The Daily Hub

The intersection of 7th Avenue and 12th Street in Park Slope, Brooklyn, has been renamed Pete Hamill Way in honor of the reporter, columnist, and Pratt alumnus who died last August. The new green-and-white street sign was unveiled with a ceremony on June 24.

The Noguchi Museum has an online exhibition featuring work from the MFA Graduate Foundations Design Studio course. Each spring, Pratt students are asked to draw inspiration from Isamu Noguchi’s work with their projects this year investigating how design can foster a dialogue between the acts of making, supporting, and commodifying, concentrating on the Museum’s Akari Light Sculptures. Noguchi + Pratt is on view online through August 29.

Amanda Huynh, assistant professor of industrial design, contributed the article “Fostering a Multilingual Design Studio Classroom” to the spring 2021 issue of INNOVATION magazine, the quarterly publication of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA): “The future of industrial design looks like the increasingly diverse students in our classrooms. It is essential that our studio classroom environments allow them to be their full selves and affirm their lived experiences.”

In July 2020, Trustee Kathryn Chenault, together with her husband Kenneth, announced their commitment of $1 million to establish scholarships to support diversity in the School of Architecture. The inaugural Chenault Scholarships were awarded to three incoming high-achieving undergraduate students: Fatoumata Diallo, Ariana Dillon, and Rylee Ferguson. With their first year behind them, Fatoumata, Ariana, and Rylee shared their experiences thus far on the School of Architecture site.

In its new Behind the Business series, Made in NYC, an initiative of the Pratt Center for Community Development, is spotlighting member stories each Monday through the summer. A recent video features Visiting Assistant Professor of Interior Design Ashira Israel, BArch ’11. Her Brooklyn-based design studio IN.SEK promotes sustainability in its furniture and challenges a culture of disposability and wastefulness.

Students in the spring 2021 Projects in Digital Archives class worked with School of Information Dean Anthony Cocciolo on revamping the Lesbian Herstory Archives Audio/Visual Collections website with updates including better mobile device accessibility. School of Information students have previously digitized material including radio programs for the grassroots archive dedicated to preserving Lesbian history.

In its Interviews with Esteemed Faculty series, the School of Architecture shared a conversation with Scott Ruff, adjunct associate professor of undergraduate architecture, and Jeffrey Hogrefe, professor of humanities and media studies, on how they have collaborated on engaging students in issues such as gentrification, working with local communities, and seeing architecture and design as ways to protect places.

The Cannes Film Festival begins on July 6 and the Directors’ Fortnight lineup includes the short Sycorax by Lois Patiño and Matías Piñeiro, assistant professor of film and video.