The GSD History Collection, Academic Affairs

The first academic degree programs in architecture and landscape architecture at Harvard emerged from design education initiatives that began in 1874 when Charles Eliot Norton introduced architectural history into his fine arts courses. The first Harvard course devoted exclusively to architecture was offered by Herbert Langford Warren in 1893. In 1899 the first Harvard building devoted solely to instruction in the fields of design was started in memory of Nelson Robinson, Jr., a former Harvard student who had been interested in architectural design and landscape architecture. The Faculty of Architecture was established in 1914 to coordinate the curricula and degrees in architecture and landscape architecture. City planning became the third component of the design curriculum in 1909, when James Sturgis Pray began teaching planning courses within the landscape architecture program. It was not until 1936 that Harvard created a separate professional school for these various disciplines when the Graduate School of Design was established for the study of architecture, landscape architecture, and city planning. Joseph Hudnut was appointed dean of the newly established GSD, and he invited Walter Gropius to come to Harvard as chairman of the department of architecture in 1936. Another landmark during this period was the admission of women to the GSD for the first time in 1942. The postwar era brought enormous changes for all three professions. Both Hudnut and Gropius reached retirement age in the early 1950s, and Josep Lluis Sert was appointed dean in 1953. Among his many contributions was the establishment in 1960 of the first degree program in urban design in the United States.