Bill McKibben: A Fresh Start for Our Cities 2026
March 26 @ 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Free
Overview
The Harvard Graduate School of Design is having an event called “A Fresh Start for Our Cities”. It is an open-house lecture that anyone can attend. This event is happening at Piper Auditorium, which is located in Gund Hall in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Harvard Graduate School of Design is doing this as part of titspublic program series for Spring 2026. This event is really about design and cities, and also about climate policy and landscape architecture. The Harvard Graduate School of Design is having this event to talk about these topics.
Focus
The lecture is about what Bill McKibben says in his book “Here Comes the Sun”. He thinks that solar and wind energy are getting bigger, and this is a change in the climate crisis. Bill McKibben says that this change is a thing for cities. He thinks that cities can make this change happen now, not just talk about it.
The talk after the lecture is about what cities need to do to make this change happen. It is about money and rules. This is important for people who design buildings and cities to think about how to make them work with the environment and use energy in a way. The lecture and talk are related to what architects research about cities and energy currently.
For once in his life, he is spreading good news, the recent boom in solar and wind power has given him hope for the planet’s future.
GSD Event Description, March 2026
Program
Lecture
Bill McKibben gives the talk. He talks about ” Comes the Sun”. He says that renewable energy is being used more and more. This is news for cities, communities, and buildings. The talk is part of the GSD’s Open House series. This series is open to everyone, notjust students.
Panel Discussion
After the talk, Bill McKibben is joined by Rebecca Henderson and Oliver Wainwright. They discuss the stage. Gary R. Hilderbrand hosts the discussion. He is a professor at the GSD Department of Landscape Architecture. The panelists are:
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Bill McKibbenAuthor, “Here Comes the Sun” / Schumann Distinguished Professor in Residence, Middlebury College / Founder, 350.org and Third Act
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Rebecca HendersonUniversity Professor, Harvard University / Research Fellow, National Bureau of Economic Research / Author, “Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire”
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Oliver WainwrightArchitecture and Design Critic, The Guardian / Loeb Fellow 2026, Harvard GSD
The event is being put on with help from the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability. This is part of their series called “Climate Crossroads: Debating Energy’s Next Frontier”. The Melissa Kaish and Jonathan Dorfman Makers Fund is also helping out.
These days, people are talking more about how climate change and building design are connected. This is being discussed in schools around the world.
You can watch the event live on the GSD event page when it starts. The Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability and the GSD event page will have a stream with closed captioning so everyone can follow along.
Audience
The event is free for everyone. It is meant for students studying architecture and landscape architecture. Urban planners and researchers focusing on climate can also attend. Anyone working with design, energy, and buildings should come too.
Event Details
| Date | Thursday, March 26, 2026 |
| Time | 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. EDT |
| Venue | Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA |
| Host | Harvard Graduate School of Design |
| Event Type | Open House Lecture and Panel Discussion |
| Live Stream | Available onthe GSD event page |
| Access | Free and open to the public |
| Registration | Via Eventbrite |
✦ ArchUp Editorial Insight
The way McKibben talks about the energy transition is very simple; he thinks it is all good. The truth is that architecture and urban planning have to deal with a lot of complicated issues. When we build infrastructure, it can make people lose their homes. Big renewable energy projects need a lot of land. And the good things about the energy transition are not shared equally among people; some get more benefits than others. McKibben does not talk about these problems. The people on the panel are mostly economists and critics, not planners or housing experts. So they look at how citiesre changing in a way that favors the market,t not fairness, for everyone. The energy transition is a deal, and we need to think about how it affects people and places asitn does.
Closing Note
The event is part of the GSD’s Open House program. It is all about climate communication. This shows that the people in charge want to connect what students learn about design with what the government’s doing. The fact that McKibben is speaking at a design school in a place where people talk about policy is interesting. It seems like he wants to talk about energy transition in terms of the spaces around us. The question is whether the people on the panel will really think about the built environment as a part of the energy story or if they will just see it as a background. The built environment and climate communication are important to the energy story.
