Author Archives: Amir Sharif

The admissions game at the Yale School of Drama has become more dramatic than ever. The school received its largest applicant pool in its 55-year history this year, with 1,520 applicants for roughly 75 seats in the school’s incoming class, making admission to the school more cutthroat than a Shakespearean tragedy. The number of applicants »

There is a buzz at the Yale School of Architecture. Over the past year, the renovation of the school’s 47-year-old home, Paul Rudolph Hall, earned a LEED Gold certificate; the school’s admissions office posted record numbers for total applications received; and the school managed to attract, yet again, some of the world’s most famous architects, »

Yale’s most recent plans to relandscape its picturesque campus may not be realized for at least another spring, until more fruitful economic times return. Over the past several years the University has been working to revitalize and replant the streetscapes and greens that have distinguished Yale’s campus for centuries. These measures are the University’s second »

Nostalgic, Quicksilver and Sea Dreamer are finally back in town. They are among the 69 ponies, two chariots and a camel that populate the city’s landmark carousel in Lighthouse Point Park — the largest carousel in Connecticut and one of only a few dozen intact antique rides in the country. Until Thursday, when they returned »

Few would guess that Queen Elizabeth II and New Haven high school students share something in common. But one only has to look as far as their jewelry collections: They both have pieces from New Haven jewelers. In the middle of July 1976, on a summer day during the United States’ bicentennial celebrations, Her Majesty »

In the world of architecture, it doesn’t get any better than winning the Pritzker Prize — an honor in architecture akin to the Oscar, the Pulitzer or the Nobel. Now, imagine the likelihood of running into four Pritzker winners on the same day, at the same time, in one place. This is what happened to »

Looking down Chapel Street, it’s difficult to miss the 34-story tower soaring above its neighboring five-story red bricks. Though the building, named after its address at 360 State St., may appear plain and unassuming, it sticks out like a cowlick in both its size and its long list of superlatives. Last week, the building joined »

LONDON — When the U.S. Department of State announced last month the results of the design competition for its new embassy here, the jury surprised critics by selecting, from among a glitzy shortlist of four firms, the only one that has not won the prestigious Pritzker Prize: the relatively youthful Philadelphia-based office of KieranTimberlake. The »

LONDON — For those who missed “Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill” at the Yale Center for British Art last fall, there is a second chance to see it. But this time it will cost £6 and a $500 plane ticket. The exhibit, now on display at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, is the second part of »

Like many Yalies, Felix Raspall ARC ’10 is looking forward to spending some of his spring break catching up on unfinished schoolwork. But for Raspall, this means putting the finishing touches on a project due last fall: the design and construction of a two-person loveseat that he compared to two merging blood cells. Raspall is »

When School of Architecture professor Peter Eisenman heads up to his office on the third floor of Paul Rudolph Hall, he uses the elevators in the Jeffrey H. Loria Center — the addition to Rudolph Hall that currently hosts the History of Art Department. But this is nearly the only time he ever steps foot »

It’s not unusual for Yalies to read texts written by their professors. But only a few can attest to hearing their professors’ yet-to-be-published manuscript about a Soviet delegation’s visit to 1950s California. In the cramped Comparative Literature library on the eighth floor of Bingham Hall, approximately 60 guests — mostly comparative literature faculty and students »