The Daily Hub

The Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment (GCPE) has a new Alumni Spotlight series highlighting recent graduates, kicking off with historic preservation alumna Sarah Eccles from the class of 2021: “My thesis was definitely a major project for me. I got to explore what is very important to me and I loved that. I think when we worked in the studios, particularly in Sunset Park, documenting Bush Terminal and examining how an industrial site can relate to a community and how it can become important to a community was a real turning point in how I looked at historic preservation and how it shapes people and communities.”

The Pratt Center for Community Development released its new report “Still Room for Improvement” examining the land use impacts of hotel development in New York City, including how the COVID-19 pandemic may shape future development. The report is available to read online.

Brooklyn Magazine featured the work of Allen Frame, adjunct professor-CCE of photography, whose new book FEVER includes his color photographs from the early 1980s just before the dawn of AIDS. Frame told the publication that the images capture “the irony of that year … the mood and palette of the pictures versus the impending pandemic.”

Through August 8, Harvestworks on Governors Island is exhibiting “Scintillator,” an installation by Visiting Assistant Professor Joseph Morris with the help of Interim Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences Helio Takai. The work uses computer-controlled electromagnets to turn inverted wine glasses into sonic resonators, similar to running a finger along the rim of a glass, creating an immersive experience of sound and technology.

“Neighbors/Voisin.e.s” by Ken Aptekar, MFA ’75, is on view through August 1 in the Chapelle St-Aubin in Autun, France, as part of the Biennale Internationale Autun. The centerpiece of the installation is a series of six diptychs that reflect on religious tolerance, otherness, immigration, and community. His ongoing work on these issues through art was previously highlighted on Pratt.edu.

At Night All Blood Is Black by David Diop, which was translated by Anna Moschovakis, adjunct associate professor-CCE in the Writing Department, was included on Former President Barack Obama’s summer reading list. The book was recently awarded the 2021 International Booker Prize.

Ursula Michelle, MS Packaging Design ’22, won the Grand Prize in the sixth annual Role Models Contest hosted by Parsons Healthy Materials Lab. The competition challenges students to combine design innovation with advocacy for healthier futures. Michelle’s “Rethinking Contact Lens Packaging” project reimagines disposable blister packs through smart packaging design that emphasizes reuse and compostable materials. Graduate industrial design students Charlotte Böhning and Mary Lempres were also recognized with an Honorable Mention for “(Stool)Stool” made with biochar.