PennDesign Faculty Earn Venezuela’s National Architecture Prize, RPA Awards, More

Landscape Architecture faculty member Maria Villalobos and partner Carla Urbina were unanimously awarded Venezuela’s National Prize of Architecture. Exhibited at the XII National Biennale in Caracas under the title Botanical Urban Landscapes of Maracaibo as Living Schools: Lessons from the Botanical Garden of Roberto Burle Marx, their proposal entails the restoration and expansion of a botanical garden created by Roberto Burle Marx and Leandro Aristeguieta and inaugurated in 1983. In awarding the prize—for the first time in its history, to women—the jury commended Villalobos and Urbina for rehabilitating a living cultural landscape as a “dynamic, attractive, and pedagogical experience.” Acting as an advisor on the project was David Gerard Gouverneur Malakoff, Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Landscape Architecture, who received the prize in 2000. This was the first time a landscape architecture project earned top honors; Malakoff’s was the first urban design to win.

PennDesign faculty members were associated with three of the four winning teams in the Regional Plan Association’s design competition A Region Transformed. The New York-based RPA selected four teams to rethink the tristate area’s approach to designing natural and artificial infrastructure, including a team with Adjunct Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture Ellen Neises and her firm RANGE and Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture Christopher Marcinkoski and his firm PORT. A second winning team includes Lecturer and Rockefeller Urban Resilience Fellow Matthijs Bouw and his firm One Architecture, in partnership with the design practice Only If. Archictecture Lecturer Daniel Wood and his firm WORKac led a third winning team.

Professor of Architecture and Urban Design Marilyn Jordan Taylor was recently honored by the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation (BWAF) at its third annual BWAF Leadership Awards Gala in New York City. Established by Beverly Willis in 2002, the Foundation is committed to transforming the practice of architecture to be more inclusive of women. Leadership Award recipients were celebrated for their efforts in advancing women architects and women-led firms.

Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning and Electrical and Systems Engineering Megan Ryerson received the 2016 Fred Burggraf Award for her research paper, “Building Air Service Sustainability: Analytical Approach to Documenting Air Carrier Incentive Programs in Airport Sustainability Plans,” which was published in the Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board. The Fred Burggraf Award was established in 1966 to stimulate and encourage young researchers to contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the field of transportation. It provides “recognition of excellence” in transportation research by researchers 35 years or younger.

Assistant Professor of Fine Arts Nancy Davenport was recently longlisted for the Scotiabank Photography Award. Cofounded in 2010 by Scotiabank and Edward Burtynsky, the award recognizes outstanding Canadian photo-based artists who have made a significant contribution to the arts in Canada.

Graduate architecture students Gary Polk and Jungjae Suh earned an honorable mention for their design The 4 Points of a New Home in a competition hosted by arch out loud, in partnership with Last House on Mulholland. The residential design competition, which drew submissions from 500 designers around the world, focused on a prominent site directly below the Hollywood Sign.