In a new @gsd.harvard.edu magazine essay, @magdamaaoui.bsky.social & @airbrycki.bsky.social unpack how the Massachusetts’ MBTA Communities Act is playing out across the state. While compliance with the law looks high, their research shows more nuance. www.harvarddesignmagazine.org/articles/mbt...

What makes a neighborhood "authentic"? The GSD's Stephen F. Gray says: "You can’t theme your way into it. Authenticity describes both the buildings and the people inside them, which means giving the people who live there, or will live there, the standing to shape what gets built."

Registration is now open for the GSD Comeback! Alumni and friends are invited to return to campus and experience the collective energy of the GSD community on September 25–26, 2026. Register by Sunday, July 19, to receive the early-bird rate. https://hgsd.us/4ao7Uxo

GSD's Diane E. Davis, who taught Raman at MIT: “I teach that to my students in planning at Harvard that you can’t be a good planner unless you know politics. What I’ll also say is you can’t be a good politician, can’t be a good mayor unless you know seriously the planning profession is.”

Timeline cleanse: peaceful night view of Gund from photographer Anita Kan

The @nytimes.com writes about a new theater for Hudson Valley Shakespeare designed by Studio Gang, led by Jeanne Gang, Kajima Professor in Practice of Architecture at the GSD! https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/20/theater/hudson-valley-shakespeare-catskills.html

Congrats to Ella Claire Larkin (MArch II ’26), whose project "Revisiting the Seokbinggo" won the 2026 James Templeton Kelley Prize for the Master of Architecture II program! The project reflects the transformation of Seoul's Han River since the 1988 Summer Olympics.

The GSD is pleased to announced the promotions of Jenny French and Elizabeth Christoforetti to Associate Professors in Practice of Architecture. In addition, Amy Whitesides has been appointed Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture. Congrats! https://hgsd.us/4aKJGNK

🌞 Happy solstice! Drop by the peaceful Gund backyard if you're around campus. We're missing all the students but enjoying some beautiful summer vibes.

Congratulations Brittany Utting, @gsd.harvard.edu Wheelwright Prize finalist 👏✨ Utting’s work focuses on architecture and environmental care, exploring spatial and technical practices of climate research. Read more: https://bit.ly/43qc43R #WheelwrightPrize #SustainableArchitecture

In the Spring 2026 studio “Hope & Change: The Obama Presidential Center and Gateway to the Woodlawn Neighborhood”, taught by Maurice Cox and Avis Devine, students developed district-scaled development plans for the eastern section of Woodlawn abutting the Obama Presidential Center. hgsd.us/44mTPMU

Home prices are up 54% since 2020, and the median existing single-family sales price is 5x the median household income. Meanwhile, 22.7 million renters spend more than 30% of their income on housing. Our new report is out today; 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺 @ 𝟰𝗽𝗺 𝗘𝗧. www.jchs.harvard.edu/state-nation...

Our 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻'𝘀 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 report, out today, reveals 22.7 million cost-burdened renters, record-low mobility, and home sales at 30-year lows as Americans struggle with affordability. www.msn.com/en-us/money/...

The exhibition Imagining BEST Products, at the Branch Museum of Design in Richmond, VA, grew out of “Architecture’s Audience,” a spring '26 course taught by Don O’Keefe (MArch ’20). Students helped with research and design, models, timelines, and interpretive materials. https://hgsd.us/3QzzKQp

Congratulations to One Block Away, a team of Master in Real Estate (MRE) students, for advancing to the build phase of the inaugural Housing Innovation Challenge! hgsd.us/3QtIJCC

Congratulations to the 2026 commencement prizewinners! Today we're featuring Gabriel Geonwoo Bae (MAUD ’26)'s project "Towards Metabolic Circularity in South Korean Housing: From Extraction to Renovation", which won this year's Urban Design Thesis Prize. https://hgsd.us/4eilhjQ

Kudos to Amy Love Tomasso, a former Joint Research Assistant who last week received GSD's Ferdinand Colloredo-Mansfeld Prize for Superior Achievement in Real Estate Studies. @harvard-jchs.bsky.social @gsd.harvard.edu @ivoryinnovations.bsky.social See www.gsd.harvard.edu/2026/05/priz...

🎓 This morning, the GSD Class of 2026 gathered with other Harvard graduates in Harvard Yard for the Commencement ceremony. See yourself in these photos? DM us for a tag! Congratulations, everyone! #Harvard26 📸: Katherine Taylor

The winners of this year’s 𝗕𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗣𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗻 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝘇𝗲 are: Ehao Wu for "Sponge City and Impermeable Housing Value" and Sebastian Rodriguez Leon for "A Comprehensive Revision to Colombian Policy Tools for Improving Housing Conditions." @gsd.harvard.edu @harvardkennedy.bsky.social Congratulations!

Congrats to the Fellows!!

🎓 The GSD’s 2026 Commencement Exhibition, presented in the Druker Design Gallery and Frances Loeb Library, includes work from all of this year’s graduating students. If you're on campus for commencement, stop by and see the work GSD students produced this academic year!

@gsd.harvard.edu on new (old) frontiers of urban civil rights self determination www.harvarddesignmagazine.org/articles/car...

😴 how we're feeling now that final reviews are over (Work by Nick Lesko, MDes '27, for "Embodied Architectures: Data, Signals, Perception", taught by Katarina Richter-Lunn)

We can't wait to visit the new Hudson Valley Shakespeare venue, by Studio Gang, founded by Jeanne Gang, GSD's Kajima Professor in Practice of Architecture!

CryoFab, cofounded by Master in Design Engineering (@harvardseas.bsky.social and GSD) students Hana Khurshid, Morgan Doane and Siddhi Patil, took home an Ingenuity Award at the Harvard President's Innovation Challenge. CryoFab is a 3D ice printer used to create channels for tissue engineering.

Congratulations to our @loebfellowship.bsky.social Class of 2027!

Luke Fiorante (MDE '26, GSD/ @harvardseas.bsky.social) helped build a tool for NASA to plan optimal routes for the Perseverance Rover on Mars; helped develop a start-up to ease communication barriers between doctors and patients; and created a platform to help nations anticipate droughts.

Stop by the Druker Design Gallery before May 15 to see our exhibition "Designers of Mountain and Water"! We interviewed curator Jungyoon Kim along with Nicholas Harkness, director of the Korea Institute, about the exhibition. https://hgsd.us/4duQKQl

We know housing has become hard for many in the US to afford, but why? Ivan Rupnik (PhD ’15 in urban planning) of @northeasternu.bsky.social says outdated regulations make it nearly impossible to build homes more affordably. @gsas.harvard.edu

Featuring Ivan Rupnik PhD '15! Our PhD program is a joint program between GSAS and the GSD.

📢 Announcing our 2026 Wheelwright Prize finalists: Olga Cobușcean, Junho “Sohun” Kang, Mohamad Nahleh, @epeirson.bsky.social, and Brittany Utting! The winner will be announced in June.

Congrats to @mlamster.bsky.social (2017 alum of @loebfellowship.bsky.social) on his @pulitzerprizes.bsky.social win in criticism! www.pulitzer.org/winners/mark...

Sonia Sobrino Ralston (MLA ’23) is the Daniel Urban Kiley Teaching Fellow in Landscape Architecture at the GSD. Through her work on installations at MIT, the Arnold Arboretum, and the Venice Biennale, as well as her teaching, Ralston examines the relationship between technology and the natural world

🎓 Announcing the GSD's 2026 Class Day speaker, Yvonne Farrell! Farrell is co-founder of Grafton Architects, along with Shelley McNamara. Farrell and McNamara shared the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2020, and held the Kenzō Tange Chair at the GSD in 2010.

“A Temporal Exhibition of Temporary Public Spaces” is on view in the Frances Loeb Library through May 17. Curators Yun Fu and Yona Chung (MAUD ’19, DDes ’26) bring together projects by emerging architects from Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, and Hong Kong—a region sometimes called the Milk Tea Alliance.

Social housing isn’t public housing with a new name. It’s a different way to think about land, funding, design, and who our cities and housing are for. Four researchers sat down for a @gsd.harvard.edu roundtable discussion. @magdamaaoui.bsky.social www.harvarddesignmagazine.org/articles/soc...

Final reviews are underway in Gund Hall! As the trays fill with models, students presented projects to instructors and critics for “Second Semester Architecture Core: SITUATE,” taught by Jeffry Burchard, Elle Gerdeman, Elisa Iturbe, Cara Liberatore, Jon Lott, John May, and Khoa Vu.

Tomorrow: Join us for "Surfacing," a two-day (4/24 - 4/25) doctoral symposium organized by PhD students in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning at Harvard GSD. https://bit.ly/4cvCWDw

🌎 Happy #EarthDay! Today we're looking back to our March 26 Open House Lecture with author and environmentalist @billmckibben.bsky.social#EarthDay where he discussed his new book, Here Comes the Sun. If you missed it, catch the recording on our YouTube channel!

Happening this week! Join us for "Surfacing," a two-day (4/24 - 4/25) doctoral symposium organized by PhD students in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning at Harvard GSD. https://bit.ly/4cvCWDw

Tomorrow at 6:30 PM ET: Join us for a lecture by Jacques Herzog, Founding Partner of Herzog & de Meuron, in conversation with Grace La, Chair and Professor of Architecture at the Harvard GSD. Please note: Registration is required for in person attendance! https://bit.ly/3OlydfN

Intergenerational housing isn’t a niche idea anymore—it’s emerging as a powerful response to soaring housing costs, social isolation, and gaps in care. Thanks to Krista Sykes @gsd.harvard.edu for a great article about our recent Living Together by Design event: www.gsd.harvard.edu/2026/04/inte...

Next Tuesday at 6:30 PM ET: Join us for a lecture by Jacques Herzog, Founding Partner of Herzog & de Meuron, in conversation with Grace La, Chair and Professor of Architecture at the Harvard GSD. Please note: Registration is required for in person attendance at this event! https://bit.ly/3OlydfN

Wonderful feature on the Walking Festival of Sound, curated by @loebfellowship.bsky.social recipient Jacek Smolicki! Listen to the sounds of Boston and Cambridge in several events going until May 3.

Congratulations to Betty Chen (MArch '27), whose film Pagoda won Best Documentary at the 2026 Design Student Film Festival! The film was created in Fall 2024 for the class Architecture of Time, taught by Clara Kraft Isono. Chen worked with Sun Woo Byun (MAUD '26) and Emanuel Cardenas (MArch '26).

TOMORROW at 6:30 PM ET: Join us for a lecture by Michael Wang, whose work explores the intersection of nature and technology, asking: Can a river become a machine, a species a cultural product, or a swamp a sculpture? https://bit.ly/4cbaHtD

Ana Maria Durán Calisto invites you to a two-panel series and the launch of her book "The Future of Oil Boom Towns in Amazonia,” which she began working on during her Loeb Fellowship in 2010-11. When: April 20, 6:30 pm Where: Room 109, Harvard GSD

This article from @newyorker.com features the work of Kongjian Yu (DDes '95), who pioneered the concept of "sponge cities."

TOMORROW at 6:30 PM ET: Join us for a lecture by Nancy Fraser titled “Against the Environmentalism of the Rich” https://bit.ly/4vkXAyM

TOMORROW at 6:30 PM ET: Join us for a lecture by Deborah Archer on her recent book, Dividing Lines: How Transportation Infrastructure Reinforces Racial Inequality, and its relevance to designers and planners. https://bit.ly/41kivV5