Aaron Wunsch has been promoted to the rank of associate professor, with tenure, in the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation and in the Department of Landscape Architecture.
Wunsch is a scholar of the American built landscape, particularly its meaning and relevance in design practice, with a focus on nineteenth-century Philadelphia cemeteries, a topic of importance to preservationists, landscape architects, and city planners. His first book, Palazzos of Power: Central Stations of the Philadelphia Electric Company, 1900-1930, addresses the understudied topic of early twentieth century power stations. His forthcoming Cemetery City: Death, Reform, and Real Estate in Antebellum Philadelphia represents a major contribution both to Philadelphia studies and to the history of American architecture and landscape in the first half of the nineteenth century. Wunsch also has a third book under contract, Parceling the Picturesque: Landscape, Literature, and Urban Life at Philadelphia Laurel Hill Cemetery.
In addition to his academic research, Wunsch has prepared four National Register of Historic Places nominations and has written six Historic American Building Survey (HABS) reports. He demonstrates the profound relevance of history and historical interpretation to the design enterprise—from social and cultural antecedents to contemporary design and planning issues—and to the work of the public intellectual.
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