School Notes: School of Architecture
January/February 2017

Alumna receives presidential award

Maya Lin ’81, ’86MArch, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in a ceremony at the White House on November 22. Lin designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC, the Women’s Table at Yale, the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, and more. A committed environmentalist, she is currently working on a multi-sited artwork/memorial, What is Missing?, to raise awareness of the planet’s loss of habitat and biodiversity. Yale gave Lin an honorary doctorate of fine arts in 1987, and President Obama awarded her the National Medal of Arts in 2009. 

Perspecta launch party

Quote, the 49th edition of Perspecta, was launched on November 11 at a gathering at the New York architecture firm SHoP. Perspecta, the oldest student-edited and peer-reviewed architectural journal in the United States, is internationally known for its contributions to contemporary architectural discourse with original presentations of new projects as well as historical and theoretical essays. Editors of this issue were members of the MArch Class of 2013: A. J. P. Artemel, Russell LeStourgeon, and Violette de la Selle. To receive a copy, contact the school.

Class of ’76 40th reunion

In October, alumni Yesh Ballon and Marianne McKenna organized a well-attended and successful reunion on campus for members of the Class of 1976. Ballon, now retired, spent the first half of his career as a project manager in Silicon Valley corporate real estate departments, and then trained project managers at Jones Lang LaSalle, a global real estate services company. McKenna is a founding partner at KPMB Architects, a Toronto-based firm that has designed projects across Canada and the US. This past fall, she was the Norman R. Foster Visiting Professor at SoA.