Harvard Design School graduate merges architecture and social justice

Wednesday, April 12, 2017 - 16:01 in Psychology & Sociology

This is one in a series of profiles showcasing some of Harvard’s stellar graduates. When Dana McKinney was a girl, her family drove every week from their small town in Fairfield County, Conn., to Sunday dinner at her grandmother’s home in Newark, N.J. To a child who loved dance and art, the changing scenery on those trips revealed stark contrasts that stung of economic inequality. “I was going back and forth between a very comfortable lifestyle in Connecticut to a very depressed environment in Newark and became really inspired to look at how people can affect the built environment,” McKinney said. “I want to be able to fix this! — That was my immediate reaction — I’ll be an architect!” After studying architecture at Princeton University, McKinney came to Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) in 2012 to earn master’s degrees in architecture and urban planning. It’s an unusual and demanding course of...

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