Columbia GSAPP students mingle with Hunt Prize laureates and team members 

Columbia University architecture and preservation studio participants were in Paris on October 5th with professors Jorge Otero-Pailos and Mark Rakatansky, on the return leg of their design studio session in Europe focusing on adaptive reuse. In Geneva, the students’ exploration of a new project within the United Nations’ historic complex included on-site archival research. They examined drawings and documents related to a 1920s design competition for the erection of a palais for the League of Nations, precursor of today’s U.N.

Representing a wide range of nationalities, the Columbia Design students and their professors were hosted by members of the Richard Morris Hunt Prize France Managing Team for a sociable evening including several past and present Hunt Prize laureates. Professor Otero-Pailos – whose recent appointment as director of Columbia’s program in Historic Preservation was another cause for celebration – had hoped to bring about this encounter rich with promises for the future.