Archinect - News

UPenn Weitzman School extends dean Fritz Steiner's tenure to 2027

2024-11-11T08:00:00-05:00

The University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design has announced it will be extending the tenure of dean Frederick "Fritz" Steiner for two additional years through June 30th, 2027.

He joined the school early 2016 in part a protest of the controversial "campus carry" weapons policy that was enacted at the University of Texas at Austin. Since that time, Steiner has been credited with improving the school financial position and bolstered DEI efforts for both students and faculty.

Steiner, who also holds a prestigious Paley Professorship and teaches in the departments of city and regional planning and landscape architecture, said: “I couldn’t be prouder of the work that our faculty, students, and alumni are doing to build a better future. When you bring artists, designers, planners, and preservationists together, the possibilities are thrilling.”

Renowned architectural critic and historian Joseph Rykwert passes away aged 98

2024-11-08T10:01:00-05:00

British architectural historian Joseph Rykwert has died. The influential academic and writer who was considered to be a leading critical voice of his generation, taking aim at the banality of modernism and its encroachments on the urban sphere, lived to be 98 according to his New York Times obituary.

Rykwert was the 2014 RIBA Royal Gold Medal for Architecture winner and author of more than a dozen texts on architecture and design. He also enjoyed a long and successful tenure as the Paul Philippe Cret Professor of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design. His death follows the passing of colleagues Anthony Vidler and Jean-Louis Cohen last year.

Get Lectured: University of Pennsylvania, Fall '24

2024-08-23T14:06:00-04:00

Get Lectured continues today with a look at the events happening in the Fall semester at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design.

September’s slate of lecturers includes Pezo von Ellrichshausen (September 4); Aislinn Pentecost-Farren (September 13); Sue Anne Kahn (September 18); Derek Hyra (September 19); the Urban Heritage Project (September 25); Lina Gothmeh (September 25); and Jonathan Oliveras (September 26).

Lecture poster courtesy of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design

The next month will see speakers Laurie Olin (October 1); Marina Tabassum (October 9); Tom Daniels (October 16); Lori Gibbs (October 24); the 2024 Witte-Sakamoto Family Prize in City and Regional Planning winners from Charlotte, NC (October 24); and Nocturnal Medicine’s founders Larissa Belcic and Michelle Farang Shofet (October 24).

Steven Holl begins the next month of lectures on November 6, followed by Jeremy Kamal (November 7); Zhang Ke (November 13); Rosetta Elkin (November 14); and ...

Honoring the achievements of China’s first female architect one hundred years later

2024-06-24T17:38:00-04:00

On May 18, 2024, the University of Pennsylvania awarded Lin Huiyin (林徽因) with an architecture degree, exactly 100 years after they refused to admit her into their undergraduate program because she was a woman. [...] With the news of Lin’s belated degree quickly going viral on Chinese social media, her name is again in the public eye. It is therefore a good opportunity to revisit her legacy and correct the prejudice and stereotypes that have overshadowed Lin’s story.

Lin Huiyin’s story was included in the Weitzman School’s 2022 exhibition ‘Building in China: A Century of Dialogues on Modern Architecture,’ which examined her and her classmates' influence in China after 1920. Often detracting from it are accounts of her personal life and relationship with Liang Sicheng. Lin’s stellar academic coursework went unrewarded even after UPenn’s decision to grant credit to female Bachelor of Architecture students after 1934. Her granddaughter, Yu Kui, accepted the diploma on her behalf at the school's commencement ceremonies last month.

On the evening of May 18th, local time in the United States, at the graduation ceremony of the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design, Lin Huiyin's granddaughter, Yu Kui, accepted the long-delayed degree certificate on behalf of Lin Huiyin from the dean of… pic.twitter.com/TZBPIsARUF
— Hola Fujian (@HolaFujian) May 19, 2024

Get Lectured: University of Pennsylvania, Spring '24

2024-01-19T08:00:00-05:00

Our Get Lectured roundup of public programs and events taking place in the Spring academic term continues today with a look at what is in store at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design this semester.

The school’s new Department of Architecture chair Rossana Hu begins the term with a lecture on Wednesday, January 24. She will be followed by the Barcelona-based duo Flores & Prats, who will present their work on January 31. Their visit precedes the launch of SCI-Arc professor Peter Trummer’s The City as a Technical Being: On the Mode of Existence in Architecture on February 7. The next month begins with the Cunningham Lecture from Studio RAP’s Lucas ter Hall on March 13.

Lecture poster, back, designed by Studio Rainwater, courtesy of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design.

March continues with the launch of Annette Fierro’s Architectures of the Technopolis: Archigram and the British High Tech on Wednesday, March 20. The following week will see AMAA Collaborate Ar...

Steven Holl Architects reveals design for UPenn's new Student Performing Arts Center

2023-06-16T16:57:00-04:00

Steven Holl Architects has unveiled renderings for their design of a new Student Performing Arts Center on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadephia.

The 37,300-square-foot structure will provide dedicated space for the performing arts at Penn and features a 300-seat proscenium theater, 125-seat studio theater, support spaces, and five rehearsal studios. The firm says they will pursue a LEED-silver certification for the project, which is sited on the northeast quadrant of the 1,085-acre campus as a new gateway between the university and city beyond.

“It is a great joy and honor to work on a performing arts center for the students of this historic university on such an important site,” Holl stated.

Image courtesy Steven Holl Architects

The design for the Center itself evokes the iconic nearby Fisher Fine Arts Library, repeating the use of red terracotta in its façade while separating the program into unique suspended trapezoidal masses that are meant to echo the move...

University of Pennsylvania appoints Rossana Hu as Architecture Chair

2023-04-12T17:13:00-04:00

The University of Pennsylvania’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design has announced its appointment of Neri&Hu Design and Research Office co-founder Rossana Hu as the next chair of its Department of Architecture.

Hu, who is currently on the faculty of the College of Architecture & Urban Planning at Tongji University in Shanghai, will take over chair duties effective January 1st of next year. Current associate professor and MArch program director Andrew Saunders will lead in an interim role beginning in the fall.

Hu will become the third woman to serve as the department’s chair and continues a relationship with China that has been long-established at the school since the beginning of the 1920s.

“We see ourselves as mediators: between past and present, individual and collective, public and private, rural and urban,” Hu said of her firm’s approach to design, before adding, “It’s clear that the faculty and students at Penn are equally committed to this vision.”

Related on Archinect: The Wei...

Catherine Seavitt Nordenson to chair the Landscape Architecture Department at the Weitzman School of Design

2023-03-28T15:04:00-04:00

The Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania has announced that Catherine Seavitt Nordenson will be taking over as the next chair of its Department of Landscape Architecture, effective July 1st.

The current Spitzer School of Architecture professor and director of CCNY's Master of Landscape Architecture program will replace Richard Weller and will be the third woman ever to lead the department following Anne Whiston Spirn and professor Sonja Dümpelmann, who had been serving as its interim chair since last spring.

A press announcement from the university called Seavitt “one of the most admired scholar-practitioners of her generation.” Her career began as an Associate at New York’s Atelier Raimund Abraham in 1993 and has made stops at Pei Cobb Freed and Partners in addition to the academic appointments at Parsons, the University of Virginia, and two of her alma maters Princeton and the Cooper Union.

Seavitt, both a registered architect and landscape architect, also ...

The Weitzman School of Design's latest exhibition offers a look at the impact its alumni had in making China modern

2022-01-18T13:03:00-05:00

What can a western architectural education do in a developing country? The legacy of one of the leading design colleges in America is being examined as such in a new exhibition called Building in China: A Century of Dialogues on Modern Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design in Philadelphia.

The exhibition is presented in unison with Southeast University School of Architecture and the Tongji University College of Architecture and Urban Planning and features a two-part format that looks first at the historical impacts the university has had on the development of architecture in the country after 1920.

Peace Hotel of Beijing, designed by Tingbao Yang. Image courtesy University of Pennsylvania.

Penn educated a number of prominent Chinese architects during those years, and many went on to successful architectural careers that were heavily influenced by the proximity to the international movement of modernism which began at the university. The fi...

Center for Architecture and Design to honor KieranTimberlake with its 35th Louis I. Kahn Award

2021-10-07T13:52:00-04:00

Philadelphia’s Center for Architecture and Design will honor Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake with the 2021 Louis I. Khan Award.

The duo and founders of eponymous KieranTimberlake will join David Adjaye and Jeanne Gang as recent winners of the annual award now in its 35th year.

The award is meant to recognize the influence of its namesake, a Philadelphia native and icon of modernism, that Timberlake referred to as an “architect’s architect.”

“We are humbled and grateful for this award,” the architect said in a statement. “As for Steve and me, and the firm at-large, it is recognition of the diligence, effort, and hard work that we give to each and every commission and an acknowledgment to our clients that they made the right choice.”

Related on Archinect: How To Get A Job At: KieranTimberlake

KieranTimberlake’s practice was first established in the city in 1984 and has since gone on to establish itself as an international leader in the industry, with multiple AIA awards and a 2010...

UPenn study uses biometric data to identify unsafe urban infrastructure

2021-07-21T17:08:00-04:00

A new study published in Accident Analysis & Prevention shows how biometric data can be used to find potentially challenging and dangerous areas of urban infrastructure before a crash occurs. Lead author Megan Ryerson led a team of researchers in the Stuart Weitzman School of Design and the School of Engineering and Applied Science in collecting and analyzing eye-tracking data from cyclists navigating Philadelphia’s streets.

As explained in a piece by Penn Today, current federal rules for making safe transportation interventions require the notation of crashes. This reactive approach relies on previous human cost before new considerations are made. Seeking to minimize harmful events altogether, Ryerson and her team sought to capture data on human behavior to better understand what factors make an area unsafe rather than previous data.

The team developed a quantitative methodology to evaluate cognitive workload, a measure of mental effort put forth by someone in response to certain tasks, in cyclists when faced with various infrastructure designs.

One of the main findings was a correlation between locations with disproportionately high numbers of crashes and consistent biometric responses that indicated increased cognitive workload. While high cognitive workload doesn’t mean a person will definitely crash, it can be inferred that one is less effective in processing new information, which could lead to d...

Universities begin planning for an unpredictable fall semester

2020-04-29T18:59:00-04:00

As the spring semester comes to close following a swift transition to remote and online learning, the anxiety of the last two months has begun to give way to deeper, existential worries regarding what the future might hold for universities this summer and next semester.

Some universities have begun or are close to announcing changes for the coming summer term, including a continued focus on online learning. In the architecture realm, for example, online-heavy Boston Architectural College recently announced an online-only summer schedule slated to start July 6th. Other schools, whose summer intensive design initiatives act as critical feeder programs to traditional academic year enrollment, will follow suit with their own plans soon.

Previously on Archinect: “Studio culture goes online at Taubman College.”A screenshot from a recent group crit conducted by Cyrus Peñarroyo titled "TBD/IRL." Image courtesy of Cyrus Peñarroyo / Taubman School of Architecture and Urban Planning.

But the b...

Get Lectured: University of Pennsylvania, Spring '20

2020-01-17T13:43:00-05:00

Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Winter/Spring 2020

It's a new year and a new school term, so that means it's time for Archinect's latest edition of Get Lectured, an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. Check back regularly to keep track of any upcoming lectures you don't want to miss.

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your school's lecture series poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

Since the last time Archinect featured their lecture poster, the University of Pennsylvania's Stuart Weitzman School of Design recently shared their Spring '20 lecture series. This semester's series brings together over three dozen leading architects, landscape architects, planners, artists, and preservationists to Philadelphia.

Upcoming speakers include: Eric Höweler on “Forms of Engagement”, KPF co-founder A. Eugene Kohn on “The World by Design”, Georgina Huljich on “MUTE ICONS and other Dic...

McHarg Center launches blog to support young design writers

2020-01-15T14:41:00-05:00

The McHarg Center at the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design of has launched Ian McBlog, a new online publication dedicated to uplifting the voices of "the rising generation of designers who will lead—and are already leading—the response to our overlapping crises of climate, capitalism, and resurgent fascism."

The blog already features two entries, one from McHarg Center director Billy Fleming explaining some of his rationale for initiating the blog.

Decrying the insular, disconnected, and sluggish nature of conventional academic publishing, Fleming writes, "Our conventional platforms for Very Serious publishing remain stubbornly disconnected from the overlapping crises that now shape every rising generation of designers. They too are slow, small, and focused on tweaking our bodies of knowledge. At their best, our peer-reviewed journals force scholars to slog through years of reviews, revisions, and resubmissions, much of which is dictated by the idiosyncrasies and...

Illustrating the massive scale of America's decarbonization challenge

2019-12-15T12:00:00-05:00

The McHarg Center at the University of Pennsylvania has published a digital atlas that attempts to communicate the wide-ranging implications of both climate change and a potential Green New Deal for the United States.

A color-coded breakdown of land uses across the country that includes agriculture, urban areas, natural landscapes, and other uses. (Courtesy of McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology.)

The 2100 Project: An Atlas for the Green New Deal, as the project is officially known, brings together work conducted over the last two years by researchers at the Ian L. McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology, an initiative housed within the Weitzman School of Design at UPenn led by landscape architect and academic Billy Fleming. With the Atlas, the research center aims to answer perhaps the most pressing question of our time: "What will be lost—economically, culturally, psychologically, physically—should the climate crisis continue unabated?"

Taking stock

Top: The geographic range and...

UPenn's David Leatherbarrow receives 2020 AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Architectural Education

2019-12-13T15:07:00-05:00

University of Pennsylvania Professor David Leatherbarrow has been awarded the 2020 Topaz Medallion by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA). The award is presented by the two organization every year to superlative educators who "educate others to ensure architecture’s enduring excellence."

Professor Leatherbarrow has been an architectural educator for over three decades—he stated teaching at UPenn in 1984—and is considered, according to a statement announcing the award, as "one of the world’s leading experts in the history and theory of architecture."

In a statement supporting his award nomination, Kenneth Frampton, the Ware Professor of Architecture at Columbia University, writes, “This is an outstanding teacher of exceptional energy and ambition. He has been invited as a visiting tutor and scholar quite literally by distinguished institutions all over the world. What can one say? Elite teachers in architectural ...

Rep. Ilhan Omar unveils 12 million unit "Homes for All" plan

2019-11-21T16:29:00-05:00

Homes For All

United States Representative Ilhan Omar has unveiled a new piece of legislation that seeks to reinvigorate public housing construction across the country by building 12 million new public and affordable housing units over the next decade.

The so-called “Homes for All Act” unveiled this week would bring a whopping $1 trillion in federal funding for the construction of these new units and would also establish a permanent federal funding steam to ensure housing affordability in the United States, according to The Star Tribune. As proposed, $800 million of the overall total would go toward the construction of 9.5 million new public housing units while the remainder will be used to finance a federal Housing Trust Fund used to fuel the construction of 2.5 million new affordable housing units by nonprofit and municipal entities, The Huffington Post reports.

Colorado Court Affordable Housing, designed by Brooks + Scarpa in Santa Monica, California. Image courtesy of Wikimedi...

AOC and Bernie Sanders unveil "Green New Deal for Housing" plan

2019-11-14T10:05:00-05:00

New York City Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders have unveiled a bold initiative aimed at rejuvenating and decarbonizing the nation’s public housing stock.

The visionary Green New Deal for Public Housing Act aims to bring sorely needed maintenance upgrades to America’s 500,000 public housing units through a series of repair, weatherization, and retrofitting efforts. The improvements will come via seven grant programs aimed at addressing specific design and material shortfalls currently plaguing public housing complexes across the country.

Triple bottom line plan

The plan is expected to cost somewhere between $119 billion and $172 billion over the next decade, according to a study conducted by progressive think tank Data for Progress and the University of Pennsylvania’s McHarg Center and Socio-Spatial Climate Collaborative research centers. The Data Progress study estimates that the plan could create up to 240,723 jobs per year. Those jobs, u...

Marion Weiss on inspiration, teaching, and feminism

2019-11-06T16:00:00-05:00

Architecture, which benefits from intensity and focus, will never be easily slotted in the nine-to-five day. If support systems can evolve and grow, I think the potential for new models of leadership will continue to expand to include an even more diverse community. I am impressed by the breadth and depth of architects that are emerging—both male and female—who are simultaneously teaching, practicing, raising families, and publishing incredibly remarkable work.

An excerpt of an interview of Marion Weiss, principal and co-founder of Weiss/Manfredi, by Franca Trubiano, associate professor of architecture, and graduate student Ramona Adlakha, has been published by the Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania. The interview is an excerpt from Women (Re)Build: Stories, Polemics, Futures, a book recently published by Applied Research and Design that reflects on feminist thought in architecture.

View of the Women's Memorial in Washington, D.C. designed by Weiss/Manfredi. Image courtesy of Weiss/Manfredi.

In the interview, Weiss discusses her long career in academia and practice, how she came to study architecture, her designs for the Women's Memorial in Washington, D.C., and how teaching and practice influence one another, among several other topics.

Conceptual diagram for the Women's Memorial site. Image courtesy of Weiss/Manfredi.

"Sometimes history has less depth and importance than we might think—even if the forms look his...

How do architecture and literature relate?

2019-10-30T11:41:00-04:00

This is the second time the Architecture Department will offer "Topographical Stories: Architecture, Literature, and Cities," a seminar taught by Architecture professor David Leatherbarrow. Leatherbarrow said students in the class will examine texts from authors writing about specific cities, comparing them to pieces of architecture from the same city and the same time period.

The UPenn Benjamin Franklin Seminar will be offered this spring. According to Professor Leatherbarrow, "the goal for the course is to get students thinking about architecture in a new way by looking at the discipline using many approaches," reports The Daily Pennsylvanian.

Some of the pairings reported for the seminar include author Sherwood Anderson and Frank Lloyd Wright exploring the city of Chicago; Italian writer Dino Buzzati and Ernesto Rogers to examine Milan; and many others.

Penn renames School of Design in honor of footwear designer Stuart Weitzman

2019-10-07T13:45:00-04:00

The University of Pennsylvania's newly-inaugurated Stuart Weitzman School of Design was officially renamed last week in honor or Penn graduate and global footwear designer Stuart Weitzman.

The school, which houses undergraduate and graduate programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, and historic preservation, among other subjects, originally announced the name change in February of this year. According to a university statement, "The new name, the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design, reflects Weitzman’s enduring influence in the world of design and his extraordinary support of the School."

The renaming will be accompanied by the redesign of a plaza fronting the school's main building. The new Stuart Weitzman Plaza will be redesigned by landscape architecture firm OLIN, whose principal, Laurie Olin, is practice professor emeritus of landscape architecture of the Weitzman School. The initiative also includes additional scholarships for Wei...

McHarg Center exhibition highlights global ecological urbanism

2019-06-20T13:28:00-04:00

In the face of increasingly destructive climate collapse, the University of Pennsylvania's McHarg Center for Urban Ecology is launching Design with Nature Now, a sprawling survey of some of the most inventive ecologically-driven landscape infrastructure projects from around the globe.

The exhibition comes as the recently-launched McHarg Center takes shape and begins to tap into the growing national and international conversation regarding the proposed Green New Deal.

Some of the projects highlighted in the exhibition are well-known, others, less so. Divided into five discrete categories, the collected projects present a vision for how humans can use the principles of ecological urbanism to meet their own needs while also staying out of nature's way.

Some projects, like BIG's Big U plan for Battery Park in New York City, aim to retrofit existing urban ecologies for the coming era of sea level rise.

Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative. Animal crossing overpass, Banff Nati...

Shaping an architectural legend: what inspired I.M. Pei?

2019-05-17T16:16:00-04:00

I.M Pei's work has influenced many. However, there are several individuals and places that have influenced Pei into becoming one of the most recognized architects in the profession. Growing up in Hong Kong and Shanghai, Pei drew much inspiration from his childhood surroundings, but do you know what else inspired the late architectural legend?

Every great architect is inspired by someone or something which propels them into producing their most significant work. Below is a list of people and places that have influenced I.M. Pei and his work.

Shizilin Garden in Suzhou - The Lion Grove Garden. Image by Gisling courtesy of WikiCommons

Shizilin Garden in Suzhou
As a child, Pei would visit the gardens of Suzhou with his family during the summer. Indeed a place filled with beauty and history the Shizilin Garden was especially influential to Pei as a boy. Built by a Buddhist monk in the 14th century, the late architect described the garden as "an ideal playground." What stuck with Pei the mo...

PennDesign launches $50,000 student prize and professional award in city planning

2018-11-14T14:22:00-05:00

The University of Pennsylvania's School of Design launched the new Witte-Sakamoto Family Prize and Award in City and Regional Planning, thanks to a $1.25 million gift from PennDesign alumnus William Witte and his wife Keiko Sakamoto. In conjunction with the prize, a new professional award for innovation and positive impact in planning was also announced.

The yearly $50,000 fellowship will be awarded to an outstanding student entering their final year in the school's Master of City and Regional Planning program. The professional award will be presented to a firm, team, or individual professional for an exemplary planning project that advances plan-making in at least four of the following areas: social equity, environmental quality, design, public health, mobility, housing affordability, and economic development.

“It’s incumbent on those of us who work on cities to make sure that we not only practice responsible development, but that it’s holistic and we deal with all these different ...

Get Lectured: PennDesign, Fall '18

2018-08-28T15:18:00-04:00

Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Fall 2018

With a new school year upon us, it's time for Archinect's latest Get Lectured, an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. Check back regularly to keep track of any upcoming lectures you don't want to miss.

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your school's lecture series poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

Featuring a new poster created by Brooklyn-based design studio WeShouldDoItAll, the University of Pennsylvania School of Design will kick off their Fall 2018 events with a lecture by the one and only Sir Peter Cook about “Dreams, Realities, Explorations” on September 5. Other speakers include Dream the Combine's Jennifer Newsom and Tom Carruthers, and a book signing with Benjamin Bratton.

For Spring 2019, PennDesign will host another stellar lineup of speakers that includes Elizabeth Diller, Farshid Moussavi, and MASS Design Group's M...

Get Lectured: PennDesign, Spring '18

2018-01-22T14:48:00-05:00

Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Winter/Spring 2018

Archinect's Get Lectured is an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. Check back regularly to keep track of any upcoming lectures you don't want to miss.

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your school's lecture series poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

Don't miss out on PennDesign's Spring 2018 lecture series! Upcoming events include lectures by the likes of Francine Houben, Wolf D. Prix, and Thom Mayne, as well as the “Structural Instability: History, Environment, and Risk in Architecture” symposium, and more.

Jan 17
Enrique Norten / TEN Arquitectos
RECENT WORK
6:30 p.m., Meyerson Hall, Lower Gallery

Feb 5
Francine Houben / Mecanoo Architen
PEOPLE, PLACE, PURPOSE
6:30 p.m., Meyerson Hall, Lower Gallery

Mar 14
Wolf D. Prix / COOP HIMMELB(L)AU
THE HIMMELB(L)AU PROJECT, LIFE, PROJECTS, PHILOSOPHY
6:30 p.m., Meyerson Hall, Lower...

Gluckman Tang is giving Penn Museum its biggest renovation in 118 years

2017-11-01T19:14:00-04:00

"These skeletons in our closet are not be hidden" said Penn president Amy Gutmann this morning while announcing plans for a massive, multi-year renovation of the school's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Gutmann was referring to the museum's collection of 12,000 skeletons, and over 1 million objects and artifacts, that will soon have more room to be on display, many for the first time, after the transformation completes.

New York's Gluckman Tang Architects is leading the project aimed at modernizing its presentation of artifacts and enhancing visitor experience. The Building Transformation, which includes better lighting, more elevators and bathrooms, and expansive air conditioning, will proceed in three parts. The first, costing $21 million, entails overhauling the Middle Eastern, Mexico and Central America, and Africa galleries.

Phase Two, the most dramatic, is focused on the museum's renowned 15,000 square foot Egyptian galleries and includes shoring up the floor of the up...

Penn Design launches new fellowship: $50,000 student prize and professional medal for Architecture

2017-09-26T13:27:00-04:00

The University of Pennsylvania School of Design has established a new $50,000 fellowship as well as an international medal of excellence thanks to a generous $1.25 million donation courtesy of alumna Lori Kanter Tritsch (MArch '85). "PennDesign has been home to so many visionary architects,” said Lori Kanter Tritsch, a practicing architect and longtime partner of Estée Lauder Executive William Lauder. "We want to celebrate today’s visionaries and encourage the next generation to follow their lead” she added.

Starting in the fall of 2018, the Kanter Tritsch Prize in Energy and Architectural Innovation will award $50,000 annually to a second-year student pursuing a Master of Architecture degree at PennDesign who demonstrates transformational thinking on the built environment and innovation in his or her approach to energy, ecology, and/or social equity.

Alongside the fellowship, the Kanter Tritsch Medal for Excellence in Architecture and Environmental Design will be awarded annually t...

Get Lectured: PennDesign, Fall '17

2017-08-28T13:11:00-04:00

Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Fall 2017

Ready or not, the start of the new school year is coming up. Back for Fall 2017 is Archinect's Get Lectured, an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. Check back regularly to keep track of any upcoming lectures you don't want to miss.

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your school's lecture series poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

PennDesign's Fall '17 lecture series kicks off with Ben van Berkel delivering the KPF Lecture on September 6. Other speakers include Scott Erdy, Barbara Wilks, Timothy Morton, as well as film screenings, conferences, and more.

Sept 6
Ben van Berkel / founder + principal architect, UN Studio
“Arnhem Station: A Station with a Twist”
6:30pm Meyerson Hall, 210 South 34th Street, Philadelphia

Sept 12
Urban Book Talk with Domenic Vitiello / assistant professor of city and regional planning, PennDesign
5:00pm Penn Bo...

Get Lectured: PennDesign, Spring '17

2017-02-08T10:00:00-05:00

Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Winter & Spring 2017

Archinect's Get Lectured is back in session for Winter and Spring 2017. Get Lectured is an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. Check back frequently to keep track of any upcoming lectures you don't want to miss. Mark those calendars!

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your school's lecture series poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

Don't miss out on these lectures from PennDesign's Department of Architecture for Spring '17. Here are some of the upcoming lectures.

Feb 20
“Baroque Topologies”
Andrew Saunders / Andrew Saunders Architect, principal; Professor, PennDesign Dept. of Architecture
6:30pm, B1, Meyerson Hall

Mar 15
“From Stud to Stalled: Designing Identities 1996-2016”
Joel Sanders / Joel Sanders Architect; Professor, Yale School of Architecture
6:30pm, B1, Meyerson Hall

Mar 22
Recent Work
Charles Renfro / Diller Scofidio + Ren...

Archinect - News

UPenn Weitzman School extends dean Fritz Steiner's tenure to 2027

Renowned architectural critic and historian Joseph Rykwert​​ passes away aged 98

Get Lectured: University of Pennsylvania, Fall '24

Honoring the achievements of China’s first female architect one hundred years later

Get Lectured: University of Pennsylvania, Spring '24

Steven Holl Architects reveals design for UPenn's new Student Performing Arts Center

University of Pennsylvania appoints Rossana Hu as Architecture Chair

Catherine Seavitt Nordenson to chair the Landscape Architecture Department at the Weitzman School of Design

The Weitzman School of Design's latest exhibition offers a look at the impact its alumni had in making China modern

Center for Architecture and Design to honor KieranTimberlake with its 35th Louis I. Kahn Award

UPenn study uses biometric data to identify unsafe urban infrastructure

Universities begin planning for an unpredictable fall semester

Get Lectured: University of Pennsylvania, Spring '20

McHarg Center launches blog to support young design writers

Illustrating the massive scale of America's decarbonization challenge

UPenn's David Leatherbarrow receives 2020 AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Architectural Education

Rep. Ilhan Omar unveils 12 million unit "Homes for All" plan

AOC and Bernie Sanders unveil "Green New Deal for Housing" plan

Marion Weiss on inspiration, teaching, and feminism

How do architecture and literature relate?

Penn renames School of Design in honor of footwear designer Stuart Weitzman

McHarg Center exhibition highlights global ecological urbanism

Shaping an architectural legend: what inspired I.M. Pei?

PennDesign launches $50,000 student prize and professional award in city planning

Get Lectured: PennDesign, Fall '18

Get Lectured: PennDesign, Spring '18

Gluckman Tang is giving Penn Museum its biggest renovation in 118 years

Penn Design launches new fellowship: $50,000 student prize and professional medal for Architecture

Get Lectured: PennDesign, Fall '17

Get Lectured: PennDesign, Spring '17

Renowned architectural critic and historian Joseph Rykwert passes away aged 98