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Urban Planning

PennPraxis Design Fellows take on the real world with design solutions
Person standing in front of a group of people seated around tables presenting talking points on paper.

Matt Miller, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of City and Regional Planning, working on an engagement strategy for The Park at Penn’s Landing. (Pre-pandemic image: PennPraxis)

PennPraxis Design Fellows take on the real world with design solutions

PennPraxis has expanded the scope of experience for graduate students since its founding in 2001, and now 80 Design Fellows are involved in ambitious interdisciplinary design projects.

From the Weitzman School of Design

‘Expanding what it means to be a class’
Allison Lassiter, Randall Mason, Michael Luegering, Joshua Mosley, Richard Farley, and Michael Henry.

Clockwise from top left: Allison Lassiter, Randall Mason, Michael Luegering, Joshua Mosley, Richard Farley, and Michael Henry. (Image: Weitzman School News)

‘Expanding what it means to be a class’

Allison Lassiter, Randall Mason, Michael Luegering, Joshua Mosley, Richard Farley, and Michael Henry had to work quickly and creatively to shift their classes from a hands-on learning experience to a virtual one.

From the Weitzman School of Design

Cities and contagion: Lessons from COVID-19
Two people sit in a public park in a city playing chess at a park table wearing protective face masks.

Cities and contagion: Lessons from COVID-19

Penn IUR’s inaugural Cities and Contagion: Lessons from COVID-19 initiative brings together experts who can help interpret the pandemic’s implications for urbanization.

From Penn IUR

The coronavirus is exposing America’s housing crisis

The coronavirus is exposing America’s housing crisis

Vincent Reina of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design spoke about how the coronavirus pandemic is exposing the existing U.S. housing crisis. “I think this moment highlights the precarity of people generally, and how important housing is to all of us,” he said. “And I think it highlights the limited safety nets we have in place.”

‘If you don’t have to ride, please don’t’: SEPTA, PATCO further reduce service

‘If you don’t have to ride, please don’t’: SEPTA, PATCO further reduce service

Meg Ryerson of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design commented on the continued operation of public transit systems during the pandemic. “They’re not private companies out to make money,” she said. “They operate because they’re here to provide mobility in regions. That’s really incredible, to think that their mission is to be there for you during disaster times, and there for you in the best of times, and everything in between.”

Using science to make cities safer and healthier
Two people standing in front of a fenced-in vacant lot, one leaning against the fence, the other standing with arms crossed.

Penn Medicine’s Eugenia South, seen here with John MacDonald of the Department of Criminology, studies the effect of chronic stress and neighborhood environment on health outcomes. South’s latest pilot, Nurtured in Nature, follows work from the pair showing that cleaning up vacant lots leads to a signifiant decrease in gun violence and less stress for local residents. (Pre-pandemic photo)

nocred

Using science to make cities safer and healthier

In a Q&A, criminologist John MacDonald discusses his new book, grounded in years of research on the positive effects of remediation like fixing up abandoned lots and houses.

Michele W. Berger