Harvard GSD in the Bay: Alumni Gathering in San Francisco

Reconnect with the Harvard Graduate School of Design community and celebrate the impactful work of GSD faculty, students, and alumni shaping the built environment of the Bay Area at this pivotal moment in the region’s evolution. This semester, the GSD is excited to feature two option studios focused on San Francisco and the region—Vacant City: Re-imagining Downtown San Francisco as a Modern Mixed-Use Neighborhood, led by Alex Yuen (MAUD ’18), and The Territorial City: Edge of the Megalopolis, taught by Neeraj Bhatia. Both studios will be in San Francisco to conduct fieldwork and are eager to connect with alumni driving change in the area.

Join us at The Crossing in Downtown San Francisco for an evening of reconnecting and conversation over complimentary snacks and drinks. The event will directly precede this month’s Downtown First Thursday , so continue the celebration on Second Street with more food, drinks, and festivities!

Hosted by Alex Yuen (MAUD ’18), Lecturer in Urban Design at Harvard GSD and Design Director & Co-founder of CO-, Riki Nishimura (MAUD ’03), Principal at Populous, and Amelia Muller (AB ’11, MUP ’20), Urban Studio Designer at David Baker Architects.

Questions? Contact [email protected].

GSD Alumni Reception | Chicago, IL

GSD Alumni in Chicago gathered for a summer social and caught up on a rooftop space downtown! This was a BYOB *Buy Your Own Beverage* event.

Co-hosted by Ethan Lassiter (MUP ’15) and Annabell Ren (MAUD ’16).

Questions? Contact Ethan at [email protected].

GSD Comeback: Alumni & Friends Celebration 2024

Event Description

We’re thrilled to welcome GSD alumni and friends back to campus on Sept. 20-22, 2024. Reconnect with friends, faculty, and students, celebrate the achievements of our Alumni Award winners, take a mini class, and more. For more details, please see the event schedule .

This event is ticketed and open to all alumni and friends. Guests must be over the age of 21.

Visit the Comeback 2024 website’s Hotels & Restaurants  and Beyond the GSD  tabs to plan your trip to the GSD.

For any questions or to request accessibility accommodations, please contact [email protected].

2024 Loeb Collaboratory (Virtual Event)

Please join Loeb and GSD alums for the 2024 Loeb Collaboratory  on Friday, June 14th, at 12:00 p.m. EST!

The Loeb Collaboratory is fundamentally a mutual aid society. During this round, you’ll learn about three (3) new projects, offer commitments of support to help them launch, receive brief updates on past projects, and have the chance to share your own mini (under one minute) pitch.

If you haven’t joined us before, this is your chance to experience the Collaboratory process. We’ve provided some background and a summary below. However, the only real way to understand how it works is to participate! In order to respect everyone’s time, we’ll move quickly and facilitate tightly; the entire program will be completed in little more than an hour. No prep is required—just RSVP and get ready for a ride!

This year, GSD alums are invited to fully participate in the Collaboratory. Starting with our next round, we’ll welcome project proposals from both GSD and Loeb alums. As you listen to this year’s proposals, perhaps you’ll get ideas for how this amazing network could help translate one of your ideas into reality.

Event Details:

• Friday, June 14, 2024
• 12:00–1:30 p.m. EST
• REGISTER HERE  for a calendar invite and Zoom link

See you soon!

Your Loeb Collaboratory Planning Team,
Cheryl Hughes (LF ’04)
Sally Young (LF ’21)
Arif Khan (LF ’16)
Chris Calott (LF ’12)
Eli Spevak (LF ’14)

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2024 Loeb Collaboratory Proposals

Builders of Change
Will Hunter (LF ’22)

Builders of Change (BoC) is a start-up on a mission to inspire, connect, and empower a new generation of diverse entrepreneurs to create positive change in cities globally. Launched by the founder of the London School of Architecture, BoC will combine an online media platform with personalized mentorship hosted in a network of participating cities. By year 10, the goal is to have over 500 purpose-driven ventures in 20 cities around the world. At this early stage, BoC is seeking to leverage the Collaboratory to expand the network of collaborators, partners, and supporters.

Modular Workforce Housing in the Breadbasket: A Case Study in Ojai / California’s Central Coast
Jennifer Siegal (LF ’03)

California’s bountiful Central Coast, often regarded as our country’s breadbasket, is experiencing the same dire housing shortages as larger cities throughout the state and country. This Collaboratory proposal aims to harness the collective expertise and skills of Loeb and GSD alumni to explore effective strategies for funding, developing, and delivering modular workforce housing in California’s Central Coast region.

Focused first on a pilot project with a community partner in Ojai to house teachers and essential workers, this proposal envisions a development model replicable throughout the Central Coast region to meet the housing needs of underserved groups, including farmworkers and rural low-income residents.

Vision Plan for the City of McMinnville, Oregon’s Library in a Park
Stephen Goldsmith (LF ’00)

The goal of this project is to provide the community with ideas for the redevelopment of the city’s library, located in McMinnville’s City Park. The park site is just over 16 acres and currently houses the historic 1912 Carnegie Library building with an adjacent 1983 library addition. Also on the site is an outdated aquatic center, playground, an old mill site, an active floodplain, an arboretum waiting for curation, and a vacant historic house. City leaders describe the library as the park’s hub and the other elements as spokes, all functioning as an integrated ecosystem. Located along a state highway and across from the city’s main street, the site needs to honor the original indigenous presence, culture, and land rights. McMinnville, with a population of about 34,000 people, is located in Yamhill County in the Willamette Valley Wine Country, about 40 miles south of Portland.

How the Collaboratory Works

The Loeb Collaboratory is based on the Civic Collaboratory, of which Loeb alums Cheryl Hughes (LF ’04) and Shamichael Hallman (LF ’22) are members. The founder of the Civic Collaboratory, Eric Liu , defines the Civic Collaboratory as a “network of catalytic leaders from across the political spectrum and many domains — immigrant rights, veterans advocacy, civics education, voting reform, tech in government, arts, and culture, worker organizing, corporate citizenship, and more.” This model was so impactful that Cheryl Hughes proposed that it could provide the opportunity for Fellows to give back to the Fellowship in a way that was attainable to everyone while deepening relationships across the organization.

After several years of Collaboratories with the Loeb alumni community, we’re interested in expanding to include GSD alumni as well.

In our Collaboratories thus far, over a dozen Loeb Fellows have received more than 250 commitments of support from their Fellows, with an estimated value in the tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. Many of the Loeb Collaboratory pitches have also received funding from the grant program and other funders.

Each Collaboratory is held virtually and lasts 1–1.5 hours. Minimizing the time commitment to attend boosts participation, which increases the odds that presenters get the support they’re seeking.

Details:

• We gather to make personal commitments to aid presenters based on project needs as well as our own interests and talents. Participants are encouraged (but not required) to offer firm commitments of help. This may consist of social, intellectual, institutional, and/or financial capital, and it will be the responsibility of those receiving and giving commitments to follow up on them.
• Each 7–8 minute presentation closes with some “asks” from the presenter. Then we’ll open the floor for commitments, starting with the phrase “I commit…”
• Critique and shared commentary are important parts of any process, but they’re not the point of the Collaboratory—hence why we start with the phrase, “I commit…”
• Commitments vary based on the presenter. Here are a few examples:
  • I commit to connecting with you offline to explore a few ideas for collaboration with you
  • I commit to meeting with you to discuss your program design
  • I commit to connecting you to the following individual
  • I commit to sharing research that I know of that might inform your project
  • I commit to attending/hosting a design charrette for you
  • I commit to introducing you to the program officer or foundation president at…
  • I commit to meeting with you to help you create a funding strategy
  • I commit to sharing this with key allies who will put it out into the world
  • I commit to introducing you to journalists or media who might be interested in this
• These are just a few examples of ways that we can support each other. We aren’t expecting anyone to make long-term or financial commitments to the projects, although both may be welcome. Rather, you are offering your connections and assets to help/aid your colleagues move their work forward. Isn’t this what we do naturally as Loeb Fellows and GSD alums? The Collaboratory is just providing a more open process to do so.
• All the commitments will be recorded in the meeting notes and will be distributed to the presenters within two weeks after our gathering. It is the responsibility of the presenters and those who made a commitment to connect with one another to fulfill the commitment. Neither the Loeb Fellowship office, GSD office, nor the Loeb Collaboratory co-chairs will be responsible for follow-up.
• Mixed into the program, we’ll include short updates on projects from a few past presenters.
• At the end, we’ll open the floor for anyone to share mini-pitches (under a minute each) on initiatives they’re working on that could use support.

Questions? Contact Loeb Fellowship at [email protected].

ASLA Washington, DC: GSD Alumni Reception 2024

GSD alumni and faculty gathered for an informal reception to kick off the American Society of Landscape Architects Conference on Landscape Architecture in Washington, DC.

Questions? Contact [email protected].

AIA Washington DC: GSD Alumni Reception 2024

GSD alumni and faculty gathered for an informal reception during the American Institute of Architecture Conference on Architecture & Design (AIA24) in Washington, DC.

Remarks were given by Sarah M. Whiting, Dean and Josep Lluís Sert Professor of Architecture, and Eric Höweler, Associate Professor of Architecture. Michael Hickok (March ’76) welcomed everyone to the Hickok Cole offices.

Support Architecture at the GSD .

Questions? Contact [email protected].

GSD Alumni Reception | ULI Spring Meeting

GSD alumni gathered for a reception during the ULI Spring Meeting in New York City. Refreshments were provided.

Organized by the GSD Alumni Council with special thanks to members Riki Nishimura (MAUD ’03) and Greg Haley (MAUD ’98) for hosting.

Questions? Contact [email protected]

 

 

A Conversation with President Garber: Washington DC

Alumni gathered in Washington DC on Tuesday, April 16, to hear remarks from Interim President Alan M. Garber AB ’77, PhD ’82. This event was hosted by the Harvard Alumni Association in partnership with the Harvard Club of Washington, DC. Questions? Contact [email protected].

GSD Alumni Reception | Atlanta

Alumni gathered for an evening of (re)connecting at the historic Hamilton Howell House in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward.

The event was hosted by Alumni Council member Euneika Rogers-Sipp (LF ’16).

Questions? Contact Euneika at [email protected].

GSD Alumni Happy Hour | Nashville

GSD alumni gathered for an informal happy hour in Nashville.

This event was hosted by James Moore (MUP ’10) and Sam Adkisson (MAUD ’19).

Questions? Contact James at [email protected].