Architecture | Penn Today

designs for drive thru and walk up testing sites in pastel colors

Expressions of color, comfort, and creativity in the fight against COVID-19

With many summer internships disrupted by the pandemic, the Architecture Department at Penn partnered with Surface magazine to create the Summer School at Penn, a month-long virtual lecture series and design competition.

Interior of Fisher Fine Arts building, looking out the window to Locust Walk at the landing of the indoor staircase

A virtual tour of architectural masterpieces

David Brownlee, Frances Shapiro-Weitzenhoffer Professor of 19th Century European Art in the School of Arts and Sciences, leads a virtual tour of some of Penn’s best-known historic buildings.

The Wall Street Journal

How architects are already planning the future of offices

Marion Weiss of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design spoke about the future of office architecture. “Employers may have fewer people on premises at any one time, but they may need more space per person,” she said.

The New York Times

Brooklyn Bridge, star of the city: Here’s a tour

Marion Weiss of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design and her partner spoke about the Brooklyn Bridge and the neighborhoods surrounding it.

A friendship born through marginalization

At the turn of the 20th century, Julian Abele and Louis Magaziner—a Black man and an immigrant Jew—were standouts in Penn’s School of Fine Arts about to launch distinguished careers in architecture. They were also beginning what would be a lifelong friendship. A Magaziner descendant and Abele admirer investigates what brought them together.

View of white garments hanging at the Designs for Different Futures exhibit, with a white shirt on a stand and a futuristic wheelchair and mechanical upright walking device on display.

Designs for what the future can be

The Philadelphia Museum of Art’s “Designs for Different Futures” exhibition includes contributions and installations from several Penn faculty and alumni who seek to answer questions about what the not-so-distant future may look like.

Two construction workers attach a crane to wires around a beam covered in signatures at the topping-off ceremony for New College House West

New College House West milestone marked

As part of a long-standing tradition in construction, members of the construction, project, and architectural teams were given the opportunity to sign the last beam before it was hoisted via crane to the top of Penn's newest residence hall.

Paul Hendrickson speaking at a podium in front of a seated crowd, his arms outstretched, with a photo of a house on the screen behind him.

Revealing ‘storytelling pockets’ in the life of Frank Lloyd Wright

Paul Hendrickson’s new book, “Plagued by Fire: The Dreams and Furies of Frank Lloyd Wright,” brought him full-circle to the famed architect of his childhood in Illinois.

Two people pulling cloth off of bronze bust next to a podium with third person looking on

‘Power of design’

In a ceremony Thursday afternoon, President Amy Gutmann celebrated the naming of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design and Stuart Weitzman Plaza. Weitzman, the designer and footwear industry icon, graduated from the Wharton School in 1963.

Students standing in front of a series of ancient columns and stones.

Studying ancient architectural artifacts in Greece

Junior Zahra Elhanbaly worked with art history’s Mantha Zarmakoupi on a research project on the island of Paros.

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