The Boston Globe spent time with architectural photographer Peter Vanderwarker (LF '97) to discover why he's so successful in capturing the soul of a city. Read "Architectural Photographer Knows Boston Like the Back of His Hand."
Team Better Block recently received a $155,000 grant from the Knight Foundation to pursue an innovative project in Akron, Ohio. They’ll be converting excess housing stock in a Bhutanese neighborhood into boutique hostels and cultural hubs utilizing the Airbnb platform. Loeb Andrew Howard, co-founder of Team Better Block, describes the project in the LOEBlog.
The surprise guest at the TED2015 conference in Vancouver this month was Theaster Gates (LF '11), whose talk will inspire both skeptics and believers in the power of design and culture to transform communities. Watch it now, or explore the entire conference schedule.
Neal Morris's (LF '10) office sits squarely in the middle of a historically African American neighborhood and shopping district undergoing an urban renaissance in New Orleans. So he was perfectly situated to get himself drawn into the middle of a project that nods to an important moment in musical history by securing the future of orchestral jazz culture in the city. He tells the story in the LOEBlog.
In the last century, stereotypes and attempts at social engineering have narrowed housing options in America, to the detriment of our ability to provide housing for all segments of society, argues Barbara Knecht (LF ‘93). But new middle class norms and well-designed small housing configurations are changing attitudes and providing hope for dealing with our current housing crisis. Read her contribution to the LOEBlog series, "Loeb Lab: From SROs to Micro-Units."
Working with Loeb Fellow Thaddeus Pawlowski during J Term on their Boston Living with Water submission paid off for Lindsay Woodson (MArch), Jon Springfield (MUP) and Kira Sargent (MLA). Their entry, No Building is an Island, is a finalist in the building category, along with another entry by GSD alums Stephanie Goldberg (MArch ’93) and Mark Reed (MArch ’92), Prince Building Piers. There was GSD representation in the Neighborhood category with Resilient Linkages by Alex Krieger (professor of urban design), Kelly Lynema (MUP 13) and Brandon Cuffy (MArch) of NBBJ; and Chris Reed (associate professor of landscape architecture) was awarded Honorable Mention for Fort Point’s Living Basin in collaboration with Perkins and Will. Read more in the LOEBlog.
Urban Design and Planning Professor Rahul Mehrotra’s Extreme Urbanism III studio explores possible interventions at the intersection between critical conservation and urban planning and design for Agra, India, an exemplar of contemporary urban challenges. At this moment, Loeb Fellows, studio students and students in the MDes Critical Conservation Program are in Agra conducting a close study of the conditions and opportunities that can propel the city forward toward a more sustainable future for its citizens, its historical treasures and its environment. Read more and see photos in the LOEBlog.
Ask any resident of Mexico City where they would like to be on a warm, Sunday afternoon, and it may well be a landscape designed by Mario Schjetnan. On Tuesday, February 17, Schjetnan described his latest projects on the practice and theory of landscape in a public lecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.
Harvard Magazine recently published an article by Stephanie Garlock called "Good Design: A Public Interest Movement Redefines Architecture," in which the author provides a critical analysis of socially progressive and pro bono architecture practices today.
Caroline James (MArch ’14, associate at Maryanne Thompson Architects and LOEBlogger) and her colleague Arielle Assouline-Lichten (MArch ’13) will receive the Tribune award at the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation Leadership Awards Gala on February 26. Read more on the LOEBlog.