Open Letters

OPEN LETTERS is a student publication that began in 2012 and defined as “a biweekly experiment that tests the epistolary form as a device for generating public conversations about architecture and design.” Its founding editor-in-chief, Chelsea Spencer, was inspired by a letter from Mack Scogin to Benedetta Tagliabue published in the Harvard Design Magazine the same year. What may have seemed a modest project —explore the epistolary form— was launched with big ambitions —generate public conversation about design. This format proved both imaginative and practical: light enough to be managed by full time students and flexible enough to be passed on to successive cohorts. The publication has sustained continuous publication for over a decade and is now approaching its hundredth issue after thirteen years. There have been open letters from students, from faculty, from staff, and the publishing of letters from the archives.

New issues of the student-run publication have been consistently released every other Friday during the academic year, following a model of rotating editors from year to year. Open Letters welcomes participation from anyone that “may be delighted, confused, or incensed.” The responses have reflected this openness: letters have been written by and addressed to individuals (students, faculty, and staff alike), organizations, institutions, buildings, landscapes, and cities. Some letters have elicited replies within the epistolary framework itself, while others have sparked commentary and discussion in different circles. Over time, the publication has featured love letters, anonymous letters, curriculum proposal letters, letters of admiration and letters of discontent. It has also reprinted letters from the archives, including correspondence such as Le Corbusier to Josep Lluís Sert, Anni Albers to Ise Gropius, and Gertrund Arndt to Walter Gropius. Like CIRCO —the double-page pamphlet founded in 1993 by Luis Moreno Mansilla, Luis Rojo, and Emilio Tuñon, and still published monthly more than 25 years later —Open Letters is a publication whose significance emerges through the issues’ aggregation.

Open Letters embodies a content format that is at once challenging and accessible.  It invites the writing of private letters addressed to a particular party but intended for public dissemination, while maintain a straightforward production model that firs within the constraints of student life: a clear submission framework, print distribution, and an accompanying online archive. Over time, the project has woven itself into the fabric of daily life at the GSD. Every other Friday, many expect the newest letter at the “donut” in the lobby —whether to catch up on what is happening, or simply to pause and reflect amid the demands of academic life. Beyond the breadth and depth of its individual contributions, the publication as a whole captures the atmosphere and pulse of student and academic life at the GSD with a consistency unmatched by previous student-led initiatives. It is, without doubt, a student publication worth following closely.