The Harvard University Graduate School of Design is pleased to announce the following faculty appointments and promotions effective July 1, 2023:
Dana McKinney White (MArch and MUP ’17) appointed Assistant Professor of Urban Design
Dana McKinney White, founder of Studio KINN, and a co-founder of the enFOLD Collective, is a licensed architect and urban planner, and an outspoken advocate for social justice and equity through design. Her academic and professional work integrates wellness, policy, and economics into innovative design solutions to benefit the most vulnerable populations, including system-impacted communities, persons experiencing homelessness, and aging populations. McKinney White earned masters degrees in architecture and urban planning from the GSD, both with distinction, as well as an AB in Architecture from Princeton University. During McKinney White’s time as a student at the GSD, she helped to establish the inaugural Black in Design Conference, Map the Gap, and the African American Design Nexus. Prior to joining the GSD, McKinney White worked at Gehry Partners where she focused on the LA River Master Plan, Southeast Los Angeles Cultural Center, the Rio Hondo Confluence Area Project, and other river-related projects. During her time at Gehry Partners, Dana assisted in Frank Gehry’s Yale School of Architecture studio, “The Future of Prison,” and served as an advocate and researcher in Impact Justice’s review of the Finnish and Norwegian criminal justice systems. McKinney White subsequently served as a development manager at Adre, a purpose-driven real estate development company located in Portland, Oregon, that strives to uplift the region’s Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) through spatial equity. She also served as a lecturer at the University of Maryland School of Architecture in their undergraduate architecture degree program and most recently as a Design Critic at the GSD.
Bas Smets appointed Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture
Bas Smets received a MArch and Civil Engineering degree from the University of Leuven and a MLA from the University of Geneva. Since founding his Brussels-based firm, Bureau Bas Smets, in 2007, he has completed more than 50 projects in more than 12 countries with his team of 25 architects and landscape architects. Smets builds his project teams with artists, philosophers, soils and hydrology experts, ecologists, and climate scientists. His collaborative research and evidence-based model of practice reflects an openness to experimentation and invention. In 2008 he was awarded the biennial French Prize for Young Architects and Landscape Designers, and in 2018 he was awarded the Medal for Urbanism and Public Space from the French Royal Academy of Architecture. Bureau Bas Smets more recently won perhaps the most coveted commission in all of Europe: the reimagining of the public space around the Notre-Dame in Paris, commensurate with the restoration and renewal of the fire-damaged Cathedral. The winning scheme in the two-stage competition adapts the urban microclimate of the Ile de la Cité and cathedral grounds—a primary preoccupation for Smets in all of his work. Smets’ realized projects include the park of Thurn & Taxis and the Saint-Gilles Plaza in Brussels; the public space around the Trinity Tower in Paris La Défense; the Sunken Garden and the Mandrake Hotel in London; the Himara Waterfront in Albania; and recently the Parc des Ateliers in Arles, France, a collaboration with the US practices of Annabelle Selldorf and Frank Gehry. A number of large projects are under construction, such as the urban forest around the Part Dieu station in Lyon, the Nieuw Zuid project in Antwerp, and an art park in Amagansett, New York. In each of these projects, the aim is to invent “augmented landscapes” by using the logics of nature. These augmented landscapes produce favorable adjustments to microclimates while also exploring changed atmospheres and perceptions of space.
Dan Stubbergaard appointed Professor in Practice of Urban Design
Dan Stubbergaard trained as an architect at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, in Copenhagen. He founded the firm Cobe in 2006. Inspired by the transformation of Copenhagen from an industrial port city to a beacon for livability and sustainability, he is the leading figure in Cobe’s work to create cities, buildings, and landscapes that are made to outlast our generation and contribute to extraordinary everyday life. His research focuses on investigating solutions, tools, and methodologies across several topics or themes of interest including resilient urban development, green mobility, transformation and reuse, new ways of building, social responsibility, urban nature, and longevity. Having received national and international acclaim for his work, including the C.F. Hansen Royal Medal from the Danish Academy Council in 2020, the Nykredit Architecture Award in 2012, and the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2006, he has designed and completed award-winning projects globally. Exemplary of his work are the long-term Nordhavn project in Copenhagen, begun in 2008, which converted a former shipyard into an urban district with pedestrian and bike-friendly infrastructure, and the Paper Island project (2016–2023), which converted a former industrial site into a vibrant inner-city neighborhood with different building scales and public spaces. His approach to teaching is based on synthesizing various fields of knowledge, linking urban planning, architecture, and landscape architecture to understand the dynamics of cities, and creating a clear set of values and priorities for the future evolution of our cities and landscapes. This approach reflects a belief that learning from practice, resilient buildings, urban areas, and landscapes must be tailored to a specific context, as well as to the current and future users of that place.
Jeffry Burchard (MArch ’08) promoted to Associate Professor in Practice of Architecture
Jeffry Burchard is Managing Partner & Principal at Machado Silvetti and has taught continuously at the GSD for twelve years. After serving as a Design Critic in Architecture from 2012-2017, Burchard was appointed as Assistant Professor in Practice of Architecture following a search in 2017. Following a B.A. and MArch from the University of Idaho College of Art and Architecture, Burchard enrolled in our own MArch II program, which he graduated from with distinction in 2008. Upon graduation from the GSD, Burchard began work in the office of Machado Silvetti, first as a Senior Designer, and was named Partner & Principal in 2015. At the GSD, Burchard has offered instruction in Core Design Studios, thesis and professional practice and is the school’s representative to the Boston Society for Architecture (BSA). At the BSA Jeffry co-created and hosted the Now-Practice-Now workshop series and he created and hosted the Opening Soon online lecture series. Jeffry received the 2020 AIA Young Architects Award for his demonstrated commitment to excellence in design, professional practice, and education. He regularly reviews student work around the world, and he has served on several professional juries including the AIA San Francisco and AIA Montana Design Awards and the Liberty Museum ideas competition. Burchard’s work and writings have been featured in publications such as commonedge, CLOG, IntAR, Competition, Architect, Architecture Record, Domez, Clarin, and the Architect’s Newspaper.
Danielle Choi (MLA ’08) promoted to Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture
Danielle Choi joined the GSD as a Daniel Urban Kiley teaching fellow in 2016 and subsequently as Assistant Professor. Choi has taught and coordinated core landscape architecture studios, led design research seminars, advised design thesis students, and has had an effective voice in the department’s curricular development and focus on student well-being and belonging. Prior to joining the GSD, Choi practiced as a landscape architect for nearly a decade in the United States and Europe, and her teaching has deep roots in practice and is enriched by a continued commitment to the influence of practice on design pedagogy. Choi’s writing on the cultural practices of landscape infrastructure and technology has been published in the Journal of Architectural Education, Harvard Design Magazine, Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes, and Landscape Architecture. Choi has also taught studio in urban design at Columbia University. She is a licensed landscape architect and has practiced with Topotek in Berlin and Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA) in New York. As a senior associate at MVVA, she led strategy and design of complex urban landscapes and managed large, multi-disciplinary teams. Choi holds a degree in art history from the University of Chicago and a Master in Landscape Architecture from the GSD, receiving the Jacob Weidenmann award for excellence in design.