5.20
Louisa Shepard
News Officer
lshepard@upenn.edu
Design
‘Expanding what it means to be a class’
‘Expanding what it means to be a class’
Allison Lassiter, Randall Mason, Michael Luegering, Joshua Mosley, Richard Farley, and Michael Henry had to work quickly and creatively to shift their classes from a hands-on learning experience to a virtual one.
Dinner and a movie with Weitzman School’s Megan Ryerson
Dinner and a movie with Weitzman School’s Megan Ryerson
Striving to keep her students engaged, Megan Ryerson of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design invites them to virtually join in her family’s activities, including dinner discussions and movie nights with transportation-themed films.
Conserving the nation’s first chartered hospital
Conserving the nation’s first chartered hospital
The Stuart Weitzman School of Design’s PennPraxis and the Center for Architectural Conservation will examine, assess, and prioritize the conservation of the buildings, grounds, and collections of the Pennsylvania Hospital.
Sharon Hayes on performance art
Sharon Hayes on performance art
Having come of age in New York City during the AIDS crisis, artist Sharon Hayes has always made work connected to political movements. She blends performance with installation and video to create large-scale works that explore the relationship between “the private and the public; the personal and the political.”
Picturing the future Lehigh Valley
Picturing the future Lehigh Valley
Penn Praxis is a Design Partner with the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, along with a team of Design Fellows, to design a 25-year plan for the region called Future LV for ecological health and quality of life in cities, towns, and undeveloped areas.
Designs for what the future can be
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.
Vincent Reina on housing, barriers, and what we need from housing policy
Vincent Reina on housing, barriers, and what we need from housing policy
New challenges to the housing market and its policies are “unprecedented,” say the Penn Design professor. He outlines potential improvements to the country’s largest affordable rental housing programs and the possibility of retrofitting housing to help reduce utility cost burdens.
Urban planning for biodiversity after bushfires
Urban planning for biodiversity after bushfires
The Weitzman School’s Richard Weller visited Sydney for a two-week intensive on critical urban challenges and converting a parkland into an incubator for wildlife.
Visualizing future cities with Zhongjie Lin
Visualizing future cities with Zhongjie Lin
A new three-year project called called “Spatial Visions Connecting China and the West: A Centennial Review and New Perspectives on Future Urban Environments” will address global issues like climate change and migration will begin at Penn and travel to Beijing.
‘An Atlas for the Green New Deal’
‘An Atlas for the Green New Deal’
The McHarg Center releases a new collection of maps and datascapes capturing the spatial consequences of climate change in support of a coordinated national response.
Media Contact
In the News
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.
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BBC News
The best trees to reduce air pollution
Stephanie Carlisle of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design spoke about high hopes for the use of urban trees to mitigate air pollution. “Some designers have a tendency to think in terms of objects rather than a complex ecological system,” she said. “But without a holistic understanding of urban ecosystems, the risk is to do more harm than good.”
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Gizmodo
Giant concrete umbrellas could protect the lucky ones
Daniel Aldana Cohen of the School of Arts and Sciences expressed skepticism about a proposed design for adaptable seawalls on beaches. “A lot of new developments that had a basically a harder infrastructure quality ended up splashing water onto adjacent places and flooding them more,” he said. “So with this project, if you imagine this as a defense of one beach, even if it’s successful, it’s going to probably cause more flooding...next door.”
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WHYY (Philadelphia)
‘If you don’t have to ride, please don’t’: SEPTA, PATCO further reduce service
Meg Ryerson of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design commented on the continued operation of public transit systems during the pandemic. “They’re not private companies out to make money,” she said. “They operate because they’re here to provide mobility in regions. That’s really incredible, to think that their mission is to be there for you during disaster times, and there for you in the best of times, and everything in between.”
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WHYY (Philadelphia)
How Philly’s neighborhoods can help us understand pandemics
David Barnes of the School of Arts and Sciences, Eugenie Birch of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design, and Susan Wachter of the Wharton School weighed in on how Philadelphia has historically handled epidemics, how these approaches have shaped the city over time, and what can be done now to manage COVID-19.
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WHYY (Philadelphia)
Bright lights, big city: How Philly’s new streetlights could make us safer
Erick Guerra of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design explained why night is the most dangerous time for pedestrians. “A lot of things happen at night,” he said. “People are more likely to be drunk, people are driving faster because there’s less congestion, people are paying less attention. We get worse driving on a variety of dimensions.”
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