Design | Penn Today

As buildings’ life spans shrink, developers try to adjust

Gilles Duranton of the Wharton School said the commercial construction industry can best adapt to a changing world by creating buildings with modular elements that can be easily disassembled or demolished. “Sometimes the right thing will involve tearing things down and rebuilding from scratch,” he said.

Universities are schooling future architects to consider community and history as they design

The Stuart Weitzman School of Design was mentioned for its historically grounded, intersectional, and interdisciplinary approach to teaching design and architecture. “You need to know history to be avant-garde,” said Winka Dubbeldam.

Latest rail plan would put tunnel under Long Island Sound

Planning studios within the Stuart Weitzman School of Design developed a plan for a new North Atlantic Rail, a high-speed speed train connecting New York and Boston. “There are 36 tunnels of this length or longer that have been built or are under construction around the world in the last 10 years alone—over 100 in the last 20 years,” said planner and Professor Emeritus Robert Yaro. “This is what the world is doing.”

Philly transportation needs a universal way to measure racial equity

Stuart Weitzman School of Design grad students Seunglee David Park and Emily Kennedy wrote an op-ed about how Philadelphia can implement a universal transportation equity measure to identify vulnerable communities and establish a coordinated citywide process for factoring equity into city transit projects.

View of Philadelphia skyline from the Schuylkill River at dusk.

How can cities become healthier, greener, and more equitable in the future?

In a year marked by COVID-19, renewed calls for racial justice, a contentious presidential election, and an active wildfire and hurricane season, Penn experts share what’s needed to make urban areas more resilient to future crises.

Two people standing beside a Mongolian ger on a hill with Ulaanbaatar in the background.

Gers and the grid: Combatting air pollution in Mongolia

The Center for Environmental Building and Design (CEBD) at The Weitzman School partnered with Mongolian nonprofit GerHub to test out ways of making ger living more energy efficient to reduce air pollution and improve respiratory conditions in Ulaanbaatar.

Lynn Meskell standing in front of a glass display case at the Penn Museum.

Lynn Meskell appointed Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor

The world-renowned archaeologist has joint appointments in the Department of Anthropology, the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation and the Department of City and Regional Planning, and the Penn Museum as a curator in both the Asian and Near East sections.

Housing initiative fuels cooperation between cities during pandemic

Vincent Reina and Amy Castro Baker are working with the U.S. cities, including Philadelphia, through the Housing Initiative at Penn to design a housing assistance plan both during the pandemic and after.

A building at Tuskegee University on a green hill in daylight.

A new initiative to preserve African American civil rights heritage sites

The Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites will be led by Faculty Director Randall Mason, an associate professor in the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation, alongside renowned preservationist Brent Leggs, who is named senior adviser and adjunct associate professor.

What will memorials to the pandemic look like? A Philly artist started with 100,000 folds

Paul Farber of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design spoke about how inequity factors into a lack of memorials to those lost to pandemics. “We know if you have more time, money, and power, you have more access to build longstanding monuments and memorials. Those most impacted by pandemics are predominantly those who don’t have the resources to escape the city or to get the best care,” he said.

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