Prof. Beardsley revitalizes program at Harvard’s Dumbarton Oaks >>

John Beardsley, Senior Lecturer in Landscape Architecture, is completing his first year as Director of the Garden and Landscape Studies program at Harvard’s Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection in Washington, D.C.  Established in 1969, the program supports the study of gardens and the history of landscape architecture around the world from antiquity to the present.

Students embark on second trial to green Gund Hall roof >>

Prof. Kirkwood presents on ecological urbanism at the University of Korea >>

Prof. Kirkwood has been visiting Korea since 2003 to give papers at conferences and assess the state of the nation’s landscape architecture. Last week he was in Korea to present a summary of the findings of the GSD’s recent conference, “Ecological Urbanism: Alternative and Sustainable Cities of the Future.”

Linda Law, AMDP ’02, named chair of GSD’s REAI international advisory board >>

New book explores Van Valkenburgh’s public spaces on challenging sites

Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates: Reconstructing Urban Landscapes, edited by Anita Berrizbeitia and with a foreword by Paul Goldberger, (2009,Yale University) critiques 12 projects that the landscape architecture firm has successfully designed on challenging urban sites. In these locations, nature offers not so much an escape from city living as a teasing dialogue with built structures. The whole experience is aimed, as Paul Goldberger notes, to “make you see everything, city and nature alike, with striking intensity.”

PhD students awarded fellowships to further their research >>

Mobile information kiosk links Harvard arts events; inspires digital artists >>

Student commentary: History of the Future Avant-Garde panel a “choose your own apocalypse game”

Prof. Kirkwood named Fellow of ASLA and Kew Guild

Niall Kirkwood, Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Professor of Landscape Architecture and Technology, has been named a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects. In addition, the Kew Guild has awarded Professor Kirkwood an Honorary Fellowship for distinguished, international service to the general advancement of landscape architecture and technology. The Kew Guild, founded in 1893, is an Association of The Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England.

JCHS director Nicolas Retsinas reports on current housing
on NPR’s The Take Away

Nicolas Retsinas, Director of the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, spoke on May 19  about how housing fits  into the larger picture of big economic indicators on The Take Away, which airs on the BBC, National Public Radio, America Radio, and the New York Times Radio.

Listen to interview >>

Forthcoming books by GSD faculty

Expanded Practice: Howeler + Yoon Architecture/MY Studio, co-authored by Eric Howeler, Design Critic in Architecture (Princeton Architectural Press, Sept. 2009).

Rafael Moneo: 21 Works, by Rafael Moneo, Josep Lluis Sert Professor in Architecture (The Monacelli Press, Fall 2009).

Students create F.L. Wright environments for Guggenheim exhibition >>

Students in the Interactive Spaces course led by Allen Sayegh, Lecturer in Architecture, assisted in creating the digital and interactive installations for the exhibition, “Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward,” that opened on May 15 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

Professor Mori participates in Guggenheim’s “Now What Architecture”

Toshiko Mori, Robert T. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture, was a panelist with David Adjaye in the “Now What Architecture?” symposium at the Guggenheim Museum, May 14-15. This two-day symposium coincided with the opening events for the Guggenheim’s exhibition, Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward. David van der Leer, Assistant Curator of Architecture and Design at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, moderated the panel. More information >>

Related news: Wall Street Journal; May 21, 2009 >>

Prof. Werthmann, “Dirty Work” exhibition well received  in São Paulo

About 150 visitors attended the opening of the GSD’s exhibition, “Dirty Work: Transforming the Landscape of Nonformal Cities in the Americas,” and the accompanying lecture by Christian Werthmann, Associate Professor and Program Director in, on May 12 at the Museu da Casa Brasileira in Sao Paulo, Brazil. “The event was a great success—well visited and well received,” reported Professor Werthmann, who curated the exhibition with John Beardsley when it premiered in Gund Hall Gallery from December 2008 through February 2009. To accommodate museum galleries in Sao Paulo, Terah Maher, who works in the GSD Exhibitions Department, meticulously rebuilt the “Dirty Work” exhibition. The Sao Paulo Housing Agency translated all the exhibition display text from English into Portuguese and funded and coordinated the installation. The show is scheduled to travel to Rio de Janeiro next October to coincide with the International Federation of Landscape Architects’ annual conference.

GSD Joint Center for Housing Studies announces 2009 summer fellowships >>

Adam Wodka, MUP ’09, and Ivan Levi, MUP ’09, have won the Edward M. Gramlich Fellowship in Community Development which is co-sponsored with NeighborWorks America.

 

 

 

HDM editor William Saunders speaks at architecture conference in Slovenia 

Bill Saunders, editor of Harvard Design Magazine, presented at “The Next Step--Project Architecture” on May 8 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Prior to the conference Mladina magazine interviewed Bill on “Moments of Architectural Wonder.”

Prof. Van Valkenburgh’s “ecological urbanism” to revitalize Toronto waterfront;
lectures on 21st-century park >>

Prof. Kirkwood to receive honorary doctorate from the University of Ulster

Niall Kirkwood, Professor of Landscape Architecture and Technology and Chair of the Landscape Architecture Department, will receive the honorary degree of Doctor of Science on July 1 from the University of Ulster for his services to Landscape Architecture and for building links between Ireland and Harvard University. He is currently the Gerald O’Hare Visiting Professor at the University of Ulster and has worked closely with its Built Environment and Real Estate Initiative developing advanced graduate studios in Newry, Derry, and Belfast for the GSD.

Complete list of 2009 honorees >>

“Planning the New City” conference focuses on harnessing the power of waste

Should you think of your home as a potential coal mine? Or as your own personal oil well?

Maybe you should. American dwellings waste a lot of energy. If we could recover that lost energy, and put it to new uses, we'd be treating the house as a source of energy rather than a drain on it. It would be like a private mine or well.

That, at least, is the fascinating theory put forth recently in Cambridge at a conference called “Planning the New City.” The two-day conference in May that was organized by the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the Neiman Foundation held in May was an attempt to look into the future of city planning and design.

[Boston Globe; May 10, 2009]

Read full article >>

New volume on  Herzog & de Meuron released

The fourth volume of “The Complete Works” of Herzog & de Meuron, the firm of the Arthur Rotch Design Critics in Architecture Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, was recently published by Birkhäuser. Covering the period from 1997 to 2001 and spanning their projects up to the Allianz Arena in Munich, the new book illustrates comprehensively the conceptual evolution of each project, while offering a new approach to the work of Herzog & de Meuron.

Prof. Meredith’s art installation pushes digital modeling “over the edge” >>

Michael Meredith, Associate Professor of Architecture, collaborated with Slovenian artist Tobias Putrih to design “Overhang,” which is on view at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, UK through 31 August.

Joint Center for Housing Studies Director Nicolas Retsinas speaks on the national housing crisis

Nicolas Retsinas, Director of the GSD’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, was interviewed May 6 on NPR’s Morning Edition about large grant made by the Ford Foundation to ease the mortgage crisis. 

Listen to radio interview >>

Charles Waldheim Appointed Professor of Landscape Architecture and Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture >>

It gives me great pleasure to announce the appointment of Charles Waldheim as Professor of Landscape Architecture without limit of time and also as Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture, starting July 2009. I very much look forward to working with Charles and the Landscape faculty in defining the future direction of the department, and in confronting the current challenges and opportunities facing those who teach and practice in the field of Landscape Architecture.—GSD Dean Mohsen Mostafavi