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.

An exhibition in the Galerie des Batailles

Versailles owed it to itself to commemorate the 240th anniversary of American Independence. The Château de Versailles is a symbolic place in the history of the special friendship linking the United States and France.

Thanks to Béatrix Saule, Directeur général, a delegation of RMHP Fellows and Scholars were led on a private visit of the remarkable exhibition “Versailles et l’Indépendance américaine” on the evening of September 19th. Élisabeth Caude, Conservateur général, explained to us in captivating detail the depth of the role played by the Kingdom of France in the rebellion against England and the particular involvement of Louis XVI. This alliance culminated in 1783 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris.

On loan for the exhibition: Jean-Antoine Houdon, bust of Benjamin Franklin, marble, 1779.
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Franklin was one of the signers of the Treaty of Paris in 1783.