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Using data to make city planning more safe and accessible
Xiaoxia Dong.

Xiaoxia “Summer” Dong is an assistant professor of city and regional planning in the Weitzman School.

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Using data to make city planning more safe and accessible

Weitzman School of Design’s Xiaoxia ‘Summer’ Dong focuses on the travel behavior and mode choice impacts of driverless cars.

From the Weitzman School of Design

1 min. read

Protecting Indigenous heritage in an age of climate vulnerability
Wupatki Pueblo in Arizona at dusk.

Wupatki Pueblo, north of Flagstaff, Arizona, is among the villages built by Native peoples in the desert Southwest centuries ago. “We look at those sites as still alive, as offering us the opportunity to connect with our ancestors and to continue the work, and legacy of that work, of communing with that place,” says Chas Robles, ALCC’s executive director.

(Image: Colin Cohan)

Protecting Indigenous heritage in an age of climate vulnerability

A preservation plan being developed by researchers in the Weitzman School in consultation with local stewards conserves a millennium of human settlement.

From the Weitzman School of Design

Penn IUR, the United Nations Environment Programme unveil new framework to address gap in urban nature finance
Farmers in rural Peru.

(Image: Courtesy of UN Environment Programme)

Penn IUR, the United Nations Environment Programme unveil new framework to address gap in urban nature finance

The Penn Institute for Urban Research has released a report for the United Nations Environment Programme Cities Unit’s State of Finance for Nature in Cities, From Grey to Green: Better data to finance nature in cities, during COP16 Colombia.

From Penn IUR

Ten years in, the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy is ‘just getting started’
Ramón Méndez Galain at Carnot Prize ceremony.

Carnot Prize recipient Ramón Méndez Galain, the former energy director for Uruguay, spoke at the 2023 Carnot Prize Policy Lecture and Award Ceremony, held at the Kleinman Center Energy Forum. 

(Image: T. Kevin Birch)

Ten years in, the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy is ‘just getting started’

Through grants, awards, events, publications, a podcast, and more, the Center provides resources and a central hub for researchers across Penn tackling the energy transition.
Preservation studio teaches preservation planning practice
Liz Trumbull and Cameron Moon in the hospital ward of Eastern State Penitentiary, wearing hard hats.

Weitzman Historic Preservation Studio students Liz Trumbull and Cameron Moon in 2022 in the hospital ward of Eastern State Penitentiary.

(Image: Elizabeth Donison)

Preservation studio teaches preservation planning practice

The Weitzman School of Design’s Preservation Studio promotes sound decision-making practices in the face of contemporary preservation challenges.

From the Weitzman School of Design

Penn Vet’s Wildlife Futures Program launches habitat initiative for Philadelphia bats
Nick Tanner and Daniel Flinchbaugh with a finished bat box.

Penn Facilities and Real Estate Services assistant landscape planner Daniel Flinchbaugh (left) and Penn undergraduate Nick Tanner (right) with a nearly finished bat box in the Weitzman School of Design Fabrication Lab.

(Image: John Donges/University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine)

Penn Vet’s Wildlife Futures Program launches habitat initiative for Philadelphia bats

With the bat population on a sharp decline since 2008, the Program collaborated with Penn Sustainability and Penn Facilities and Real Estate Services to develop bat boxes designed to mimic tree habitat and support the daily needs and overall health of bats.

From Penn Vet

Penn solutions to climate change
Banner that reads climate week at Penn

At a Climate Week event, Penn’s Climate Solutions Showcase, a group of faculty and researchers from the School of Engineering and Applied Science and Weitzman School of Design presented innovative strategies to combat the causes and effects of climate change.

(Image: Felice Macera)

Penn solutions to climate change

As society grapples with the impacts of a worsening climate—from the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events to rising sea levels and deadly heat waves—the need for actionable solutions has never been greater, Penn researchers say.
Toward carbon-negative architecture
A rendering of the carbon-absorbing and storage system

A rendering of the carbon-absorbing and storage system developed by the Penn team and its partners suggests how minimized material use and maximized surface area are expressed in the structure's slabs, columns, and beams.

(Image: Courtesy of Weitzman News)

Toward carbon-negative architecture

A multidisciplinary team of researchers from Weitzman and Penn Engineering are working to develop a new building system that would reduce carbon in all aspects of concrete construction.

From the Weitzman School of Design