Rebecca Popowsky

Rebecca Popowsky is the Wilks Family Director of the Ian L. McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology at the Weitzman School of Design. Prior to joining the Center, she spent 15 years as a practicing landscape architect and researcher at OLIN, where she co-led the firm’s internal research practice, OLIN Labs. A licensed landscape architect and SITES accredited professional, Rebecca is a leader in expanding the role of research in landscape architectural practice. Her applied research initiatives include waste-based material design and construction, soils engineering, and innovation in practice-based research models. 

As OLIN Labs Coordinator, Rebecca established partnerships in public, private, nonprofit and academic sectors, securing research funding through the US Environmental Protection Agency, the US Department of Agriculture, the Landscape Architecture Foundation, and the William Penn Foundation. From OLIN Labs’ founding in 2017 through 2024, Rebecca collaborated with researchers and practitioners at the University of Pennsylvania Urban Health Lab, Temple University’s Department of Horticulture, USDA Eastern Region Research Center, Philadelphia Parks and Recreation, Philadelphia Water Department, US Biochar Initiative, Pennsylvania Recycling Markets Center, and others. Her transdisciplinary, applied research has been recognized with awards from the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia (Excellence in GSI Innovation Award) and from the American Society of Landscape Architects (National Research Honor Award). She is a member of the Landscape Architecture Foundation’s (LAF) Innovation and Leadership Task Force, developing platforms that support emerging disciplinary leaders, and a member of LAF’s Research-Practice Roundtable.

As a Senior Landscape Architect at OLIN, Rebecca contributed to a wide range of design, planning, and construction projects. Her portfolio includes Canal Park in Washington, DC, Dilworth Park in Philadelphia, the University of Washington North Campus Expansion, and collaboration with the Army Corps of Engineers to restore the FEMA floodplain at the Potomac Park Levee on the National Mall.

Rebecca teaches core and advanced design studios and professional practice courses at the University of Pennsylvania and Swarthmore College. She has taught research methods in Temple University’s MLA program. Rebecca earned dual master’s degrees in Architecture and Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design in 2010 and a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture and Urban Studies from Yale University in 2003. She is currently undertaking a PhD in Practice-Based Research at Virginia Tech. Prior to discovering landscape architecture, Rebecca worked on the Adirondack Mountain Club professional trail crew, as a timber-frame builder in Vermont, and as an architectural designer in Florence, Italy.