Spring 2020 public program

Harvard GSD opens its spring 2020 public program on February 4, with an inside look at Harvard University’s footprint in neighboring Allston—the site of Harvard’s future research and innovation campus. Questions about urbanization in the United States are woven throughout the spring program, with a February 27 conversation among historian Lizabeth Cohen, former United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan, and Harvard GSD dean Sarah Whiting on “Saving America’s Cities.” Cohen and Whiting join Alex Krieger, Thomas J. Campanella, Paul Goldberger, and Alissa Quart on April 14 to discuss writing on and about cities, while on April 17, Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies presents “In Pursuit of Equitable Development: Lessons from Washington, Detroit, and Boston.” This spring also marks the 50th anniversary of Harvard GSD’s noted urban design program, celebrated on March 12 with a lecture by former Washington, D.C. mayor Anthony A. Williams.

Other events explore developing interests that extend beyond cities. On April 10, architect Jennifer Bonner and structural engineer Hanif Kara moderate the conference “Mass Timber: Beyond Instrumentality and Technology,” dove-tailing with a concurrent studio that the professors are leading at Harvard GSD. Architect and urbanist Rem Koolhaas returns on April 23 to join Dean Whiting and curator Troy Conrad Therrien for a discussion tied to Koolhaas’s much-anticipated Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum exhibition Countryside, The Future (opening February 20); Koolhaas and Whiting visit the Guggenheim the following day for a related evening event. On February 6, landscape architect Günther Vogt gives a lecture in connection with his Harvard GSD exhibition First the Forests, reinviting designers to foreground forestry and plant life in their work—a conversation to be continued on February 25, when Ron Henderson, Julian Raxworthy, and Douglas Reed join Harvard GSD’s Danielle Choi to talk “Plants in the Design Imagination.” And on March 30, curator Stefanie Hessler and artist Armin Linke will discuss their ongoing research into the intermingled social forces at play in the excavation of the world’s oceans.

The full public program appears below and can be viewed on Harvard GSD’s events calendar. Please visit Harvard GSD’s home page to sign up to receive periodic emails about the School’s public programs, exhibitions, and other news. 

Harvard GSD spring 2020 public program

“Harvard in Allston: Perspective and Next Steps”: Marika E. Reuling and Thomas Glynn
February 4

C. David Tseng
February 5

Frederick Law Olmsted Lecture: Günther Vogt               
February 6

“Plants in the Design Imagination”: Ron Henderson, Julian Raxworthy, and Douglas Reed with Danielle Choi
February 25

“Saving America’s Cities: The Past, Present, and Future of Urban Revitalization”
A conversation with Lizabeth Cohen, Shaun Donovan, and Sarah Whiting          
February 27

Elizabeth Hoover    
March 2

International Womxn’s Day Lecture: Dr. Vandana Shiva    
March 3

“Words Build Worlds”: Nicolai Ouroussoff, Florencia Rodriguez, and Tom Weaver
March 10

50th Anniversary of Urban Design Lecture: Former Mayor Anthony A. Williams
March 12

Conference: “On the Cene: New Approaches to Building the American Museum of Natural History” with a keynote lecture by Jeanne Gang, Gary Hilderbrand, and Douglas Reed
March 13

“An Anatomy of Influence,” Thomas Daniell  
March 23

John T. Dunlop Lecture: “Addressing Homelessness: What Can (and Can’t) Architecture Do?” with Michael Maltzan
March 24

Conference: “Thresholds: Design and Science”
March 27

Rouse Visiting Artist Lecture: “Prospecting Ocean: Artistic Research in the Oceanic Anthropocene”: Stefanie Hessler and Armin Linke       
March 30

Open House Lecture: Amanda Williams
April 2

Kenzo Tange Lecture: OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen
April 7

Sol Camacho/RADDAR     
April 9

Conference: “Mass Timber: Beyond Instrumentality and Technology,” moderated by Jennifer Bonner and Hanif Kara
April 10

Aga Khan Program Lecture: “Tankers, Tycoons, and the Making of Modern Regimes of Law, Labour, and Finance,” Laleh Khalili
April 13

“Writing Our Cities”: Alex Krieger with Thomas J. Campanella, Lizabeth Cohen, Paul Goldberger, Alissa Quart, and Sarah Whiting           
April 14

Jan De Vylder
April 16         

Conference: “In Pursuit of Equitable Development: Lessons from Washington, Detroit, and Boston”
April 17

Hashim Sarkis       
April 21

“Project for a New Decade: From City to Countryside”: Rem Koolhaas, Troy Conrad Therrien, and Sarah Whiting
Co-organized with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum       
April 23

“Project for a New Decade: From City to Countryside”: a panel discussion at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
​Co-organized with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum   
April 24