Meet CED Alums

On the occasion of this endowment gift, Hao Ko, FAIA , global director of design at Gensler, reflects on the impact of his undergraduate years in UC Berkeley’s Department of Architecture.

Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning Chair Walter J. Hood (MArch + MLA 1989) has been named the 2025 recipient of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture, the University of Virginia’s highest external honor in the field. Previous recipients include Mies Van Der Rohe, Alvar Aalto, Marcel Breuer, Jose Luis Sert, I.M. Pei, Lawrence Halprin, Fumihiko Maki, Frank O. Gehry, Tod Williams & Billie Tsien, Zaha Hadid, Maya Lin, Rafael Moneo, Laurie Olin, Diébédo Francis Kéré, and Kate Orff.

The College of Environmental Design is delighted to announce that Aleks Baharlo (MArch 1997) will take the helm of the Nancy and Douglas Abbey Master of Real Estate Development + Design as its executive director in January 2025.

CED alum José Gámez (MArch 1992) steps into a new leadership role at UNC Charlotte, where he has been on the faculty since 2002.

Lester Wertheimer (BA Architecture 1951, MArch 1952) recalls studying with Erich Mendelsohn, meeting Frank Lloyd Wright, and spending the night atop a pyramid in Giza.