GSD Comeback: Alumni & Friends Celebration 2026 (VB)

Visit the WelCOMEBACK table to check-in and grab your name badge and printed materials to navigate the weekend. Staff will be ready to answer any questions and direct you to the various events throughout the space!    

In the early 1950s, British architects Alison and Peter Smithson announced their arrival with a call for a “new brutalism.” Describing new brutalism as an ethic, not a style, the Smithsons aimed to meet the changing needs and desires of postwar society through an architecture that directly expressed the material conditions of its time. Today, the imperatives of the new brutalism almost perfectly articulate a latent theory of contemporary architecture. This exhibition appropriates the new brutalism as a “found” theory of the present, exploring its relevance as a design methodology rooted in material economy, spatial flexibility, structural expression, and a disregard for prevailing aesthetic conventions. Pairing rarely seen drawings and original texts from The Alison and Peter Smithson Archive with projects by Ábalos & Herreros, aDVVT, Mark Anderson & Andrew Zago, b+, Shigeru Ban, Ensamble Studio, Andrés Jaque / Office of Political Innovation, Jones, Partners: Architecture, Lacaton & Vassal, Mark Linder, OMA, and Rotor, this exhibition aims to reveal a set of principles and possibilities that are animating the work of a new generation of students and faculty at the GSD and beyond.

Curated by:
Emmett Zeifman, Design Critic in Architecture

Decompress from a busy week and join us for a relaxed, but lively evening of conversation and connection as alumni, current students, and faculty gather for the beloved Friday night tradition. Enjoy delicious food offerings from local restaurants and a hosted soft bar.

Hear from Dean Sarah M. Whiting and Harvard University’s Provost John F. Manning AB ’82, JD ’85

Visit the WelCOMEBACK table to check-in and grab your name badge and printed materials to navigate the weekend. Staff will be ready to answer any questions and direct you to the various events throughout the space!    

Start the day off right with a healthy continental breakfast and connect with fellow alumni and friends.

Offering mini-courses to understand the GSD’s current pedagogy and join critical conversations that are centered around relevance, making an impact, and defining the critical issues of tomorrow.
 
 
Reflections from “Bangkok Porous City: New Landscapes of Equity and Prosperity 2.0”
The Spring 2024 Landscape Architecture Option Studio
Piper Auditorium
This mini-course imagines how the last development parcel where river and city meet in central Bangkok could be designed as a “city for all.” This would allow for greater social inclusion and ecological and climate resiliency while addressing developmental needs and cultural and recreational programs for the metropolitan region. With inspiration from the vibrant spaces of exchange and social adaptation in a watery terrain, this course examines our rigid ways of assigning programs to spaces and of setting unnecessary boundaries that curtail possibilities for the enrichment of social life.
Facilitated by:
Anita Berrizbeitia MLA ’87, Professor of Landscape
Ignacio Bunster-Ossa LF ’93, Design Critic in Landscape Architecture 
AIA CES, LA CES, and AICP credit.
 
 
Beyond the Stacks
Telling New Stories: Inclusive Knowledge Creation with GIS and Collaborative Engagement with Archives
Frances Loeb Library
The Frances Loeb Library has taken up new inclusive approaches in order to offer a more complete picture of design practice and urban life, benefiting current and future students, faculty, researchers, and practitioners. By centering perspectives from the Global South, women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ communities, and by engaging in new ways with our collections we help ensure that all GSD students can see themselves in our collections and programs. This includes digital scholarship initiatives that shed new light on these stories. At this presentation, you’ll hear about StoryMap projects supporting the African American Design Nexus, including the Harlem StoryMap created by Thandi Nyambose MUP ’21 in 2020 and the Francis Kéré StoryMap created by Olufemi Olamijulo MPP ’24, MUP ’24 in 2024. You’ll also hear about the library’s new collaborations with GSD students, faculty, and colleagues that expand representation and engagement with our special collections.
Facilitated by:
Bruce Boucek, GIS, Data, and Research Librarian 
Ines Zalduendo MArch ’95, Special Collections Curator
AIA CES, LA CES, and AICP credit.

Grab a drink, snack, and recharge with fellow alumni and friends in between modules.

Exploration of “Parisian Knees”
The Fall 2023 Architecture Option Studio
Piper Auditorium
This mini-course examines how increased density is transforming our cities. The course explores studio-based investigations of architecture sitting astride a new metro station in Paris, one of 68 new stations currently under construction in the greater Parisian region. Subjects include public space, programming, structure, and movement systems. The aim of the studio was to speculate on how architecture might exploit these subjects to invigorate public life in the context of one of the most important public infrastructure projects in the world today.
Facilitated by:
Ron Witte, Professor in Residence of Architecture
AIA CES, LA CES, and AICP credit.
 
 
Early Design Education Programs
Building Boundary Objects: Connecting Design with a Broader Audience
Stubbins, Room 112
How does someone new to the design of the built environment find traction with design materials and methodologies that may be less familiar to them? What design matter serves as the best gateway to invite access to new knowledge and enable design actions to be taken? How do designers collaborate with those from other fields to effectively transgress typical disciplinary domains? This session will address these questions through an interactive workshop and share information on the GSD’s Early Design Education programs, including the Design Discovery and Design Discovery Youth summer programs. 
Participants will be called into action with expanding the design material we mobilize in order to share the value of design with a broader audience outside of architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning and design.
Facilitated by:
Megan Panzano MArch ’10, Senior Director of Early Design Education, Lecturer in Architecture
Oluwatosin “Tosin” Odugbemi MArch ’24, Founder & Lead Designer of Atelier Oluwatosin
AIA CES, LA CES, and AICP credit.

Find classmates and friends and share your morning experiences over lunch.

Reglazing Gund Hall: Innovative Design for a High-Performance Future
Piper Auditorium
The pivotal Gund Hall façade renewal project is part of an evolving world view about how we view architecture and the built environment that can serve as a transformative model for the GSD, the university and beyond. This panel offers a unique opportunity to explore critical aspects of the project’s evolution beginning with a commitment by the GSD to create a state-of-the-art renovation that maximizes energy performance and patron comfort, with an unwavering commitment to honoring the integrity of John Andrews’ MArch ’58 original architectural vision.  These lofty objectives were achieved through an integrated design and construction process through which a pioneering, innovative technical design approach was developed to achieve clearly stated performance and aesthetic objectives – with a wealth of valuable insights gleaned from this ambitious endeavor.
Facilitated by:
Sarah M. Whiting, Dean and Josep Lluís Sert Professor of Architecture
David Fixler, Lecturer in Architecture, Chair of GSD Faculty Building Committee
George H. Gard MAUD ’14, Associate at Bruner/Cott
Glen Patrick Ryan, Senior Project Manager at Shawmut Design and Construction 
Ben Szalewicz, Chief of Facilities and Campus Operations
AIA CES, LA CES, and AICP credit.
 
 
Architecture at the GSD now: Reflections from the Chair’s office, and on the Druker Design Gallery exhibition
Max Bond Jr., Room 111
This presentation offers an overview of the Architecture department’s pedagogy, both today and in its recent past, including insights into the current exhibition in the Druker Design Gallery, “Architecture as an Instruction-Based Art.” Grace La, Chair of the Department of Architecture, outlines the contours of the department’s programs, and reflects on pedagogically significant concepts represented in the exhibition (curated by Professor in the Practice of Architecture Farshid Moussavi).
Facilitated by:
Grace La AB ’92, MArch ’95, Chair of the Department of Architecture
AIA CES, LA CES, and AICP credit.

This 3.5-hour late afternoon break offers a chance to unwind, network, or explore Harvard Square. Check out the Beyond the GSD tab on the event page for suggestions on how to enjoy your free time.

***NEW OFFERING***
View Polinature, the vertical garden spearheaded by Belinda Tato, associate professor in practice of landscape architecture at the GSD. Located in the backyard of 40 Kirkland Street on the GSD campus (Google map).

Join us in honoring the 2023 and 2024 Alumni Award winners. Dean Whiting will serve as our venerable host and moderate a discussion uplifting the work and leadership of our distinguished winners. Learn more about them on the Alumni Award Winners tab on the event page.

Let’s continue the celebration into the night! Reflect on the evening’s awards, delve deeper into the topics explored during the day, and share your own stories. Enjoy a casual but generous food spread and a hosted soft bar with signature drinks.

Formal GSD Comeback programming concludes.

We look forward to welcoming those self-organizing reunion gatherings back the next day. Please refer to the Reunion Resources tab on the event page and contact Lindsey LaGrasse, Director of Student-Alumni Engagement, at [email protected] for more information.