HKS vs. GSD: The Unwanted Love Child
by Patrick Thrasher on October 31, 2007 in Features
The MPP/UP program is the unloved child of some past, regretted union between KSG and and the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD). Everyone thought things would work out between the two of them, but somehow it never quite came together. Awkward silences ensued, and failed attempts to find common ground. Citing irreconcilable differences, the two have agreed to go their separate ways, with KSG taking its MPPs and the GSD its Masters in Urban Planning students (MUPs).
We few MPP/UPs trudge back and forth between them - the love children of a failed educational tryst - reminding administrators at both schools of their historical connection and scheduling nuisances they would rather forget.
But the differences between the schools, in spite of their independence, are worth exploring, because they reveal something about the assumptions both schools make, how they work and how they don’t, and (maybe) provide some insight into why their relationship did not last. Here are four big ones.
First: the building. You, no doubt, think the GSD’s building - Gund Hall - is hideous. You know the building - the dirty concrete one across the street from Memorial Hall.
I will not call you a philistine for holding this unenlightened view, but I will encourage you to sneak into Gund Hall one afternoon. Take the elevator - which is hard to find - to the fifth floor, and start opening doors until you find the massive studio space. From the top floor, five stories of architects, designers and planners stretch out below you: all working in the same room. You will find it hard not to at least qualify your opinion of Gund. None of KSG’s buildings compare.
Gund Hall reflects, and is in fact built around, a second basic difference: the contrasting pedagogies of the GSD and KSG. Most learning at the GSD takes place in studio. “Studio” is a group of around 10 to 20 students who work together on projects under the guidance of a faculty member. The structure is very flexible. Sometimes, students in a studio work separately; other times, they have a single project on which they collaborate. It is essentially a modern version of the apprenticeship model dating back hundreds of years - novitiates grind away under the supervision of a master in their field.
Third, there’s the small size of the groups and our close quarters. I have seven classmates in my studio section, and all of our desks are all grouped together, promoting the informal sharing of ideas and skills.
When I get stuck on something in my work, I get up and wander around to see what others are doing. When someone has a question about Excel, they holler across their desk at me for advice. Because so much of our work is about the visual representation of complex ideas, it’s easy to look over someone’s shoulder and engage with their project. This is particularly helpful when it’s late and you run into a problem. All you have to do is turn around and ask your “butt-mate” - the person toiling away at the desk behind you - what she thinks about your graphs.
And late nights we have - that’s the fourth big difference. The work takes a long, long time. In my first five weeks over at Gund, I have watched two sunrises from my desk. I have had innumerable nights past 2 A.M. (including one writing this article, n+1). And through all of them, I’ve never once been alone. There are always at least a dozen other people in the building with me, and usually one or two of them are fellow urban planners. Contrasted with the empty halls of KSG after 8pm, Gund is a lively place, even in the dead of night.
Fundamentally, this is the result of making arguments visually. Graphics can always be better, and I have quickly fallen into GSD-wide habit of obsessing over small visual details: should this circle be white or light grey? Meanwhile, another half slips by.
Ultimately, it’s a good change of pace from KSG. Even now, I’m at it again. It’s 3:15 in the morning, and I’m running sensitivity analyses that are not even asked for on Boston’s housing needs in 2020. I wonder, idly, how hard I should work to prove myself worthy to a GSD parent who will cast me out come December anyway. But somehow, all the work, and the drive to perfection it draws from me, has a life to it that is almost entirely missing at KSG.
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