Danlu Li (MDes ’17) been awarded a Pension Real Estate Association (PREA) scholarship for the 2016–2017 academic year, one of ten students to receive the honor this year. The scholarship is awarded annually to graduate students majoring or concentrating in real estate. In addition to a cash prize, recipients are invited to the Annual Institutional Investor Real Estate Conference, held in Washington D.C. this year.
Li is a second-year student in the Master in Design Studies (MDes) Real Estate and the Built Environment (REBE) program. Prior to coming to the GSD, she earned her Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University and worked as an architectural designer at the New York design firm KPF for two years.
Li credits the MDes REBE program for introducing her to a wide range of issues related to value creation in the built environment, as well as a variety of career choices at the intersection of design and development. At the GSD, Li is a core member of Asia Real Estate Association and a participant in the MIT Case competition. She spent the past summer as an associate at the renowned real estate company Related Companies based in New York, where she worked on development and investment of large-scale mixed-use projects. She hopes to pursue a career in real estate development after graduation.
Real Estate and the Built Environment is one of eight concentrations in the GSD’s Master in Design Studies program. It prepares graduates for professional and academic careers in real estate and the built environment as thought leaders and as decision-makers in real estate development, investment, construction and financing of increasingly complex environments and future cities. The program is anchored by the belief that economic, aesthetic, and sustainable real estate values are created through a thoughtful process to confront, harness and integrate building form, typology, design thinking, financing innovation and development. In addition to rich course offerings at the GSD, students take courses at Harvard Law School, Harvard Business School, Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and MIT.