Dear Alumni and Friends of Landscape Architecture,
As I reflect on a remarkably eventful academic year and a wonderfully successful commencement in late May, I wanted to reconnect with you as I step away from my role as department chair. Professor Anita Berrizbeitia (MLA ’87), a former department chair, will return to the role while I focus on a new faculty search and a new teaching assignment. I am deeply grateful to Anita for her steadfast devotion to the department and her exceptional intellectual leadership. Serving as department chair for the past four years has been an extraordinary and deeply rewarding honor. Together with our outstanding teaching faculty, brilliant and ambitious students, and many supportive alumni and friends, we have accomplished a great deal in challenging times.
Most importantly, under Dean Whiting’s superb leadership, the mood in the School this year was exceptional. Our international students have told me they feel seen and supported, and the sense of community across all departments has been palpably strong. I can say with confidence that our students feel the care and support provided by the School’s administration. We are likewise proud of Harvard’s exceptional leadership amid the economic and social challenges we face.
Early in the school year, we were deeply saddened by the sudden accidental death of our great friend and supporter Kongjian Yu (DDes ’95), founder of Turenscape and a leading voice in landscape architecture worldwide. You can read Irving Professor Charles Waldheim’s remembrance here. We miss Kongjian’s tireless and persuasive passion for placing the discipline at the center of cities’ responses to the climate crisis.
Now in its 126th year, the department has a markedly expanded presence in the School, the University, and beyond, especially in climate adaptation, urban and community forestry, resilient coastal planning, environmental history, and design applications of GIS and AI, among other areas. Several faculty members are deeply engaged with colleagues in Harvard’s Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, the Arnold Arboretum and Harvard Forest, the Harvard Data Science Initiative, and the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability. We have sustained student internship programs with Garden and Landscape Studies at Dumbarton Oaks; Harvard’s Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence, Italy; the Arnold Arboretum; and the remarkable historic château and organic farm at Courances, France. These efforts have brought us strong bonds and noteworthy collaborations.
This year, our lunchtime lecture series in the Frances Loeb Library featured faculty members in conversation on topics of varied current interest. Visiting Design Critics Silvia Benedito (MAUD ’04) and James Lord (MLA ’96) discussed design approaches to wildfires in California, Portugal, and West Africa. Professor Anita Berrizbeitia (MLA ’87) joined Irving Professor Charles Waldheim for a rich and lively conversation on teaching theory in the discipline. Assistant Professor Karen Lee Bar-Sinai presented her work on eco-machines, while Senior Lecturer Ed Eigen explored that work and offered tremendous insights of his own. Professor in Practice Chris Reed and Associate Professor in Practice Belinda Tato examined strategies and outcomes rooted in deep community engagement in design. Assistant Professor Kaja Talley-Schumacher and Lecturer Abby Spinak, our two environmental historians, offered diverse perspectives on how environmental histories reshape narratives of human and more-than-human relationships. Finally, Visiting Design Critic Sierra Bainbridge and Lecturer Alexis Landes shared their views on alternative forms of practice that are moving the field forward.
Our department’s public lecture series was equally stimulating. We opened the fall semester with our perennial “Global to Local to Global” climate workshop with Emeritus Professor Carl Steinitz. We hosted a screening of Mitchell Rasor’s (MLA ’94) beautiful film, Salt Marsh, with Mitchell and filmmaker Tom Bell sharing stories of Mitchell’s salt marsh painting across the seasons on the Maine coast. Lauren Stimson and Stephen Stimson (MLA ’87) visited, memorably entertaining us with stories of their Charbrook Farm studio and their many award-winning projects—after charmingly transforming the Piper Auditorium stage with abundant flowers and trees from the farm. The noted climate activist Bill McKibben gave a rousing talk on the perils of climate disaster and what we must do about them. The eminent landscape architect Kate Orff (MLA ’97) generously shared reflections on her career path with an overflowing audience at Piper Auditorium. Daniel Urban Kiley Fellow Kira Clingen (MDes/MLA ’21) gave her Kiley Fellowship talk, “Place-Based Scenario Planning for the Climate Emergency,” based on her work with the Office for Urbanization on Cape Ann, Massachusetts. We also hosted “Richard Forman’s Spatial Ecology of the Land,” a conversation with Dean Whiting and Professor Emeritus Richard T. T. Forman. The event offered an opportunity to display fourteen of Richard’s influential books in the Loeb Library and to reflect on his defining role in our understanding of the ecology of landscapes, urban systems, roads, regions, towns, and more.
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Sylvester Baxter Lecture
Lauren Stimson and Stephen Stimson “restraint + wildness”
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Open House Lecture
Bill McKibben “A Fresh Start for Our Cities”
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Daniel Urban Kiley Lecture
Kira Clingen “Place-Based Scenario Planning for the Climate Emergency”
We held two symposia this year, along with multiple exhibitions. In February, we hosted scholars and practitioners from around the world for “Designers of Mountain and Water: Alternative Landscapes for a Changing Climate,” curated by Associate Professor in Practice Jungyoon Kim (MLA ’00) and her colleague Nicholas Harkness, Modern Korean Economy and Society Professor and director of the Harvard Korea Institute. The symposium and exhibition featured 57 works by 23 practices in Asian bioregions. In April, Associate Professor Pablo Pérez-Ramos hosted “Oases of Mezcal: An Oaxacan Rural Community in Conversation with Harvard University,” featuring his engagement with climate-challenged agricultural communities in western Mexico. Finally, the student-led Landscape Technology Forum held several internal and public events that provided remarkable conversations around innovative applications of technology in the field.
Our option studio sites varied widely this year, and all option studios received funding for travel. In the fall, students journeyed to Athens, Kyoto, Geneva, Santa Fe, and two regions of California, the South Central Coast and Napa Valley. In the spring semester, students traveled to the Atacama region of Peru as well as to Dakar, London, Berlin, and New York City—this last studio shared with students in the GSD’s Real Estate Program. These studio trips provide invaluable opportunities for one-of-a-kind learning with local officials, specialists, and stakeholders.
As our community deepens its engagement with environmental and social challenges, the following initiatives further demonstrate the School’s commitment to co‑designing with ecological processes and local knowledge:
- How landscape architects collaborate with “nature’s furriest engineers” (beavers) to restore wetlands and enhance biodiversity:
- The Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture (RICA) campus by MASS, which integrates architecture, agriculture, and ecology as a holistic development strategy:
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Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design
Urban Design as a Development Strategy The Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture Campus by MASS
As we look ahead to the fall, you are invited to join alumni, faculty, students, and friends for the ASLA Los Angeles: GSD Alumni Reception 2026. The reception will take place on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, from 7:00–9:00 p.m. PDT at SWA Group. We are especially grateful to Gerdo Aquino (MLA ’96) and Ying-yu Hun (MLA ’94) for generously hosting us in their studio.
In closing, I want to express my deep gratitude and respect for my GSD teaching colleagues, who have provided remarkable support and affirming community during my time as department chair. It has been enormously satisfying to work with Dean Whiting, the Executive Committee, the Senior Faculty Council, the department chairs, and our program directors, who work tirelessly on behalf of students and serve as vital liaisons with the chairs. I have taught at the school for more than three decades, but in my time as Department Chair, I truly felt the spirit of this aspirational and committed learning community over these past four years. I leave the department in strong shape and in excellent hands, and I remain ready to support its continued success.
Sincerely,
Gary R. Hilderbrand (MLA ’85), FASLA, FAAR
Peter Louis Hornbeck Professor in Practice
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Principal
Reed Hilderbrand LLC
Facts Only
* Gary R. Hilderbrand is stepping down as department chair of Landscape Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD).
* Professor Anita Berrizbeitia is returning to the role of department chair.
* The department is currently in its 126th year.
* Kongjian Yu, founder of Turenscape, died recently in a sudden accident.
* Current areas of departmental focus include climate adaptation, urban and community forestry, resilient coastal planning, environmental history, and GIS and AI applications.
* The department maintains internship programs at Dumbarton Oaks, the Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence, the Arnold Arboretum, and Courances in France.
* The lunchtime lecture series featured speakers including Silvia Benedito, James Lord, Anita Berrizbeitia, Charles Waldheim, Karen Lee Bar-Sinai, Ed Eigen, Chris Reed, Belinda Tato, Kaja Talley-Schumacher, Abby Spinak, Sierra Bainbridge, and Alexis Landes.
* Public lecture events included presentations by Carl Steinitz, Mitchell Rasor, Tom Bell, Lauren Stimson, Stephen Stimson, Bill McKibben, Kate Orff, Kira Clingen, and Richard T. T. Forman.
* Symposia held this year included "Designers of Mountain and Water" and "Oases of Mezcal."
* Student option studios traveled to Athens, Kyoto, Geneva, Santa Fe, California, Peru, Dakar, London, Berlin, and New York City.
* An alumni reception is scheduled for September 16, 2026, at SWA Group in Los Angeles.
Executive Summary
Gary R. Hilderbrand is concluding a four-year term as department chair of Landscape Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, handing leadership back to Professor Anita Berrizbeitia. This transition occurs against a backdrop of expanded academic focus on climate resilience, AI, and environmental history, characterized by deep interdisciplinary collaborations across Harvard’s biological and sustainability institutes.
The academic year was marked by significant scholarly activity, including diverse lecture series and global studio travels spanning Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. While the community faced the loss of a prominent figure in Kongjian Yu, the department continues to emphasize co-design with ecological processes and local knowledge, as evidenced by recent symposia on Asian and Mexican bioregions. The current institutional mood is described as supportive and community-oriented, particularly regarding the experience of international students.
Full Take
This is an institutional communication designed to signal stability and intellectual prestige during a leadership transition. The strongest version of this narrative is a celebration of a thriving, globalized academic ecosystem that successfully integrates high-level theory with practical, climate-focused applications.
The narrative relies on a pattern of prestige-stacking, weaving together a dense tapestry of high-profile names, international locations, and specialized terminology to validate the department's current trajectory. This serves to reassure alumni and donors that the institution remains at the vanguard of the discipline. While the tone is celebratory, the underlying driver is the necessity of institutional continuity; by framing the transition as a return to a known leader (Berrizbeitia) while highlighting a "markedly expanded presence," the message mitigates any perceived risk associated with the change in chair.
The primary assumption is that global reach and interdisciplinary connectivity are the primary metrics of academic success. The benefit of this framing accrues to the institution's brand and the perceived value of the degree. The cost is a potential detachment from the localized, granular realities of landscape architecture in favor of a "global-to-local" conceptual framework.
Patterns detected: none
Root Cause: The narrative is driven by the "Academic Prestige Paradigm," where legitimacy is derived from the intersection of elite institutional affiliation and global intellectual networking.
Bridge Questions:
1. How does the department balance its high-level global initiatives with the immediate, practical needs of local practitioners?
2. In what ways might the reliance on "prestige networks" limit the diversity of perspectives entering the design process?
Counterstrike Scan: An influence campaign would use these same lists of prestigious names and global sites to create an "inevitability" effect, suggesting that this specific institutional approach is the only valid path forward for the field. The content here is a standard academic update and does not match the structural aggression of a coordinated campaign.