News

Robert Pietrusko (MArch 12) appointed assistant professor of landscape architecture and urban planning

The Graduate School of Design is pleased to announce the appointment of Robert Gerard Pietrusko (MArch ‘12) as Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, effective July 1, 2014.

Currently serving as a Lecturer of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning and Design at the GSD, Pietrusko is also a co-founder of the metaLAB at Harvard where he develops data-rich tools and environments for the communication of scholarly work. He previously worked as a designer with Diller Scofidio + Renfro in New York, and has held research positions at Parsons Institute for Information Mapping at the New School and at Columbia University’s Spatial Information Design Lab.

Pietrusko’s research focuses on geographic representation and simulation, critical cartographic practices, and the study of spatial taxonomies. He uses spatial analysis and animated cartography to tell geographic stories, primarily taking the form of immersive data environments. Pietrusko’s interest in time-based cartography has led him to simulate a variety of socio-spatial processes—as both multi-agent and linear dynamical systems. These simulations are used to imagine future institutional forms and possible spatial organizations. His current research explores the early history of remote sensing through the various datasets specifically designed for this technology.

Pietrusko’s work has been exhibited internationally in a variety of museums and galleries including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), and The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris. He was also an artist-in-residence at the ZKM Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, Germany, and at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) in Troy, NY.

Pietrusko received his Bachelor of Music from the Berklee College of Music, a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Villanova University, and a Master of Architecture from the Harvard GSD.