Fellowship•USA · Cambridge

Loeb Fellowship

Funding

Partial / Stipend

Program dates

TBA

The Loeb Fellowship, run by the Harvard Graduate School of Design, brings a small cohort of accomplished mid-career practitioners to Cambridge, Massachusetts for a full academic year of independent study and reflection. Fellows come from across the fields that shape cities and landscapes — architecture, urban planning, landscape architecture, public art, journalism, development, policy and civic leadership — and design their own year of learning across Harvard and MIT. It is explicitly not an academic sabbatical or an artist residency; the aim is to renew leaders whose work advances positive social and environmental outcomes. Roughly 9 or 10 fellows are selected each year.

Benefits & funding

  • Annual stipend of $57,500 (taxable income).
  • No cost to audit regular classes at Harvard College, any of the 11 Harvard graduate schools, and MIT (minimum one GSD course per semester).
  • Housing offered for fellows and families relocating from outside the Boston/Cambridge area (individual or shared, modestly furnished, near the GSD).
  • Travel grant covering roughly one economy round-trip home per semester (taxable).
  • Weekly seminars and dinners with visiting practitioners; two study tours (fall in North America, spring international); a lifelong alumni network.
  • Not covered: health insurance and child-care costs.

Eligibility

  • Mid-career practitioners with a minimum of 5–10 years of professional experience (fellows average about 42 years old).
  • Open to fields shaping the built and natural environment: urban design, architecture, landscape architecture, planning, public art, journalism, real-estate development, policy, community development and civic leadership.
  • No completed higher-education degree is required.
  • Open to applicants of any nationality; international fellows must be able to obtain a J-1 visa at the time of selection.
  • Applicants must step away from significant employment and refrain from professional work during the fellowship year, except as approved by the curator.

Application process

  1. 1
    Submit the online application through SlideRoom, including a résumé with dated work history and responses to the program’s questions.
  2. 2
    Arrange three professional letters of recommendation, due by the same deadline as the application.
  3. 3
    Optionally add up to five supplemental documents illustrating your work.
  4. 4
    A selection committee shortlists about 20 applicants by the end of February; shortlisted candidates complete up to three interviews, and 9 or 10 fellows are chosen by mid-April.

Program timeline

  1. Application deadline for the 2026–27 cohort (now closed).

    Jan 5, 2026

  2. Approximately 20 applicants shortlisted.

    End of February

  3. Final cohort of 9 or 10 fellows selected.

    Mid-April

  4. Fellowship year begins in Cambridge.

    Mid-August

  5. August 2026

    Deadline for the 2027–28 cycle to be announced.

  6. Fellowship year concludes at commencement.

    Late May / June