News from

Design

Reset All Filters
383 Results
Sean Burkholder and Eva Del Soldato awarded the 2025-26 Rome Prize
headshots of Sean Burkholder and Eva Del Soldato

Penn faculty members Sean Burkholder of the Weitzman School of Design and Eva Del Soldato of the School of Arts & Sciences are among 35 recipients of the 2025-26 Rome Prize, awarded by the American Academy in Rome.

(Images: Courtesy of Sean Burkholder and Eva Del Soldato)

Sean Burkholder and Eva Del Soldato awarded the 2025-26 Rome Prize

Sean Burkholder of the Weitzman School of Design and Eva Del Soldato of the School of Arts & Sciences are among 35 recipients of the 2025-26 Rome Prize, awarded by the American Academy in Rome to support innovative fellows in the arts, humanities, and sciences.

3 min. read

Listening to the city
Aki Di Sandro standing on a sidewalk in downtown Philadelphia.

“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.

From the Weitzman School of Design

2 min. read

Preservation Awards recognize Weitzman faculty and alum work across Philadelphia region

Preservation Awards recognize Weitzman faculty and alum work across Philadelphia region

Several Weitzman faculty and alums are recipients of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia’s annual Achievement Awards, including a team from the Department of Historic Preservation’s Center for Architectural Conservation that was recognized with a Grand Jury Award for its comprehensive documentation work of the George Nakashima Family House, and Molly Lester, a lecturer in historic preservation and associate director of the Urban Heritage Project, earned the Young Friends of the Preservation Alliance Award for her monograph “Building Ghosts: Past Lives and Lost Plac

Fine art and design using artificial intelligence
Jessica Mach standing outside with her arm resting on a low brick wall

Mach is majoring in psychology and design in the College of Arts and Sciences. 

nocred

Fine art and design using artificial intelligence

Through the design course Artificial Intelligence in Art, second-year Jessica Mach has discovered AI's potential through creating several projects, including a video story and an interactive game.

5 min. read

Weitzman student and alum designate Penn’s oldest property to Philadelphia Historic Register

Weitzman student and alum designate Penn’s oldest property to Philadelphia Historic Register

The building that houses Penn’s Greenfield Intercultural Center has been listed on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places, thanks to a nomination authored by Ke-An Chiang, a graduate student at Penn’s Weitzman School. Built circa 1845, the Reed-Hubley Residence, a 3-story villa at 3708-12 Chestnut Street, is believed to be the oldest building owned by Penn, outside of Hospital properties, which served several families as a suburban villa before being acquired by the University in 1982.

Weitzman and Netter Center to tackle urban heat in West Philadelphia

Weitzman and Netter Center to tackle urban heat in West Philadelphia

A collaboration between the Thermal Architecture Lab at Penn’s Weitzman School of Design, the Netter Center for Community Partnerships, and the Annenberg School has been awarded an Environmental Protection Agency Thriving Communities Grant for $137,000 to work with William L. Sayre High School, a University-Assisted Community School, on measurement of urban heat and solution design.

Changing neighborhoods, changing times
Lance Freeman stands with hands in pockets outside of a building.

Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor Lance Freeman, of the Weitzman School of Design and the School of Arts & Sciences, studies how people interact with the built environment. 

nocred

Changing neighborhoods, changing times

Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor Lance Freeman of the Weitzman School of Design and School of Arts & Sciences studies how people interact with the built environment.

Kristina García

Combining AI and artmaking for youth well-being
Eileen Feng leans against a pole.

Eileen Feng, a graduate student in the Integrated Product Design, inside Tangen Hall. 

nocred

Combining AI and artmaking for youth well-being

Through a community-led partnership project, graduate student Eileen Feng and an interdisciplinary, cross-school team are working with local youth to tailor an AI-supported platform for healing through creative arts.
Building bridges: A feat of engineering and artistry
The Glass Bridge

Architect Masoud Akbarzadeh and research assistant Boyu Xiao of the Weitzman School of Design, along with collaborators including Yao Lu of Jefferson University, defied conventional engineering by constructing a 30-foot-long bridge entirely from 16 millimeter hollow glass units. Their effort is now showcased at the Corning Museum of Glass.

(Image: Courtesy of the Corning Museum of Glass)

Building bridges: A feat of engineering and artistry

At the Corning Museum of Glass, professor of architecture Masoud Akbarzadeh and his team have turned fragility into strength with a 30-foot-long span of shimmering glass, blending ancient wisdom with cutting-edge design to redefine the future of structural engineering and architecture.