A diverse project team of Harvard experts led by Spiro Pollalis, GSD professor and director of the Zofnass Program, and Andreas Georgoulias, GSD Lecturer and Zofnass Research Director, has released a tool for evaluating infrastructure projects of all types and sizes based on environmental, economic, and community benefits. Read the full article in the Harvard Gazette.
The Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure and the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI) have launched Envision, a framework for evaluating infrastructure projects. The system takes what ISI calls a holistic view, touching on quality of life, resource allocation, impacts on ecosystems and climate, and issues of risk and leadership. Project owners and design teams can use a self-assessment tool or can submit the project for third-party verification, which includes evaluation of the project during three phases: pre-construction, construction, and operations and maintenance. Future versions of the rating system will also incorporate additional tools for complex or multi-stage projects.
Curator of the Loeb Fellowship, Jim Stockard (MCP ’68, LF ’78) has been appointed to the Governor’s Commission for Public Housing Sustainability and Reform. The Commission has been established as a result of the Governor’s commitment to dramatically reform the outdated and inefficient system by which 242 local agencies manage a stock of 50,000 public housing units funded by the state and another 37,000 supported by the federal government. The purpose of the 23 member Commission is to “develop recommendations for the sustainability and reform of public housing authorities and the portfolio of state aided public housing that will ensure the long-term viability of public housing as an affordable housing resource, including the reform of the statutory governance structure with a goal of creating a practical, cost-effective and modern regional governance structure.”
Kyu Sung Woo (MUD '70) was awarded the Harleston Parker Medal by the Boston Society of Architects and the City of Boston. The annual award recognizes "the single most beautiful building or other structure" built in Boston within the past ten years. The Harvard University Graduate Student Housing building at 10 Akron Street was completed in 2008 with consideration for the specific goals of the university. “Every institution has a different mission,” he says. “It’s interesting and exciting to see how we relate those missions into different buildings. For example, all the dormitories we have done, none of them have the same unit plan or floor plan. It’s not just because of a site being rural or urban or suburban, but also, I think, each university has a different tradition and a different mission.”
Recently released, Infrastructure Sustainability and Design compiles the first two years of research of the Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure. The Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure was founded in 2008 by a generous donation from Paul and Joan Zofnass, and is housed at Harvard Graduate School of Design. Its activities are extended to several schools at the University including Public Health, Government, Business, and the Center for the Environment.
Chris Reed (AB '91), Adjunct Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and Founding Principal of Stoss Landscape Urbanism, will present a keynote lecture entitled "Landscape and City-Making" at the annual LAbash conference on Friday March 16 in Miami.
Daniel Ibañez (MDesS ’12) and his design partner Rodrigo Rubio at MARGEN-LAB have been featured as an up-and-coming, cutting-edge duo in the Spanish national newspaper, El Mundo.
James S. Lee (MArch '78), Founder of iContinuum Group, has been awarded a one-year research grant from the Urban China Initiative, a Beijing-based research partnership between the McKinsey & Company, Tsinghua University and Columbia University.
Betsy Otto (LF '07) recently joined the Markets and Enterprise Program at the World Resources Institute, a global environmental think tank in Washington, DC. She is directing WRI’s Aqueduct project, a global water risk assessment and mapping tool to inform private and public sector investment and water management decisions. The Aqueduct project team engages business, NGOs and governments for positive change in managing water resources worldwide.
Silvia Benedito, Lecturer in Landscape Architecture, and Alexander Häusler (MArchII '04) have been selected as finalists for the Bayern-Oil site development Competition in Ingolstadt, Germany.