Your independent source for Harvard news since 1898 | SUBSCRIBE

Your independent source for Harvard news since 1898

John Harvard's Journal

Ann Forsyth

January-February 2013

Ann Forsyth

Ann Forsyth

Photograph by Stu Rosner

“After walking to work my whole life, I’ve become this new, middle-aged cyclist,” says Graduate School of Design professor Ann Forsyth. Raised on a farm in Australia, she has built a career on making sprawling urban areas healthier: improving walkability, green space, food sources, and affordable housing. The author of Reforming Suburbia and Designing Small Parks says there has been “a snobbiness about the suburbs, a perception among designers that they are full of affluent people who can be left to their own devices.” But growth of the burbs and their immigrant populations means “there are often more poor children there now than in the core cities,” making Forsyth’s work even more relevant. This spring, she’ll lead GSD students in a hands-on project to help redevelop downtown Malden, a working-class city north of Boston. She is also working with Harvard’s business and law schools to improve other struggling communities. Forsyth left the farm for college in Sydney, marrying her talents in science and art in an architecture degree. Desiring broader societal impact, she switched to urban planning, earning a master’s at UCLA and a doctorate from Cornell, where she was a professor before joining the GSD last May. She has also taught at the University of Minnesota and UMass Amherst, among other places, moving homes about 28 times in three decades. Now she has settled in Arlington, near the bike path into Cambridge. “Making more sustainable and healthy communities is a matter of balance—helping people make choices that help the wider community in the longer term,” she says. “As a researcher, I not only talk the talk, I ride the ride.”

You Might Also Like:

El Cementerio Del Barrio de los Lipanes in Presidio, Texas, as developed by MASS Design’s Santa Fe-based staff

Rendering of El Cementerio Del Barrio de los Lipanes in Presidio, Texas, as developed by MASS Design’s Santa Fe-based staff; the project is scheduled to be completed this fall.

Image courtesy of MASS Design Group

Learning from Indian Country

J.J.Carroll housing project in Brighton, with its clustered, offset buildings

J.J.Carroll housing project in Brighton, with its clustered, offset buildings

Image courtesy of MASS Design Group

Designing Good Lives

A rendering of MASS Design’s proposal to reclaim the waterfront and renew Poughkeepsie’s center

A rendering of MASS Design’s community-informed proposal to reclaim the waterfront and renew Poughkeepsie’s center

Image courtesy of MASS Design Group

Building a Better World

You Might Also Like:

El Cementerio Del Barrio de los Lipanes in Presidio, Texas, as developed by MASS Design’s Santa Fe-based staff

Rendering of El Cementerio Del Barrio de los Lipanes in Presidio, Texas, as developed by MASS Design’s Santa Fe-based staff; the project is scheduled to be completed this fall.

Image courtesy of MASS Design Group

Learning from Indian Country

J.J.Carroll housing project in Brighton, with its clustered, offset buildings

J.J.Carroll housing project in Brighton, with its clustered, offset buildings

Image courtesy of MASS Design Group

Designing Good Lives

A rendering of MASS Design’s proposal to reclaim the waterfront and renew Poughkeepsie’s center

A rendering of MASS Design’s community-informed proposal to reclaim the waterfront and renew Poughkeepsie’s center

Image courtesy of MASS Design Group

Building a Better World