PHILADELPHIA -- University of Pennsylvania President Judith Rodin announced the creation of the Penn Urban Research Institute, which will specialize in urban issues, during a March 4 address at the Penn School of Design.

The Penn Urban Research Institute will be an umbrella structure that will integrate and coordinate the research, education and practice of experts in urbanism from the University's 12 schools.

The institute will develop and disseminate knowledge about managing the growth, problems and design of urban environments at the local, national and international levels

In creating the institute, the University is building on its success in transforming its West Philadelphia neighborhood by providing residents new retail amenities and home ownership, education and business opportunities as well as by making the area safer and cleaner.

At the March 4 event, Rodin talked about Penn's urban-revitalization efforts and introduced the new institute's co-directors, Eugenie Birch, chair and professor of city and regional planning at the School of Design, and Susan Wachter, professor of financial management and professor of real estate and finance at Penn's Wharton School.

Birch has served as president of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, co-editor the Journal of the American Planning Association, and president of the Society of American City and Regional Planning History.  From 1990 through 1995, she was a member of the New York City Planning Commission.

Wachter has taught at Wharton since 1972 and served as chair of its Real Estate Department from 1997 to 1999.  She served as assistant secretary for policy development and research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development where she served from 1999 to 2001.  Wachter is a national expert in housing analysis and the first woman to head the American Real Estate Urban Economics Association.  

Birch and Wachter will be supported by an executive committee comprised of Penn faculty: Elijah Anderson, John DiIulio, Michael Katz, Janice Madden, Samuel Preston and Lawrence Sherman, all of the School of Arts and Sciences; Dennis Culhane and Richard Gelles, both of the School of Social Work; Michael Fitts, the School of Law; Susan Fuhrman, the Graduate School of Education; Joe Gyourko, Wharton; Gary Hack, PennDesign; Shiriki Kumanyika, the School of Medicine; and Afaf Meleis, the School of Nursing.  Penn Provost Robert Barchi will chair the committee.

An external advisory board is expected to be in place by autumn.

Additional information on the new institute is available at http://www.upenn.edu/pennuri/, by calling 215-573-8386 or by e-mailing Kendra Goldbas, associate director, at kendrag@pobox.upenn.edu.

(Ed. Note: Photographs of Drs. Birch and Wachter are available for downloading at www.upenn.edu/almanac.)