Design

Protecting the planet at Penn

Earth Day and every day, the University community is at work to make the world a little better. Here are some highlights from those efforts.

Katherine Unger Baillie, Michele W. Berger

Wading into Philly’s vacant land morass

Four students in the Weitzman School’s Department of City and Regional Planning are working to find suitable properties to rehabilitate with the Women’s Community Revitalization Project and the City of Philadelphia Department of Planning and Development.

Penn Today Staff

Public scooters may soon zip through Philadelphia

The School of Design’s Megan Ryerson assisted with the city’s debate over the scooter as a safe and viable transportation alternative, as Pennsylvania assesses a bill to legalize electric scooters on public streets.

Penn Today Staff

PennPraxis launches toolkit for neighborhood preservation

In the past decade, Philadelphia’s building boom has been accompanied by a string of demolitions touching almost every corner of the city, and resulting in the loss of everything from iconic churches to vernacular row houses. But even as a growing number of Philadelphians lament these losses, advocates for historic preservation have sometimes struggled to make a case for keeping Philadelphia’s built fabric intact.

Penn Today Staff

Designing with nature, now

Thanks in large part to the foundation Ian McHarg built, the Stuart Weitzman School of Design Landscape Architecture Department has led the field for decades. Here’s how it’s staying relevant as the importance for the profession—one that is central to solving some of the world’s greatest challenges—grows.

Lauren Hertzler

Using stairwells for wellness

StairWELL, a Penn Sustainability Green Fund project, completed a yearlong pilot project last July that aimed to test how effective a stairwell makeover could be in increasing physical activity and reducing energy costs.

Brandon Baker



Media Contact


In the News


WESA Radio (Pittsburgh)

Pa. environmental, religious and other groups criticize Shapiro plan for ignoring climate change

A study by the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the Weitzman School of Design found that Pennsylvania would benefit overall from joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

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Philadelphia Inquirer

Bus Revolution would bring frequent bus service to 1 million SEPTA riders

In an Op-Ed, graduate student Jonathan Zisk of the Weitzman School of Design says that SEPTA should green-light the Bus Revolution project and allow the rollout of transformative bus service across the Philadelphia region.

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USA Today

Across America, clean energy plants are being banned faster than they’re being built

Thomas Daniels of the Weitzman School of Design says that generating energy from wind and solar requires land just like coal, oil, and natural gas, though the necessary acreage is larger.

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6ABC.com

Chinatown residents brainstorm different ideas for Fashion District instead of proposed 76ers arena

Rashida Ng of the Weitzman School of Design and colleagues attended the Save Chinatown Coalition to propose different ideas besides the 76ers arena for Philadelphia’s Fashion District.

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Philadelphia Inquirer

The Biden administration is trying to make it easier to convert offices to apartments post-pandemic

In a Q&A, Vincent Reina of the Weitzman School of Design discusses a new White House initiative to incentivize commercial-to-residential conversion projects, especially as the office market continues to struggle.

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The Observer

On view now: Two shows on domesticity and the housing crisis

A review examines the group show “Movables” at the Institute of Contemporary Art, including pieces by Ken Lum of the Weitzman School of Design.

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