The Harvard Graduate School of Design (also known as The GSD) is a professional graduate school at Harvard University, located at Gund Hall, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The GSD offers masters and doctoral programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, urban design, real estate, design engineering, and design studies.
The GSD has over 13,000 alumni and has graduated many famous architects, urban planners, and landscape architects. The school is considered a global academic leader in the design fields.
The GSD has the world's oldest landscape architecture program (founded in 1893), and North America's oldest urban planning program (founded in 1900). Architecture courses were first taught at Harvard University in 1874. The Graduate School of Design was officially established in 1936, combining the three fields of architecture, urban planning, and landscape architecture under one graduate school.
The market value of the school's endowment for the fiscal year 2013 was approximately $396 million.
History
Architecture
Charles Eliot Norton brought the first architecture classes to Harvard University in 1874.
Urban planning
In 1900, the first urban planning courses were taught at Harvard University, and by 1909, urban planning was added into Harvard's design curriculum. In 1923, North America's first urban planning degree was established at Harvard. In 1980, the program was temporarily moved to the Harvard Kennedy School of Government until it returned to the GSD in 1984.
Landscape architecture
In 1893, the nation's first professional course in landscape architecture was offered at Harvard University. In 1900, the world's first landscape architecture program was established by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. and Arthur A. Shurcliff. The School of Landscape Architecture was established in 1913.
Establishment
The three major design professions (architecture, urban planning, and landscape architecture) were officially united in 1936 to form the Harvard Graduate School of Design. In 1937, Walter Gropius joined the GSD faculty as chair of the Department of Architecture and brought modern designers, including Marcel Breuer to help revamp the curriculum.
In 1960, Josep LluÃs Sert established the nation's first Urban Design program. George Gund Hall, which is the present iconic home GSD, opened in 1972 and was designed by Australian architect and GSD graduate John Andrews. The school's now defunct Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis (LCGSA) is widely recognized as the research/development environment from which the now-commercialized technology of geographic information systems (GIS) emerged in the late 1960s and 1970s. More recent research initiatives include the Design Robotics Group, a unit that investigates new material systems and fabrication technologies in the context of architectural design and construction.
Deans
Degree programs
The degrees granted in the masters programs include the Master of Architecture (M.Arch.), Master in Landscape Architecture (MLA), Master of Architecture in Urban Design (MAUD), Master of Landscape Architecture in Urban Design (MLAUD), Master in Urban Planning (MUP), Master in Design Engineering (MDE), Master in Design Studies (M.Des.) in more than eight concentrations. The school offers a doctoral degree, Doctor of Design (D.Des.), and jointly administers a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in architecture, urban planning, and landscape architecture with the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
- Master of Architecture (M.Arch.)
- Master in Urban Planning (MUP)
- Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA)
- Master of Architecture in Urban Design (MAUD)
- Master in Design Engineering (MDE)
- Master of Landscape Architecture in Urban Design (MLAUD)
- Master in Design Studies (M.Des.) with distinct concentrations:
- Art, Design and the Public Domain
- Critical Conservation
- Energy and Environments
- History and Philosophy of Design
- Real Estate and the Built Environment
- Risk and Resilience
- Technology
- Urbanism, Landscape, Ecology
- Doctor of Design (D.Des.)
- Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture, Urban Planning, and Landscape Architecture (PhD)
Rankings
As of 2016, the program's ten-year average ranking, places it 1st, overall, on DesignIntelligence's ranking of programs accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board.
Executive Education
Executive Education operates within GSD providing continuing education classes, they are located at 7 Sumner Rd. Advanced Management Development Program in Real Estate (AMDP) is a six-week executive development course. The program is open to established professionals with 15+ years of experience in real estate. Upon graduating from AMDP, participants are full-fledged Harvard University Alumni. As of 2013, AMDP is in its 13th year.
The other large program organized by Executive Education is summer Open Enrollment. In 2013, Executive Education held 18 classes throughout the month of July. Each class lasts from 1 to 3 days and is eligible for continuing education credits through American Institute of Architects, American Society of Landscape Architects and/or American Planning Association. Open Enrollment classes are open to everyone, though basic knowledge of the subject is recommended.
Student enrollment
As of 2012â€"2013, there were 878 students enrolled. 362 students or 42% were enrolled in architecture, 182 students or 21% in landscape architecture, 161 students or 18% in urban planning, and 173 students or 20% in doctoral or design studies programs. Approximately, 65% of students were Americans. The average student is 27 years old.
Research and publications
In addition to its degree programs, the GSD administers the Loeb Fellowship, and numerous research initiatives such as the Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure. The school publishes the bi-annual Harvard Design Magazine, Platform, and other design books and studio works.
Design Research Labs
The GSD Design Labs synthesize theoretical and applied knowledge through research with the intent to enable design to be an agent of change in society. There are seven current labs: Material Processes and Systems Group; Energy, Environments and Design; New Geographies Lab; Responsive Environments and Artifacts Lab; Social Agency Lab; Urban Theory Lab; Geometry Lab.
Campus
The GSD campus is located northeast of Harvard Yard and across the street from Memorial Hall. Gund Hall is the main building of the GSD, and it houses most of the student space and faculty offices. Other nearby buildings include space for the school's Design Research Labs, faculty offices, the Loeb Fellowship program office, and research space for students, including those in the M.Des. and D.Des. programs.
Gund Hall
Gund Hall is the main building, which has studio spaces and offices for approximately 800 students and more than 100 faculty and staff, lecture and seminar rooms, workshops and darkrooms, an audiovisual center, computer facilities, Chauhaus, the cafeteria, a project room, Piper Auditorium, and the Frances Loeb Library. The central studio space, also known as the Trays, extends through five levels under a stepped, clear-span roof. Gund Hall has a yard that comprises a basketball court and is often used for events, as an exhibition area for class projects, and as the setting for commencement ceremonies.
Frances Loeb Library
The Frances Loeb Library, is the main library of the Graduate School of Design. The library has a collection of over 300,000 books and journals. It also has a Materials and Visual Resources Department, and the Special Collections Department, which houses the GSD's rare books and manuscript collection.
Fabrication Lab
The Fabrication Lab has both traditional tools and state-of-the-art technology available for model making and prototyping to faculty research and student course work. The Fabrication Lab has a full wood shop, metals shop, printing labs, 3D printing, CNC tools, robotic machines, laser cutter machines, etc.
Distinguished alumni and faculty
As of 2013, the GSD had over 13,000 alumni in 96 countries. The GSD had 77 faculty members and 129 visiting faculty members. 45% of the faculty members were born outside of the United States.
Alumni
- Christopher Alexander, architect, co-author of A Pattern Language
- John Andrews, designer of the GSD's Gund Hall
- Edward Larrabee Barnes, prolific Modernist architect
- Christopher Charles Benninger, architect
- Henry N. Cobb
- Jack Dangermond, landscape architecture, GIS development, co-founder of Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI)
- Shaun Donovan, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
- Garrett Eckbo, modernist landscape architect
- Andy Fillmore, urban designer and incumbent member of the Canadian parliament for Halifax
- Danny Forster, architect and television host
- Robert Geddes, architect and Dean of Princeton School of Architecture
- Frank Gehry, Pritzker Prize Laureate, awarded honorary doctorate, studied urban planning
- Julian Wood Glass Jr., businessman, philanthropist
- Michael Graves
- Lawrence Halprin, landscape architect
- John Hejduk
- Charles Jencks, landscape architect and architectural theorist
- Mitchell Joachim
- Philip Johnson, Pritzker Prize Laureate
- Grant Jones, landscape architect
- Dan Kiley, modernist landscape architect
- Philip Lewis, landscape architect
- Fumihiko Maki, Pritzker Prize Laureate
- Thom Mayne, Pritzker Prize Laureate
- Ian McHarg, landscape planner, GIS development
- Cornelia Oberlander, landscape architect
- Michele Michahelles, Paris-based architect, led restoration of Les Invalides
- Roger Montgomery, first HUD Urban Designer, dean at U.C. Berkeley
- Michel Mossessian, architect, Design Principal and Founder of mossessian & partners
- Farshid Moussavi
- Richard T. Murphy, Jr.
- Eliot Noyes
- IM Pei, Pritzker Prize Laureate
- Monica Ponce de Leon
- George Ranalli, architect, dean of the Spitzer School of Architecture of City College of New York
- Joshua Prince-Ramus
- Paul Rudolph
- Hideo Sasaki, landscape architect, former department chair, founder of Sasaki Associates and Sasaki Walker Associates
- Harry Seidler
- Ken Smith (architect)，landscape architect, educator
- Edward Durell Stone, Modernist architect
- Edward Durell Stone, Jr., landscape architect, founder of EDSA
- Yoshio Taniguchi
- Nader Tehrani (g. 1991) â€" Dean, The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of the Cooper Union, Founding Principal of NADAAA
- Kongjian Yu, landscape architect, educator, founder of Turenscape, Peking
- Alejandro Zaera-Polo
- Bruno Zevi, architect, critic, and historian
- Jeanne Gang
Current faculty
- Alan A. Altshuler, former dean
- Anita Berrizbeitia
- Neil Brenner
- Giuliana Bruno
- Preston Scott Cohen
- Ann Forsyth
- K. Michael Hays, Professor, Author, Historian
- Herzog and de Meuron
- Toyo Ito, Pritzker Prize Laureate
- Wes Jones
- Rem Koolhaas, Pritzker Prize Laureate
- Sanford Kwinter, Professor, Author, Theorist
- Grace La
- Rahul Mehrotra, Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design
- Rafael Moneo, Pritzker Prize Laureate
- Toshiko Mori
- Mohsen Mostafavi, Dean
- Farshid Moussavi
- Erika Naginski
- Antoine Picon
- Jeffrey Schnapp
- Martha Schwartz
- Mack Scogin
- Christine Smith
- John R Stilgoe
- Michael Van Valkenburgh
- Krzysztof Wodiczko
Former faculty
- Barbara Bestor.
- Marcel Breuer
- Serge Chermayeff, 1953â€"1962
- Henry N. Cobb, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, designer of John Hancock Towerin Boston
- Kenneth John Conant
- Sigfried Giedion, author of the highly influential history Space, Time and Architecture
- Walter Gropius, 1937â€"1952; founder of Bauhaus
- George Hargreaves, landscape architect
- Zaha Hadid, Pritzker Prize Laureate
- Bjarke Ingels, Visiting Professor
- J. B. Jackson, vernacular American landscape writer
- Rick Joy, Visiting Professor
- Gerhard Kallmann, Kallmann & McKinnell, designer of Boston City Hall
- Michael McKinnell, Kallmann & McKinnell, designer of Boston City Hall
- Monica Ponce de Leon
- Joshua Prince-Ramus, Visiting Professor
- Moshe Safdie, designer of Habitat
- Hideo Sasaki, 1953â€"1970
- Josep Lluis Sert, dean of the GSD from 1953â€"1969 and often credited with being instrumental in bringing modernist architecture to the United States
- Carl Steinitz, landscape architecture, urban design and planning, GIS development
- Christopher Tunnard, landscape architect
- Jaqueline Tyrwhitt, 1955â€"1969
- Martin Wagner, German architect and housing expert
- Peter Walker, landscape architect
- John Wilson (sculptor)
References
External links
- Harvard Graduate School of Design official website