Machado and Silvetti Associates—the firm of Rodolfo Machado, Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design and Jorge Silvetti, Nelson Robinson Jr. Professor of Architecture—has received an Honor Award in the Institutional / Commercial project category from the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

Stoss Landscape Urbanism—firm of Chris Reed, Design Critic in Landscape Architecture—Installs Stock-Pile in Radcliffe Yard, Cambridge, MA

More >>

2010 Design Intelligence Report Ranks GSD as #1 Graduate Architecture School

GSD also listed as #1 in Skills Rankings for Design, Research & Theory, Communication, and Analysis & Planning, as well as #1 "Most Admired" MArch program

Architectural Record, November 2009 >>

On November 5, 2009, Hashim Sarkis, Aga Khan Professor at the GSD, lectured at the Urban Age conference in Istanbul on “Many Mediterraneans: Istanbul and the Ideal of a Mediterranean City.”  Sarkis has been a member of the Urban Age, a research project run by the London School of Economics Cities Programme and funded by the Alfred Herrhausen Society, since it was founded in 2004.

His paper “It’s Istanbul (Not Globalization),” on Istanbul’s relationship with the Arab world, has been published in Istanbul City of Intersections.

On November 23, Sarkis will also deliver “A Question of Geography,” a public lecture about his design work at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina.  

Reshaping our housing dreams

NOW THAT American fashionistas have embraced shabbiness, discovering a joy in ratcheting back expenditures—segueing from Saks to the Salvation Army—the question looms: What happens after the economy rebounds? Will “shabby’’ be passé, and will we return to our profligate ways? Or will we, much like our Depression-era forefathers who saved string and paper bags into their dotage, embrace shabbiness long after the Dow has spiraled up?

For housing the question is acute, since, once upon a pre-Crash time, the housing sector (new homes, remodeling, furnishings, rent . . .) exceeded 20 percent of GDP.

Full article >>

[Boston Globe Op-Ed by Nicolas Retsinas, Lecturer in Urban Planning and Design, November 3, 2009]