Two PennDesign graduates were among the winners of the most recent round of Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellowships. Daniel Greenspan (MArch’14, Certificate in Landscape Studies) and Lea Oxenhandler (MArch’12) will spend the next three years working for community development organizations in Baltimore and Philadelphia, respectively, where they will facilitate an inclusive approach to development to create more green, sustainable, and affordable communities.
Greenspan joins the staff of Community Works and Unity Properties at Bon Secours Hospital in West Baltimore, where he’ll provide a design perspective as the organization identifies, plans, and develops affordable housing and community development projects for low-income individuals and families.
When he was a student at PennDesign, his coursework in architecture and landscape studies looked at the interface between spatial design, public health, social dynamics, and systems thinking. Greenspan says, “It was important for me to honestly engage with the multi-factorial character and effects of the built environment, [speaking] social justice through the language of architecture.”
Oxenhandler’s Fellowship takes her to the People’s Emergency Center Development Corporation in Philadelphia, just a few blocks from PennDesign. As architect and design manager at PEC, she’ll conceptualize real estate projects, advocate for design and sustainability, engage the community, and support creative placemaking efforts throughout the neighborhoods that PEC serves.
Says Oxenhandler, “I look forward to becoming deeply involved in PEC’s excellent projects and collaborations with local partner organizations as we work towards the common goal of improving our communities.”
As a student at PennDesign, she was particularly interested in how architects can make a positive impact on the environment and on cities, culminating in her thesis project on the architectural implications of creating a new model for public schools in Philadelphia.
National affordable housing and community development organization Enterprise Community Partners established the Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellowship in 2000 to honor the late Frederick P. Rose, a prominent developer and philanthropist. Each year, the program offers early-career design professionals the opportunity to work as an integral staff member of a community development organization, advancing the architectural fellowship’s core principles of design excellence, community engagement, and sustainability within the host organization. Fellows are selected and matched with host organizations based on their architectural, academic, and community experience, as well as their design portfolio, application essays, and in-person interviews.
As Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellows, Greenspan and Oxenhandler join a network of over 50 leaders who have participated in the program, advocating for the importance of public interest architecture and extending the impact of community-based design.
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