Exterior view of “(Ex)Urban Futures of the Recent Past” at Galleria Thomas Schultz in Berlin.
(Image: Courtesy of Weitzman News)
Exhibition as conversation
For three faculty members in the Department of Fine Arts, curating exhibitions offers the opportunity to explore relationships between works of art, art and politics, history, and the environment.
In a course led by 2024-25 McHarg Fellow Leah Kahler, students explored the movement of plants across cultures and climates, as well as the relationships between recreational and productive landscapes.
Leslie Richards, professor of practice in the Weitzman School.
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Professor of practice Leslie Richards on innovative transit and city planning
Once described as a “battleship turner” by Philadelphia Magazine, Weitzman professor of practice Leslie Richards served as secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) and subsequently led the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), where she oversaw a $2 billion budget and a network that connects over five million residents in Greater Philadelphia. Having earned a master of regional planning degree from Penn in 1993, she was the first planner and
Robert Gerard Pietrusko collaborated on the installation ”A Satellite Symphony,” which explores how satellites frame how we understand the Earth itself; the viewing structure is constructed from trees from the Veneto region downed by storms.
(Image: Gaia Cambiaggi / Studio Campo)
At the Venice Biennale, a convergence of innovations in materials, structures, and landscapes
Several Weitzman School of Design faculty and students will exhibit at the Venice Biennale’s 19th International Architecture Exhibition.
For dual architecture degree candidate Kelvin Vu, design begins with the body
Master of architecture and master of landscape architecture candidate Kelvin Vu, who was a professional dancer before coming to Weitzman, says “dance and landscape design are about change, flux, and dynamism.”
“I’ve always been fascinated by how different cities sound," says Aki Di Sandro, a student in the Weitzman School’s Master of Urban Spatial Analytics program.
(Image: Courtesy of Weitzman News)
Listening to the city
In a Spring 2025 City & Regional Planning course at Penn’s Weitzman School, students are exploring the connections between urban sounds and neighborhood identity.
One of the photographs of Weitzman Hall made by historic preservation student Kate Whitney-Schubb and submitted to the Library of Congress for the Historic American Buildings Survey.
(Image: Courtesy of Weitzman News)
A rare on-campus assignment for preservation students holds ‘small revelations’
Weitzman historical preservation students were able to use a campus building slated to be altered for its class focus, which changed the stakes of the project and the approach students took to documenting the historic building.
Jessica Varner on the long arc of built environment and its materials
Varner, an assistant professor of landscape architecture at the Weitzman School, explores the intersections between architectural, environmental, and chemical history.
