GSD News Archive: February 2007
Koolhaas Presents Design for 52-Story Tower in Jersey City In his design for a 52-story tower across the Hudson River from Manhattan, internationally acclaimed architect [and GSD Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design] Rem Koolhaas wants to inspire social interaction, life and energy. The building’s design -- three rectangular slabs stacked perpendicular to each other -- allows for a mix of uses: condos, a hotel, artist lofts and studios, gallery and retail space. “I am putting together familiar elements in an unfamiliar way,” he said in an interview after presenting renderings and models of the project at the Jersey City Museum. Associated Press, February 26, 2007 |
| Castles in the air: Professor in Practice of Architecture Farshid
Moussavi’s firm, Foreign Office Architects, is one of the top
designers for Madrid’s high-end residences, flats—and
innovative public housing.
The Guardian (UK), February 19, 2007 |
Harvard’s Core Courses Top List of Big Classes, include “Designing the American City,” taught by Professor in Practice of Urban Design Alex Krieger. The class enrolls 353 undergraduates. “I am proud of my class’ size,” said Krieger. “I’d like to think I’m the reason,” he joked, attributing the large enrollment size to a limited selection of Literature and Arts Core classes and the “unusual” mix of visual material and history in his class. The Harvard Crimson, February 16, 2007, by Maxwell L. Child, Contributing Writer |
Dean Altshuler commends Harvard’s new president, Drew G. Faust
Altshuler letter to the GSD community... Official Harvard University Announcement...
photo: Harvard Gazette, Tony Rinaldo |
The “Cities: X Lines” conference, which took place on February 8th and 9th at the Graduate School of Design, brought together an extensive array of world renowned designers, who presented their most recent work and the role it played within the broader urban context. |
Robert P. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture and Chair of the Department of Architecture Toshiko Mori, former Chair of the Department of Architecture Henry N. Cobb (MArch ’49), and John Barnes gave tributes to the late Edward Larrabee Barnes (MArch ’42) at the Accent on Design Gala held on February 9th in Washington, DC. |
New York's Bryant Park runs on commercial support. Frank Backus Williams Professor of Urban Design and co-chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design Jerold Kayden and other critics weigh in on the concept.
[Story by Robert Lee Hotz, Los Angeles Times, February 11, 2007] |
“Travelers and Tourists: A Sampling of Resources” opens at Frances Loeb Library This small but gemlike exhibition includes materials from the Loeb Library’s Special Collections and the Rare Book Room. Among the items displayed are vintage promotional guides to 19th- and 20th-century American resorts; turn-of-the-20th-century photographic view-books of Barcelona, Berlin and Curaçao; as well as guidebooks and an album of celebrity cartes-de-visite from the Charles Eliot Collection. Of special interest are examples of travel “literature” by Le Corbusier and H.P. Berlage, and examples of the more than 3,500 photographs collected by H.H. Richardson. The exhibition is located on the lower level of the Library and will run through March 3st. Hours are Monday-Friday,1:00-4:45 p.m. For more information, please call (617) 496-1300. |
Harvard University is gathering business, government and academic leaders this winter to discuss how to infuse environmental sustainability principles into the United States’ economy.
(Greenwire; February 6, 2007; Michael Burnham, Greenwire reporter) |
Jerold Kayden, Frank Backus Williams Professor of Urban Planning and Design and Co-Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design, comments on the state of New Jersey's weighing whether to lease the Garden State Parkway or Atlantic City Expressway to a private operator that would collect tolls... Not just one N.J. road to riches from assets For years, public officials have experimented with privatization to deliver services more cheaply and efficiently. But around the country, cash-strapped governments increasingly are looking to deals with the private sector to make big money, fast, to fund major infrastructure projects or pay down debt without raising taxes. Jerold Kayden, who has researched public-private partnerships, calls it “a ferocious search for money in a ferocious time.” “At a time when the demands on government are high, there is an attempt to create as much revenue as possible from anything that exists,” said Kayden, a professor of urban planning and design at Harvard University. “You’re willing to mortgage just about anything” [Full article available on the Web for a limited time: http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/16619622.htm] (c) 2007 Philadelphia Inquirer and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. |
Charles Eliot Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture Michael Van Valkenburgh’s firm, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, and Peter Louis Hornbeck Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture George Hargreaves’ firm, Hargreaves Associates, have been shortlisted for a major project in Toronto. Toronto is fast becoming a meeting ground for some of the best landscape architects in the world. That ground is located on the waterfront, where at least 12 major projects – parks, beaches and whole neighbourhoods – are underway.
[Toronto Star, February 3, 2007, article by Christoper Hume.] |
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GSD External Relations Department |
| Andrew J. Witt (MArch I) received a design research grant from the BSA for his project “CNC Adaptable Molds for Thin-shell Structures.” This year the BSA received 86 grant applications; Andrew was one of eight research grant recipients. |
GSD Loeb Fellow Maurice Cox to lecture on the role of citizen-architect “’What if the general public demanded access to beauty as one of our ‘inalienable rights’ as citizens of a democracy? What if designers dared exercise leadership in guiding communities through the most urgent matters of our time?’ These are fundamental questions citizen-architect Maurice Cox addresses at the February 21 presentation as part of the BSA Lecture Series. [This lecture is sponsored by the Loeb Fellowship Program.] Cox describes a series of radical transformations of a community undertaken over a 10-year period when he served as mayor of Charlottesville, VA and, as he notes, ‘citizens began to trust architecture again to shape their world for the better.’” [BSA ChapterLetter, February 2007] |
| Adjunct Professor of Architecture Andrea Leers, FAIA, is mentioned in the BSA ChapterLetter, February, 2007, as one of the leading architects who have led the Society’s “Conversations in Architecture,” the annual series of monthly design gatherings to discuss the current state of architecture. |
GSD exhibition features Zagreb's transition; explores significance, new strategies for architecture and urbanism
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Visiting Professor Werner Sobek to Speak at the GSD on Ultralight, Sustainable Structures; Says Trimming Structures to Minimal Material an Ecological Imperative |
February 8 and 9, 2007 The Conference will mark the launch of the Cities X Lines Catalogue (edited by Joan Busquets in collaboration with Felipe Correa), a comprehensive publication that contains the outcome of extensive research on the most salient lines of work in the contemporary city. The material draws from an extensive investigation conducted over the last three academic years that focused on the development of a pedagogic taxonomy to frame the methods and tools with which designers currently shape cities and open territories. The conference will use the catalogue as a departure point to further explore new techniques in working the built environment, and how these have been deployed in multiple settings, interacting with a wide array of cultures, scales, intensities and political agendas. The speakers include James Corner, Ben Van Berkel, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Hashim Sarkis, Paul Lewis, and Manuel de Sola Morales among others. Conference poster... (Adobe pdf) Conference schedule... (Adobe pdf) |
