Dear Alumni, 

Thank you for your continued support of GSAPP. As we closed the academic year on April 30 and celebrated the opening of the newest End of Year Show, the enthusiasm and commitment of our alumni community has contributed immensely to our students’ success. From mentorship to lectures to offers of employment, GSAPP alumni continue an enduring loyalty and generosity, and I could not be more grateful.

During the month of May, GSAPP joins the University in recognizing our Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) community. As we continue to speak out against the abhorrent acts of violence and racism against the AAPI community – and against racism in all its dimensions – I wish to dedicate our attention to celebrating the wide range of contributions by our AAPI faculty and alumni throughout this year. These are only some examples reflecting the integral role the AAPI community plays at GSAPP, and I invite you to share your own stories with us at gsappalumni@columbia.edu. We will continue to post and celebrate throughout the month.

Warm regards,
Amale

“I’m looking through everything more through a social justice framework than I ever have before.” - Caitlyn Campbell ‘21 MSCCCP

Read more about Caitlyn.

“Professor Hiba Bou Akar brings anecdotes from her days practicing planning in contexts that don’t have such progressive aims, her responses to which I find very inspiring as I contemplate entering professional practice myself after graduation.” - Hayes Buchanan ‘21 MSUP

Read more about Hayes.

If your firm is in a position to expand its team, please considering hiring from the GSAPP community. Post job opportunities, from full-time or part-time positions to summer internships, directly on the Engage jobs platform or contact a career services team member. More information can be found on this page.

The opportunity to speak about the job market with trusted alumni—including those in other American cities and international locations—is invaluable to emerging practitioners. The demand for mentorship has remained high since the program’s inception March 2020. To volunteer as a mentor, send a note to gsappalumni@columbia.edu with your job title, company name, and location.

Summer dates below:

• June 8
  
• June 22
  
• July 6
  
• July 20
  
• August 3
  
• August 17

The Career Services team at GSAPP matches current students with GSAPP Alumni Mentors to meet at least twice a semester. Mentors help students explore their career interests, discuss the transition from academic to the professional world and provide guidance with the job searching process. Interested alumni can send a note to careers@arch.columbia.edu to enroll.

If you are in a position to support students through a contribution to the Scholarship Fund, please consider making a gift today. Gifts can be made online at this link.

Thursday, May 20
6 to 8:30 pm EDT

Join us for presentations by the 2020-2021 GSAPP Incubator Prize recipients, who will present and discuss the work that they have been undertaking during the second year of the Prize. The GSAPP Incubator Prize seeks to expand the territory between academia and the profession and promotes new models of practice by supporting alumni in the development of a wide range of new ideas and projects about architecture, contemporary culture, and the future of the city.

REGISTER TO ATTEND

Monday, May 24
6 to 7:30pm EDT

Executive Coach Patricia Hayling Price leads a leadership workshop for professionals preparing to launch their own entrepreneurial venture or seeking to do so in the future. Topics include:

• Distinguishing self from the pack
• Internal /External Image
• Personal SWAT analysis
• Personal narrative
• Core values
• Organizational vision
• Soft skills vs Hard skills
• Managing projects across and within teams
• Visual demonstrations on zoom
• Gravitas
• Task – relationship balance
• Courageous authenticity
• Leadership competencies

Register here >>

The series is sponsored by the Alumni and Professional Development Committee of the GSAPP Alumni Board and represents an ongoing commitment to the success of our alumni community.

MSUP Program Director and Professor Weiping Wu will deliver the lecture “Big Data Response Mechanism of Post-COVID-China Urbanization” on May 16 at 10am China Standard Time, organized by Columbia Global Centers | Beijing and Columbia University Urban China Network, a student organization of the Urban Planning program within the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Register here.

The Urban China Network, GSAPP Urban Planning Program, and Columbia Global Centers | Beijing announce a call for creative essays and design projects that identify urban issues and solutions related to COVID-19 in China by May 31, 2021, 11:59pm Beijing / 11:59am NYC. Details here.

Last month, Malo Hutson, Associate Professor of Urban Planning, and Weiping Wu participated in the panel “Stand in Solidarity: Combating Anti-Asian Hate and Violence”. View the full webinar.

The New York Landmarks Conservancy’s Lucy G. Moses Preservation Awards are among the highest honors for outstanding preservation accomplishments in New York City. Andrew Dolkart, Professor of Historic Preservation at Columbia GSAPP, is being honored this year for his decades of service to the field and to his students.

To mark this occasion, Emily R. Kahn, a graduate of the M.S. in Historic Preservation program, interviewed Professor Dolkart about his work and the significance of this award to him. Read their conversation here and join us virtually in celebrating Professor Dolkart at the awards ceremony on May 6 at 6:00pm by registering here.

Columbia GSAPP is pleased to present the outdoor pavilion Avery SPOT, designed and constructed by students in the Spring 2021 seminar “The Outside Project” led by Professors Laurie Hawkinson and Galia Solomonoff. The structure features an LED-illuminated, 600-pound inflatable canopy above Avery Plaza, anchored by four steel beams in Avery and Fayerweather Halls and four anchor points.

Learn more about Avery SPOT here.

The interview-based project reveals a new emergence of food apps that are transforming the social and culinary landscape in North Africa.

“With the emergence of the unregulated gig economy, and particularly food delivery apps, new social patterns and economic logics have flourished online, redefining preset gendered relationships and economic power structures. Despite their potential to be places of labor rights exploitation and wealth concentration, in countries such as Egypt, food apps are offering women empowerment, by turning their domestic kitchens into spaces of production. Through a curated soundscape of different anonymous voices from Cairo, Rebel Kitchens intends to provide a space able to visualize this complex reality.” – Anna Puigjaner and Alina Abouelenin

Visit the Rebel Kitchens website.

Gustavo Lopez Mendoza ‘22 MArch, together with Ji Ku '22 SEAS and Juliet Brooks '22 MBA, received Best Overall Award from the Columbia Engineering Entrepreneurship’s 2021 Design Challenge. Their proposal, Polymasa, upcycles ocean plastics for biocomposite 3D printing.

View the winning presentation here and learn about the Design Challenge here

On April 22, Andrés Jaque led a private tour of the 13th Shanghai Biennale: Bodies of Water exhibition for Columbia GSAPP students and alumni. The tour took place on site at the Power Station of Art in Shanghai, China. Andrés is Associate Professor of Professional Practice and Director of the Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design program and the Chief Curator of the Biennale.

Image Credit: Phoebe Zhang ‘15 MSAUD

Nathan Ogle ‘95 MSAUD and other members of his Class have been engaging in a new model for informal forums. “Each of our sessions are a rotating loose presentation and open discussion,” shared Nathan. “I have started inviting others, such as my students and Richard Plunz etc. Video recordings are posted for those who cannot make it.”

The GSAPP Alumni Office is glad to help alumni reconnect with former classmates. Please send an email to gsappalumni@columbia.edu to access Class Lists.