2024 Alumni Award Winners
C. Ronald Ostberg MArch ’68
After graduating from the GSD in 1968, Ron Ostberg was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia. In 1974, he moved to Rome to work on the design of King Khalid Military City in Saudi Arabia. Returning to Cambridge in 1984, he joined The Stubbins Associates. His projects include the Indiana Historical Society, Landmark Tower in Japan, the Psychology Building at Vanderbilt and the American Embassy in Singapore. After his retirement, Ron led an active volunteer life in the town of Harvard, Mass., on the Massachusetts Designer Selection Board and the Board of Foreign Parishes, and with the GSD Alumni Council and the Harvard Alumni Association.
Gretchen Schneider Rabinkin MArch ’97
A licensed architect, educator, and professional nonprofit leader, Gretchen Rabinkin, AIA, Affiliate ASLA has long worked at the intersection of individuals, organizations, and community groups to improve the spaces of everyday experience. Since 2017, Gretchen has served as executive director of the Boston Society of Landscape Architects (BSLA), the Massachusetts and Maine chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects. BSLA membership includes more than 500 professional and nearly 200 student members in those states. Gretchen works with the board and area firm leaders to guide strategic direction and manages all BSLA operations, including growing and supporting our community of practice, initiating and organizing continuing education, and developing programming to deepen understanding and catalyze action. Gretchen currently is visiting faculty at Amherst College, where she teaches the architectural studies studios, and is visiting faculty at the University of Southern Maine, where she and the BSLA have co-founded the first introduction to landscape architecture and architecture summer program in northern New England.
Harry G. Robinson, III MCPUD ’73
Harry G. Robinson III, FAIA, AICP, has been a member of the District of Columbia Board of Architecture, serving three terms as chair. He served as NCARB President and was a representative in negotiations for international reciprocity between Canada, Mexico, and the United States. In addition to his service to the regulation of architecture, he was a professor and Dean Emeritus at the Howard University School of Architecture and Design. He founded the Career Discovery Program in Architecture and the African American Architect Initiative. Robinson also served as Chairman of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. He has received numerous awards, including the Whitney M. Young award, the Richard T. Ely Distinguished International Educator Award, and the AIA DC Centennial Medal.
Calvin Tsao MArch ’79
Calvin Tsao is a recognized and leading voice in contemporary architecture whose work draws from a rigorous engagement with a variety of art forms. Along with his partner, Zack McKown, Tsao received the 2022 AIANY Medal of Honor, and in 2009 the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian National Design Award for Interior Design. In 2012, Tsao was the recipient of Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) Legacy Award. A Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, he has taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Cooper Union, Syracuse University, and Parsons The New School for Design, lectured at universities and served as guest critic internationally. Tsao serves as the Board Chair of the American Academy in Rome and is an active member and President Emeritus of the Architectural League of New York. Through the Tsao Family Foundation, Calvin endowed the formation of the Real Estate Practicum at the GSD, as well as a Fellowship in intercultural philosophy and a residency for Asian artists and scholars at the American Academy in Rome.
2023 Alumni Award Winners
Edwin “Teddy” Cruz MDes ’97 is a professor of public culture and urbanization in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of California, San Diego, and a principal in Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman, a research-based political and architectural practice in San Diego. He is known internationally for his urban research on the Tijuana/San Diego border, advancing border neighborhoods as sites of cultural production from which to rethink urban policy, affordable housing, and public space. His honors include the Rome Prize in Architecture in 1991, the Ford Foundation Visionaries Award in 2011, a 2013 Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the 2018 Vilcek Prize in Architecture.
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Shaun Donovan AB ’87, MPA ’95, MArch ’95 has dedicated his life to public service, with a focus on building opportunity and fighting for people and communities too often left behind. Donovan joined the Ford Foundation as a Senior Fellow in August 2022, working with the Biden administration and partners across the country to build community capacity to ensure the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law reaches its transformative potential, especially in historically disadvantaged communities. Donovan is also a Senior Fellow at the World Resources Institute, where he is working with international humanitarian organizations to incorporate climate resilience into their work. Previously, he launched an ideas-driven campaign for mayor in his hometown of New York and served as Director of the US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Secretary of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Obama administration.
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William “Bill” Johnson MLA ’57 has focused on environmental design issues throughout his 60-year career as a planner, designer, teacher, and academic administrator. His contributions emphasize the search for contextual fit, harmony, and community involvement in a range of problem-solving initiatives. In 1963, Bill was a cofounder of Johnson, Johnson and Roy (JJR), a multi-office, international design practice that later merged with the SmithGroup. He also served as a professor of landscape architecture (1968–1988) and as dean of the School of Natural Resources (1975–1983) at the University of Michigan. In 1992, Johnson, Johnson and Roy merged temporarily with PWP Landscape Architects, the firm of Harvard classmate Peter Walker MLA ’57. Following the completion of this Berkeley-based partnership, Bill has maintained an active consulting practice as well as a vigorous career in oil painting.
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Frank Christopher Lee MAUD ’79 Upon his graduation from the GSD, Frank returned to Chicago to hone his craft working for Helmut Jahn. Four years later, he helped form the award-winning firm Johnson & Lee, Ltd. One of the major tenets of the firm was to assist communities that were underserved by the design community. Frank has participated on juries and lectured throughout America and Canada. About 13 years ago, Frank noticed that the number of African American students at the GSD had decreased, which prompted him to seek admission to the Alumni Council. During his 10-year tenure, he focused on recruitment efforts at the school and the Council itself, which resulted in a considerable increase in the number of African American students applying, being admitted, and accepting the offer of admission.
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Cathy Simon MArch ’69, Cathy’s 50-year career has focused on transformative design at all scales. Her award-winning work comprises design for higher and secondary education, including buildings at the University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, and Bard College. Her institutional master plans include two (2008 and 2017) for Bard College, Harvard Futures in Allston, Stanford in Redwood City, and NYU Builds 2031. In 1985, Cathy founded SMWM, a pioneering women-owned architecture and urban design firm with offices in San Francisco and New York; in 2008, the firm merged with Perkins + Will, where she served as a senior design principal. She was elevated into the AIA’s College of Fellows in 1986, served as the Chair of the GSD Alumni Council from 1993 to 1997, and received the honor of the William A. Bernoudy Architect in Residence at the American Academy in Rome in 2015. Cathy has taught architecture at both Stanford and UC Berkeley.
