Blackstone Office Renovation, by Bruner/Cott & Associates, the firm of Adjunct Professor of Urban Planning and Design Leland Cott, awarded the 2007 Honor Award in Sustainable Design by the Boston Society of Architects

The building renovation, which was completed in 2006, is the result of the transformation of three 19th century masonry buildings into a consolidated headquarters for Harvard’s University Operations Services.  It is the first LEED Platinum certified project for the University, the third in New England, and is the highest scoring adaptive reuse building in the country.  Blackstone has also won the 2007 Honor Award in Sustainable Design from the Boston Society of Architects. 

June 21 Harvard Gazette article on Blackstone...

Bruner/Cott & Associates website…

GSD faculty member William LeMessurier, 81, Structural Engineer, Dies

[William LeMessurier (GSD ’49) served as Lecturer in Architectural Technology from September 1972 to August 1982; and as Adjunct Professor of Architectural Technology from September 1082 to June 2004.]
By Anthony Ramirez

William J. LeMessurier, a structural engineer who became a hero to other structural engineers when he detected and repaired a potentially catastrophic flaw in the Citicorp building in Manhattan, died on June 14 in Casco, Me. He was 81.

The cause was complications of surgery he underwent on June 1 after a fall the day before, said his daughter, Irene LeMessurier Jenks.

Mr. LeMessurier (which he pronounced Luh-MEASURE) was an expert on the structure of high-rise buildings. He helped design the supporting skeleton of the Citicorp building, at 53rd Street and Lexington Avenue. At 900 feet, it is one of the tallest buildings in the world.

full article...

image: William J. LeMessurier in 1974
photo: John Brooke

[New York Times, June 21, 2007]

Stop Over in Beijing

OMA’s  [Professor in Practice of Architecture Rem Koolhaas’] new CCTV headquarters and Herzog & de Meuron’s [Arthur Rotch Design Critics in Architecture Jacques Herzog and  Pierre de Meuron’s] National Stadium are among the architectural highlights that are buzzing with workers to be ready for the 2008 Olympics.

Stopped in Beijing for a 4-day weekend to check out the building sites and plan our much longer visit in October. Because it was our first time in China and time was short we decided to go for an eclectic program that would capture the atmosphere in Beijing.... First on our list was a visit to the OMA Asia office to meet Ole Sheeren, partner in charge, and tour the construction site of the 550,000 square meter headquarters for the Central Chinese Television CCTV.... Herzog & de Meuron’s National Stadium in Beijing, a 91,000 seat structure, resembles a “bird's nest” constructed of branches and twigs. Each space within the stadium is constructed as an independent unit within the outer lattice making it possible to encase the entire complex with an open grid that allows for natural air circulation....

full article...

[KK Letter, ARCSpace.com, June 18, 2007]

Kenzo Tange Professor in Architecture David Adjaye awarded OBE

Several luminaries from the worlds of design, advertising, architecture and fashion have been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list this year… Leading contemporary architect David Adjaye, known for his prestigious client list which features the likes of Ewan McGregor, Jake Chapman and Alexander McQueen, was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE). [The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions, one of which is the OBE.

Panel: Construct TCC plaza at street level; Adjunct Professor of Urban Planning and Design David Lee advises on college design in Houston

A panel of outside consultants Friday recommended that Tarrant County College scrap plans for a pedestrian pathway underneath Belknap Street for its new downtown campus and instead develop a plaza at street level that could be a gathering place for public events.

The panel, assembled at the urging of Fort Worth financier Ed Bass, recommended that an ad hoc committee be established in the next couple of weeks to begin discussing ideas for a plaza design. The consultants -- Fred Kent, president of the Project for Public Space in New York; David Lee, an adjunct professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design; and Alan Hantman, a Washington architect -- said the city, county and college district have an opportunity to create a unique gathering place. . . . "In our collective experience, we could only think of a few examples of great public places that happened below street grade," Lee said. "As a public space, there needs to be as much space at street level as possible."

full article...

[By Sandra Baker, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, June 16, 1007]

Sleeping beauty
By Ellis Woodman

Eventually FOA’s technology transfer centre in La Rioja will be engulfed by plants, but already this extraordinary building points to a new direction in the architect’s work.

[Professor in Practice Architecture Farshid Moussavi is Principal of Foreign Office Architects (FOA).]

full article...

photo: Ramon Prat

[Building Design, June 15, 2007]

University Celebrates GSD’s Exhibitions Coordinator Dan Borelli among Harvard Heroes

photo: From left, Sara Wilkinson, Associate Director of Human Resources and Faculty Planning; honoree Dan Borelli, Exhibitions Coordinator; Dean Alan Altshuler; and Lauren Baccus, Director of Human Resources, gather in Memorial Hall before the Harvard Heroes ceremony.

Harvard knows how to honor its heroes.

With trumpet fanfare, 43 individual honorees and team honorees from eight University departments processed on June 13th into Sanders Theater, filled with colleagues, friends, families and other well-wishers to attend the 2007 Harvard Heroes Awards Ceremony. Following words of welcome by Vice President for Human Resources Marilyn Hausammann, Interim President Derek Bok conferred the honors to those “few staff members who make an extraordinary contribution to the University and are recognized as ‘Harvard Heroes.’” A reception was held in Annenberg Hall following the conferring of honors.

In addition to Dan from the GSD, members of only one other School, the Kennedy School of Government, were recognized; traditionally Harvard Heroes have been selected from only the University’s Central Administration department. Dean Alan Altshuler was among the Harvard Heroes Sponsors, and Sara Wilkinson represented the GSD on the Harvard Heroes Committee.

Visions of  a New Tokyo Takes Cues from Old Edo
By Mark Mulligan, Lecturer in Architecture, GSD

Mark Mulligan discusses the challenges that were addressed by GSD students in the Department of Urban Planning and Design studio option titled Tokyo's 'New Order' from a Local Perspective: Redevelopment of the Chuo-ku Waterfront. The studio option, held in Fall 2006, was led by Raymond Garbe Professor of Architecture an Urban Design Peter Rowe and Mark Mulligan.

• Full article (pdf)
• Harvard University Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies website
  
  

[Reischauer Reports (Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies) Spring 2007]

Blueprints for a champion city
By Steven Litt
Plain Dealer Architecture Critic

A building can't slam-dunk a basketball, score a touchdown or hit a home run. But make no mistake: Architecture is very much part of the global competition among cities for survival and supremacy.

And Cleveland is very much in the game. Across the city, leading developers and institutions are recruiting major talents whose work could transform perceptions about the city. . .  

. . .  [GSD Professor in Practice of Architecture] Farshid Moussavi, 41, a native of Iran who has lived in England since the age of 13, is designing a new building for the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, which will occupy a highly visible corner at Euclid Avenue and Mayfield Road. Her firm, Foreign Office Architects of London, is known for designing wildly different buildings and public spaces that blend undulating topographies and elaborate surfaces.

full article...

[Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 10, 2007]

Altshuler to stay through fall

Alan A. Altshuler, who announced last fall that he will step down as dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), has agreed to stay on as dean for the fall semester until a new dean is selected. Altshuler was appointed acting dean of the School in July 2004 and assumed the deanship in February 2005.

[Newsmakers, Harvard Gazette, June 7-13, 2007]

In her recent letter to the GSD faculty, staff and students, President-elect Drew Faust wrote, “As Commencement rapidly approaches, I wanted to let you know that the search for the next dean of GSD actively proceeds.  We will continue working into the summer to bring the search to a successful conclusion.

In the meantime, I am pleased to announce that Alan Altshuler has agreed to stay for the fall semester until a new dean is selected and in place, to guide the school until the search comes to closure.  Alan has my deepest gratitude, as well as that of the faculty advisory group for the search, for his very generous willingness to carry forward.”

Architect magazine features GSD faculty and forum

The June issue of Architect magazine notes the following faculty honors and reports on a recent Loeb Fellowship Forum on Race and Architecture: 

* 2007 ASLA Professional Award Winner Adjunct Professor of Landscape Architecture Martha Schwartz (Martha Schwartz Partners) for the Mesa Arts Center; and 2007 ASLA Award of Excellence in the Analysis and Planning Category to Peter Louis Hornbeck Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture George Hargreaves (Hargreaves and Associates) for work on San Francisco’s Hunters Point Waterfront Park Project.

* 2007-2008 Rome Prize winner Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture Alan Berger for his examination of the role of design and landscape in the reclamation of Rome’s environs.

* GSD Forum on Race and Architecture, held on April 30th attracted about 30 architects, planners, sociologists and others who reported on the impetus for and results of their schools’ symposia held earlier last spring to examine the ways that issues of race permeate the design profession. The forum was hosted by GSD Loeb Fellow Steven Lewis and moderated by James Stockard, lecturer in housing studies in the GSD’s Department of Urban Planning and Design.

* “Office dA—The Boston firm combines intellectual rigor with sensitivity to site, materials, and process in three new projects.” The feature article highlights dA’s founding principals, Professor of Architecture Monica Ponce de Leon and Adjunct Professor of Architecture Nader Tehrani, and their recent projects.

Old and new buildings [including GSD Professor Rem Koolhaas and Visiting Professor Francine Houben projects] share the limelight in Rotterdam’s Year of Architecture

full article...

[USA Today/Associated Press by Mike Cooper, June 1, 2007]

Notes From Underground--

As museum architects take a shine to less bling, there's no place to go but down…Other museum additions echo this deferential approach. The Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Maine is housed in an 1894 neoclassical building designed by Charles McKim of McKim, Mead and White. The Boston firm of Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design Rodolfo] Machado and Nelson Robinson Jr. Professor of Architecture Jorge] Silvetti created underground galleries, reached from a sleek, freestanding entry pavilion.

 
full article...

[By Cathleen McGuigan, Newsweek, June 1, 2007]

GSD Alumni Sweep 2007 ASLA Honors

WASHINGTON, June 5, 2007 — The Board of Trustees of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has selected the recipients of its 2007 honors, the highest awards the Society presents each year.  The medals, the Community Service Award, and the Landscape Architecture Firm Award will be presented on October 8, 2007, during the ASLA Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California.

Of the three GSD honorees out of nine award winners, William B. Callaway, FASLA (MLA ’71) of Sausalito, California, will receive the ASLA Medal – the highest honor the ASLA may bestow upon a landscape architect – for his lifetime achievements and contributions to the profession, the welfare of the public, and the environment.  Callaway has 40 years of experience in the profession of landscape architecture. The past 38 of have been spent at SWA Group, where he has worked his way up from draftsman to president and now serves as CEO.  Due in large part to recognize Bill’s leadership in the profession, in 2005 SWA became the third firm in ASLA history to receive the Landscape Architecture Firm Award.  Callaway’s personal leadership, charisma, and professional passion inspire designers to retain an idealistic view of the profession and the world.  His many accomplishments encompass both design excellence and leadership in firm management.

Other GSD alumni honorees include: Richard Haag, FASLA (MLA ’52) who will receive the Design Medal, Charles A. Birnbaum, FASLA (LF ’98) who will be honored with the LaGassee Medal/Landscape Architect, and the Sasaki Associates, Inc., established by Hideo Sasaki (MLA ’48), which will be honored with the Landscape Architecture Firm Award.

complete press release...

image: William B. Callaway

John Stilgoe, Robert and Lois Orchard Professor in the History of Landscape Development, Class Day Speaker at GSD Commencement

GSD Professor John Stilgoe will be the Class Day Speaker on June 6th at 4pm in Piper Auditorium during 2007 GSD Commencement. Stilgoe holds a joint appointment to the Harvard faculties of arts and sciences and design. He offers courses on the history and future of North American built landscapes. He is the author of Outside Lies Magic (1998); Alongshore (1994); Shallow-Water Dictionary: A Grounding in Estuary English (1990); Borderland: Origins of the American Suburb, 1820-1939 (1988); Metropolitan Corridor: Railroads and the American Scene (1986, George Hilton Medal); Common Landscape of America, 1580 to 1845 (1983, Francis Parkman Medal); and other works. Stilgoe is a Fellow of the Society of American Historians and winner of the ASLA Bradford Williams Medal and the AIA medal for collaborative research.

• More information on Commencement
• More information on Professor Stilgoe

The Best Buildings You’ll Ever Hear

image: IPN. Computer renderings of Elbe Philharmonic Hall, [designed by GSD Arthur Rotch Design Critics in Architecture Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron], planned to open in Hamburg, Germany, in 2010.

Could it be that we’re entering a golden age in concert hall design?

The very idea may sound a little crazy, given how adamantly some people insist that the audience for classical music is slowly dying off.

To those skeptics the current explosion of new concert spaces may seem nothing but a last-ditch attempt to attract younger audiences. And there is some truth in the observation that the global cultural construction boom has more to do with drawing tourists than with satisfying a thirst for classical performances or the arts in general.

But plenty of the partnerships forged recently between orchestras and architects cannot be dismissed as acts of desperation or boosterism. Frank Gehry’s completed Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles; Herzog & de Meuron’s design for the Elbe Philharmonic Hall in Hamburg, Germany; Jean Nouvel’s new Paris Philharmonie project: these are not only breathtaking architectural forays but a radical rethinking of the concert hall itself. Their exuberant forms and fluid interiors make the great halls of the late 19th century — from Vienna’s Musikverein to Carnegie Hall to Boston’s Symphony Hall — seem fusty by comparison.

full New York Times article...

[By Nicolai Ouroussoff, New York Times, June 3, 2007]