Design | Penn Today

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.

A conversation about ‘Akon City’ and speculative urbanization

Christopher Marcinkoski of the Weitzman School of Design unpacks—through the lens of speculative urbanization—the self-described ‘futuristic’ city to be built in Senegal, led by musician and philanthropist Akon.

Philadelphia rowhouse roofs with solar panels in foreground and city skyline in background.

Architecture’s William Braham on energy, carbon, and buildings for the future

For Climate Week 2020, The Weitzman School speaks with Braham about Penn’s Climate and Sustainability Action Plan, and what he’s learned about the build environment and its carbon footprint over time.

Gehry-designed Eisenhower Memorial unveiled after 20 years—during a fraught moment

David Eisenhower of the Annenberg School for Communication spoke about a new memorial to his grandfather, President Dwight D. Eisenhower. “I think memorialization is a process that is renewed,” he said. “So, when you dedicate the memorial, I think that you are investing or gambling, in a sense, on the future, that the message that a memorial conveys will have a kind of timeless quality to it.”

The new monuments that America needs

Paul Farber and Ken Lum of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design and Philadelphia’s Monument Lab spoke about the dismantling of problematic statues and the process of democratically designing new ones. People have been taught to interpret statues “as unitary and their message as unified, rooted in consensus, as opposed to rooted in a subjective decision that is only a reflection of a segment of the community that had power,” said Lum.

Lincoln Memorial illuminated at dusk overlooking the Potomac River.

Weitzman team takes on preservation work at Lincoln Memorial

PennPraxis is continuing its partnership with the National Park Service on a cultural inventory and landscape project at the Lincoln Memorial, its most high-profile project to date.

a design of a public space in an urban area, marked with summer art class, grafitti wall, and submission and a sign over the city street that says Bushwick Summer Block Party

First-of-its-kind virtual summer design studio for high school students

In a unique partnership, Penn Praxis Design fellows led Fresh Air Everywhere, an intensive seven-week program providing teens with an introduction to design and architecture.

How to put up monuments that truly recon with American History

Paul Farber of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design and Center for Public Art and Space visiting scholar Sue Mobley spoke about President Trump’s proposed National Garden of American Heroes and proposed a new democratic process for creating monuments. “History doesn’t fit well in statues,” said Mobley. “Movements don’t fit well in summaries; they’re ongoing.”

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