News from

Urban Planning

Reset All Filters
146 Results
Empowering community engagement through theory and practice
people outside wearing masks taking surveys on their phones while standing next to a table covered with donuts

This fall, Participatory Cities, an SNF Paideia Program Course, delved into the history, methodology, and impacts of community participation and stakeholder involvement processes. Students took what they learned in the classroom and conducted their own engagement activities on campus, such as this freshman tabling event and survey. (Image: Mya Gordon)

Empowering community engagement through theory and practice

This fall, students applied community participation and stakeholder involvement processes to conduct their own outreach activities on campus as part of Participatory Cities, a Stavros Niarchos Foundation Paideia Program course.

Erica K. Brockmeier

Public schools, COVID-19, and addressing education’s aging infrastructure
two panels depicting conditions in philadelphia public schools. the one on the left is a cartoon of students working in a classroom with issues such as mold, vermin, and asbestos and lead highlighted. on the right is an updated version of the same classroom with these issues removed and text below asks "what is your dream for philadelphia schools?"

Renderings developed by students in Planning Public Schools as Infrastructure, one showing deteriorating conditions in buildings and the other encouraging viewers to envision their future, on display outside of City Hall. (Image credit: Akira Drake Rodriguez)

Public schools, COVID-19, and addressing education’s aging infrastructure

Urban planners and architects are working to address one of the many challenges faced by public schools by designing healthy and engaging outdoor educational spaces.

Erica K. Brockmeier

Answering ‘How will we live together?’ at the Venice Biennale
City X Venice Italian Virtual Pavilion A screenshot of the City X Venice Italian Virtual Pavilion, the Biennale’s first-ever virtual pavilion, with Dubbeldam serving as one of the creative directors. (Image: Winka Dubbeldam)

Answering ‘How will we live together?’ at the Venice Biennale

After more than a year of delays, Penn faculty and students were able to participate in La Biennale di Venezia architectural exhibition with both virtual and physical submissions.

Erica K. Brockmeier

The simplest fix to America’s rent problem

The simplest fix to America’s rent problem

Vincent Reina of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design will be assessing the results of a rental assistance pilot program in Philadelphia that will distribute cash aid rather than vouchers. “There’s been some explorations, but a true, proper evaluation is something that we’ve never really done,” he said. “Cash transfers are often more contentious.”

De Blasio vowed to make city streets safer. They’ve turned more deadly

De Blasio vowed to make city streets safer. They’ve turned more deadly

Erick Guerra of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design said New York City’s traffic fatality rate, though on the rise, is still three to four times lower than the national average. “In some ways, Vision Zero is aspirational,” he said. “Even in cities that have success, you still see traffic fatalities.”

Rethinking resilience in the face of climate change
Hurricane satellite imagery

Rethinking resilience in the face of climate change

Hurricane Ida brought record-breaking rainfall and flooding, and stronger, more destructive storms will inevitably come. Being better prepared will require reconsidering how to protect people and their homes.

Michele W. Berger

Protecting and celebrating civil rights heritage and Black histories
armstrong house

The two-acre site of the Armstrong School, which has been out of use since the mid-1950’s, includes a church, burial ground, and school house. Researchers at Penn’s Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites and Tuskegee University are collaborating on stabilizing the structure and developing an interpretation plan for the historic site. (Image: Kwesi Daniels)

Protecting and celebrating civil rights heritage and Black histories

Launched last fall, Penn’s Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights sites is fostering new and ongoing partnerships while preserving the legacy of civil rights in the U.S.

Erica K. Brockmeier

Why $46 billion couldn’t prevent an eviction crisis

Why $46 billion couldn’t prevent an eviction crisis

Vincent Reina of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design spoke about the challenges faced by officials, landlords, and tenants in distributing and accessing federal housing aid amid the pandemic. “We asked state and local governments to do something they’d never done before,” said Reina. “They had to design large programs with complex systems in real time, then modify them in real time—and at the same time, we’re expecting these programs to resolve longstanding problems in the housing market.”

A visual archive of an iconic American boulevard
a 1960s car parked in front of the motel sunset in los angeles

Artist Edward Ruscha amassed a huge collection of photographs of Sunset Boulevard during the late 20th century. Now, Penn’s Francesca Ammon is leading a digital humanities project called “Sunset over Sunset,” which will use these images to understand the impacts of small-scale changes on the urban environment. (Image: From Sunset Blvd. shoot, Ed Ruscha, 1966. Streets of Los Angeles Archive. The Getty Research Institute, 2012.M.1. © Ed Ruscha)

A visual archive of an iconic American boulevard

A trio of undergraduate students worked this summer with Professor Francesca Ammon to catalog and organize photographs for the digital humanities project ‘Sunset over Sunset.’

Erica K. Brockmeier