The skyscraper serves as the point of departure in this exhibition that documents the search for meaningful form in architecture and landscape design. Raymond Hood's visionary 1927 proposal for the first New York City skyscrapers introduces the building type that became a symbol of 20th century American urban culture. The exhibition continues to the present, with architect Winka Dubbledam's Flex-City Project that proposes 81 scenarios for Ground Zero post-September 11.

A 1966 model for lower Manhattan shows the World Trade Center towers, then only under construction, as well as a fantastic 2,500-foot tower (proposed but never built) soaring far above the eastern tip of Manhattan. This ground-breaking plan, by Wallace, McHarg, Roberts and Todd's David A. Wallace, changed the paradigm about what a downtown should include, adding housing arranged in mixed-use settlements around waterfront amenities built on landfill ringing the existing downtown - the origins of Battery Park City.

Affirming the enduring significance of the tower in the global community of the 21st century, Kohn Pedersen Fox's spectacular basswood model presents the daring design of the world's tallest building, The World Financial Center, currently under construction in Shanghai.

Also included in this exhibition of 100 master drawings and models are original works by Louis I. Kahn, Isamu Noguchi, Laurie Olin, Lawrence Halprin, Paul Philippe Cret, Venturi Scott Brown and Associates, and others. Organized by the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania, the exhibit will be on view through December in the Archives' Kroiz Gallery, Fisher Fine Arts Building, 220 South 34th Street. Hours: Weekdays 10:00-5:00. Weekends by appointment.

Robinson Fredenthal's archives -- thousands of complicated paper models documenting a lifetime of his geometric explorations -- have been donated to the Architectural Archives at Penn, and many of these are on display in the exhibition, "Off the Wall: Current Work by Robinson Fredenthal." The title refers to his studio walls that have been reconstructed in the Archives' Kroiz Gallery. The exhibition will run from May 11 through December 2002.

Fredenthal, an alumnus of Penn's Graduate School of Fine Arts, is also the artist who designed "Black Forest," the monumental stabile installed at the entrance to Penn's campus on the lawn near Walnut and 34th Streets. Although among the most brilliant designers in his architecture class, Fredenthal was stricken with Parkinson's disease while a student. In its early stages, the disease deprived him of his ability to draw. Over the years it has rendered him virtually disabled physically; however, his intellect and vision are unaffected.

Despite the relentless progression of his disease, Fredenthal has amassed an extraordinary body of public art. In addition to Penn's Black Forest, there are a number of other major public sculptures in Philadelphia including those at One Franklin Plaza, PNC Bank at 5th and Market streets, 1234 Market Street East, 8th and Spring Garden streets and the Mantua Community Center Branch Library. He also has public work in other cities, including Allentown, Pa.; the University of Maryland at Towson; and Penn Square Center in Reading Pa. Also, there are a large number of private collectors who have acquired his work. The Locks Gallery in Philadelphia has featured his work, which has been widely exhibited.