Cooper-Hewitt Director Bill Moggridge announced the winners of the 2012 National Design Awards. Among the recipients are GSD faculty Mack Scogin and Chris Reed. 

Phil Freelon Wins 2012 Design Guild Award from Design Guild of the College of Design at NC State University.
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The Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure and the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI) have launched Envision, a framework for evaluating infrastructure projects.

The system takes what ISI calls a holistic view, touching on quality of life, resource allocation, impacts on ecosystems and climate, and issues of risk and leadership. Project owners and design teams can use a self-assessment tool or can submit the project for third-party verification, which includes evaluation of the project during three phases: pre-construction, construction, and operations and maintenance.

Future versions of the rating system will also incorporate additional tools for complex or multi-stage projects. 

Rosetta Elkin, Lecturer in Landscape Architecture, is the recipient of the Daniel Urban Kiley Teaching Fellowship in Landscape Architecture for the 2012-2013 academic year. The Fellowship is awarded competitively on an annual basis, and is intended to recognize and foster emerging design educators whose work embodies the potentials for landscape as a medium of design in the public realm. A jury comprised of leading figures from the Harvard GSD faculty including the incumbent Kiley Fellow took part in the selection process. The Daniel Urban Kiley Fellowship builds upon the GSD’s history of pedagogic innovation as well as the Department of Landscape Architecture’s century of leadership in landscape education. Continue reading

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Michael Hooper, Assistant Professor of Urban Planning, and his colleague Leonard Ortolano at Stanford have published results from their research on slum dweller mobilization in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Their recent paper, in the journal Environment and Urbanization, examines factors motivating slum dweller participation in physically and politically risky social movement activities. The research looked at grassroots mobilization around a large-scale eviction in the city's Kurasini ward. The study's results suggest that the dynamics of participatory decision making are more complex than usually assumed by planners, policymakers and community organizers alike.  Continue reading

Fadi Masoud (MLA II '12) was recently selected by the Landscape Architecture Foundation as one of four 2012 National Olmsted Scholar Finalists. He was selected from a  pool of 46 candidates nominated by their faculty as University Olmsted Scholars.  Continue reading

Governing by Design: Architecture, Economy, and Politics in Twentieth Century, a new book by Associate Professor Timothy Hyde and the Aggregate Architectural History Collaborative, is an innovative collection of essays on the relation between architecture and political, economic, social, and biological forms of governance.

“Governing by Design offers a unique perspective on twentieth-century architectural history, disputing the primacy placed on individuals in the design and planning process and instead looking to the larger influences of politics, culture, economics, and globalization to uncover the roots of how our built environment evolves.” Continue reading

Preston Scott Cohen represents the practice of architecture in the documentary film, From Nothing, Something, about the creative process. Directed by Tim Cawley, "From Nothing, Something profiles creative thinkers across a variety of disciplines and finds common methods, habits, mindsets and neuroses that help bring breakthrough ideas into being."

The film will be shown at the Independent Film Festival of Boston on Sunday, April 29th at 5:30, among others.

The April 14 "Rising Tide: Asia Lifts the World" conference organized by the GSD and Harvard Business School was featured in the Singapore Center for Liveable Cities newsletter.

The annual Asia Business Conference conference examined Singapore as a global city and an economic model. While other economies have been struggling with crises in recent years, Asia has emerged as a pivotal force in the global economy. Today, Asian consumers and companies shape the direction of international markets, business and law.