A popular J-term for MUPs, “Retrofitting Suburbia,” led by current Loeb Fellows Lynn Richards and Deanna VanBuren, dealt with the possibilities of revitalizing abandoned or underutilized suburban properties. Fourteen students explored policy and design strategies to facilitate and create incentives for redevelopment in the two-day class.
Loeb Fellows saw the Harvard University January term as an opportunity to dig into their interests, work closely with GSD students and - by the way - solve some thorny real-world challenges. They designed 4 dynamic courses based on their passions. Read more in the LOEBlog Image: Lynn Richards with students in Retrofitting Suburbia
Loeb fellows and GSD faculty are applying their talents to the challenges of revitalizing Detroit in the Detroit Works Project. Toni Griffin (LF 1998 and adjunct associate professor of urban planning) led the Detroit Works’ technical team and Dan Pitera (LF 2005 and associate professor of architecture), director of Detroit Collaborative Design Center, oversaw community outreach. Chris Reed’s (adjunct associate professor of landscape architecture) firm Stoss Landscape Urbanism contributed to landscape, ecology and open space planning. Read "Stepping Up for the Future of Detroit" in the LOEBlog.
Architectural Record’s “Editor’s Picks: Best Architecture of 2012” is studded with GSD stars. Here’s the list of their projects that “defined the year in design.”
Theaster Gates (LF 2011) has been named inaugural winner of the Vera List Center Prize for Art and Politics at the New School. The biennial prize honors an artist who has taken risks to advance social justice. Read more on the LOEBlog.
Several MLA alumni and affiliates have been inducted into the 2012 ASLA Council of Fellows.
On September 15, first year MUPs and MAUDs took an introductory bus of tour Boston led by Alex Krieger (professor in practice of urban design) and Jim Stockard (curator of the Loeb Fellowship). The tour focused on parts of the city that many tourists and Bostonians do not visit and provided students from the two programs a chance to interact.
Xiaowei R. Wang (MLA '13) and Heather Dunbar (MLA '13) were awarded first place in the competition to re-imagine the vacant Pruitt Igoe housing project in St. Louis, for their submission “St. Louis Ecological Production Line.” Third prize went to the Social Agency Lab for “The Fantastic Pruitt-Igoe!,” with a team including GSD students and alums.
Janet Echelman (AB '87, LF '08) is changing the very essence of urban spaces with her public artworks. Architectural Digest highlights her current projects and plans for future installations.
The new Loeb Fellowship class includes an environmental policymaker, an electronic gaming designer, 3 producers of urban spectacle, and an architect who uses her craft for conflict resolution.