Announcing the Publication of "Penn’s Sylvania"

The Weitzman School of Design, in association with Penn Press, has announced the publication of Penn’s Sylvania: The Campus as Landscape, a richly illustrated and thought-provoking volume that reimagines the modern university campus as both a cultural artifact and a living ecological system. Available in September of 2026, this new book blends history, design, and environmental insight, inviting general readers, students, and scholars alike to see Penn’s campus—and campuses everywhere—in a new light.

Inspired by William Penn’s vision of Philadelphia as a “greene country towne,” Penn’s Sylvania traces the evolution of one of the nation’s most distinctive urban campuses. The book reflects on how landscapes shape learning and human experience. Through essays, photography, and interdisciplinary perspectives, it portrays the campus not simply as a backdrop for education, but as a carefully shaped environment that influences how people think, interact, and grow.

The book's co-editor, Dean and Paley Professor Fritz Steiner, opens with a personal and professional reflection on the American campus tradition, describing the university as a uniquely American idea rooted in landscape design. Drawing from decades of experience on campuses across the United States and abroad, Steiner situates Penn within a broader global and historical context, exploring how institutions balance academic purpose with the pressures of their surrounding cities. At Penn, this tension is especially vivid: the campus serves as a green oasis within Philadelphia’s dynamic urban fabric, shaped over time by planners, designers, and the natural world itself.

Ignacio F. Bunster-Ossa captures the landscape’s defining features in over 50 stunning photographs. The book also features rarely seen archival drawings, blueprints, maps, plans, and diagrams.

Witold Rybczynski traces the evolution of the campus idea from the tower to the green, while acclaimed landscape architect Laurie Olin highlights some of the memorable individuals responsible for greening Penn’s campus. Catherine Seavitt explores the rich heritage of the pawpaw, a favorite species of the native people of the Philadelphia region, and Susan Weiler details the latest iteration of Woodland Walk, one of the campus’s main arteries. Lara Roman, Theodore Eisenman, Robert Lundgren, and Chloe Cerwinka describe the coordinated efforts required to maintain an arboretum.

Throughout, Penn’s Sylvania underscores the essential role of trees and green spaces in shaping identity, community, and well-being. The Penn campus, now officially recognized as an arboretum, stands as a testament to decades of thoughtful planning and care, as well as to the enduring power of landscape to bring people together and foster learning.

In addition to Steiner, three of the books contributors are faculty members: Meyerson Professor and Chair of Landscape Architecture Catherine Seavitt, Professor Emeritus of Practice Laurie Olin and Witold Rybczynski, who is the Martin and Margy Meyerson Professor of Urbanism Emeritus. Like Steiner, co-editor Ignacio F. Bunster-Ossa and three of the book's contributors are Weitzman alums: Theodore Eisenman, Robert Lundgren, and Susan Weiler.

The McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology is hosting a book launch with four of the book's contributors on Thursday, September 10. Admission is free and open to all with advance registration.

About the Authors

Ignacio F. Bunster-Ossa is a landscape architect and vice president for landscape urbanism and resiliency at the Collaborative. He was a partner at principal of Wallace Roberts and Todd, a Philadelphia-based planning and design firm, for two decades. He is author of Limbs, Leaves and Hope: A Portrait of Philadelphia’s Urban Forest in Times of a Pandemic. He lives in the Spruce Hill neighborhood of West Philadelphia near the University of Pennsylvania campus.

Chloe Cerwinka has been the landscape planner at Penn since 2012. In this role, she uses the ecology of the campus landscape to inform design, planning, and sustainability efforts. An experienced planner, horticulturist, and designer, she has over 20 years of experience working collaboratively in ecological landscape design, urban planning, and urban forestry initiatives. Her applied research on landscape habitat functionality earned her the Rosalie Edge Conservation Award and an appearance on PBS NewsHour, helping to establish Penn’s campus as a national model for creating bird-friendly habitat.

Theodore S. Eisenman is an associate professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His primary research interest focuses on urban greening. He has published over 20 scholarly manuscripts, and numerous articles and reports for professional audiences.

Robert Lundgren has worked at landscape architecture firms  OLIN and Andropogon, and served at Penn as the University Landscape Architect from 1986 to 2024 within the Facilities and Real Estate Services Division, shepherding a variety of landscape projects on the 300-acre campus arboretum. He is an artist, an award-winning designer, and an avid naturalist. His responsibilities at Penn included research, campus planning, tree care and management, garden design, ecological and environmental initiatives, and maintenance protocols.

Laurie Olin is the founding partner of the landscape architecture and urban design firm OLIN, formerly Olin Partnership. The firm received the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Landscape Design in 2008. A recipient of the National Medal of Arts, Olin has written widely on the history and theory of architecture and landscape, receiving the Bradford Williams medal for best writing on Landscape Architecture. Olin co-authored La Foce: A Garden and Landscape in Tuscany (2001), which includes a historical essay, along with photographs, sketches, and a critical analysis of the early 20th-century garden in Italy. Across the Open Field (2000), is both a memoir and series of essays on the evolution of the English landscape. He is a professor of practice emeritus at Penn and received an honorary doctorate from Penn in 2019.

Lara A. Roman has a BA in Biology and Master in Environment Studies from Penn and is a research ecologist with the USDA Forest Service. She received a PhD at the University of California, Berkeley in Environmental Science, Policy and Management. She studies how urban tree systems change over time, including the urban forest of Philadelphia and the Penn campus specifically. Roman’s recent projects include investigating the historical prominence of the London plane tree in Philadelphia, barriers to urban tree planting initiatives, long-term tree cover change in urban parks and neighborhoods, and the management of elementary school campus trees in California. She has published over 50 scientific articles and was recognized with the Early-Career Scientist Award from the International Society of Arboriculture.

Witold Rybczynski, the Martin and Margy Meyerson Professor of Urbanism Emeritus at Penn, has written countless articles and reviews and more than twenty books on architecture, urbanism, and design; his biography of Frederick Law Olmsted received the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize. Rybczynski has served on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, and in 2007 the National Building Museum awarded him the Vincent J. Scully Prize.

Catherine Seavitt is the Martin and Margy Meyerson Professor of Urbanism and chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture. She is also faculty co-director of the McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology and creative director of LA+ Journal. Her research examines the intersection of political power, environmental activism, and public health, particularly as seen through the design of equitable public space and policy.

Fritz Steiner is dean and Paley Professor of the Weitzman School of Design. He founded the McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology with Richard Weller and is its faculty co-director. Steiner co-chairs Penn’s Design Review Committee. A long-time planning and landscape architecture educator, he is the author or editor of 22 books. He helped to create the SITES Rating System, the ecosystem-services based approach used for designing sustainable and resilient landscapes. Steiner lives adjacent to the Penn campus in the Spruce Hill neighborhood of West Philadelphia. He is a three-time graduate of Penn.

Susan Weiler has been a partner at the preeminent landscape architecture firm OLIN for over 30 years and is dedicated to the appreciation and integration of public art and urban design. She received her Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture from the University of Wisconsin and her Master of Landscape Architecture from Penn. With her commitment to public art in Philadelphia, Weiler has made impactful contributions, including a recent Benjamin Franklin Parkway Master Plan, the Rodin Museum Garden, the Anne d’Harnoncourt Sculpture Garden, “125 Years” with artist Jenny Holzer, “Lines in Four Directions in Flowers” by Sol LeWitt, and Dilworth Park (including Janet Echelman’s “Pulse” installation). Weiler is the primary author of the book Green Roof Systems: A Guide for the Planning, Design and Construction of Landscapes over Structure, which has become a primary resource on the topic of green roof design for landscape architects, architects, and engineers.