Fall 2026 Lecture Series Opens September 2

From making our cities more resilient to understanding new buildings as opportunities for environmental responsibility and social engagement, the speakers in the Weitzman Fall 2026 Lecture Series offer perspective on some of the most pressing issues facing built environment professionals, cultural leaders, and policy makers today.

In keeping with the Weitzman School of Design’s interdisciplinary mission, the series is conceived to appeal to artists, urban planners, and preservationists as well as architects and landscape architects. Among the scheduled speakers are: acclaimed artist Zoe Leonard; Former United States Secretary of State John Kerry; and architect Thomas Phifer.

The series begins on Wednesday, September 2, with a talk by Andrew Clancy and Colm Moore, Irish architects whose design of a major wastewater treatment plant and associated landscapes for the town of Arklow, Ireland has earned wide recognition. On October 29, Miller Professor and Chair of Architecture Rossana Hu and Mark Lee, founding partner at Johnston Marklee, convene an international symposium about architecture’s deepest resources: precedent, type, form, and the transmission of ideas from teacher to student and building to building.

The schedule also includes a September 14 conversation between former Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter and Leslie Richards, the former CEO and General Manager of SEPTA, both of whom lead new initiatives to drive innovation in the public sector. The authors of Penn’s Sylvania: The Campus as Landscape trace the evolution of one of the country’s most distinctive urban campuses, an official arboretum.

Admission is free and open to the public unless noted otherwise; advance registration is required for some events. Most lectures take place at Meyerson Hall, 210 South 34th Street, Philadelphia.

Select lectures are eligible for continuing education credit. Contact the presenting department or center for more information. Visitors who require any accessibility accommodation, such as live captioning, audio description, or a sign language interpreter, are advised to email news@design.upenn.edu at least 5 business days in advance. Because information is subject to change, visitors are advised to consult www.design.upenn.edu/calendar to confirm program details.

Wednesday, September 2, 6:30pm
Andrew Clancy and Colm Moore, Clancy Moore Architects
Presented by the Department of Architecture

Tuesday, September 8, 6:00pm
2026-2027 Sachs Visiting Professor Lecture
Zoe Leonard, University of Pennsylvania
Institute of Contemporary Art, 118 South 36th Street
Presented by the Department of Fine Arts

Wednesday, September 9, 6:30pm
José Toral, Peris+Toral Arquitectes
Presented by the Department of Architecture

Thursday, September 10, 6:30pm
Penn’s Sylvania: The Campus as Landscape
Ignacio F. Bunster-Ossa, The Collaborative
Catherine Seavitt, University of Pennsylvania
Fritz Steiner, University of Pennsylvania
Susan Weiler, OLIN
Kleinman Energy Forum, 220 South 34th Street
Presented by the McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology

Monday, September 14, 6:00pm
Michael A. Nutter, University of Pennsylvania
Leslie Richards, University of Pennsylvania
Kleinman Energy Forum, 220 South 34th Street
Presented by the Department of City & Regional Planning

Wednesday, September 16, 6:30pm
Building Environments of Care
Benedetta Tagliabue, Benedetta Tagliabue – EMBT Architects
Presented by the Department of Architecture

Thursday, September 17, 5:30pm
2026 Carnot Prize Award Ceremony and Policy Lecture
John Kerry, Former United States Secretary of State
Coxe Hall, Penn Museum, 3260 South Street
Presented by the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy

Friday, September 18, 6:00pm
The Fugitivity of Water
Ralph Lemon, University of Pennsylvania
Kleinman Energy Forum, 220 South 34th Street
Presented by the Department of Fine Arts and Arthur Ross Gallery

Wednesday, September 23, 6:30pm
Emiliano López and Mónica Rivera, Emiliano López Mónica Rivera Arquitectos
Presented by the Department of Architecture

Thursday, September 24, 6:30pm
Perspectives: McHarg Center Faculty Research
Kleinman Energy Forum, 220 South 34th Street
Presented by the McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology

Friday, October 2, 9:00am
Building Resilience and the Evolving Role of Preservation Technology
Kleinman Energy Forum, 220 South 34th Street
Presented by the Department of Historic Preservation and the Association for Preservation Technology Delaware Valley Chapter
Ticketed event

Thursday, October 15, 6:30pm
Restoring the Future, ...as if Nature Matters
Keith Bowers, Biohabitats
Kleinman Energy Forum, 220 South 34th Street
Presented by the Department of Landscape Architecture

Thursday, October 22, 6:00pm
Catherine Telford Keogh, Artist
Institute of Contemporary Art, 118 South 36th Street
Presented by the Department of Fine Arts

Monday, October 26, 12:00pm
Brokers of Power: The Financialization of the U.S. Electricity Sector
Conor Harrison, University of South Carolina
Kleinman Energy Forum, 220 South 34th Street
Presented by the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy

Thursday, October 29, 6:00pm
Untimely Meditations
Convened by Rossana Hu, University of Pennsylvania, and Mark Lee, Johnston Marklee
Presented by the Department of Architecture

Thursday, October 29, 6:30pm
Design with a Prismatic Understanding of Land
Thomas Woltz, Nelson Bryd Woltz Landscape Architects
Kleinman Energy Forum, 220 South 34th Street
Presented by the Department of Landscape Architecture

Monday, November 2, 6:30pm
The Anne Whiston Spirn Lecture | Dancing with Uncertainty: The Future of Porous Landscapes
Kotchakorn Voraakhom, LANDPROCESS
Kleinman Energy Forum, 220 South 34th Street
Presented by the McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology

Wednesday November 4, 6:30pm
Abend Family Lecture | Buildings for People and Plants
Amale Andraos and Dan Wood, WORKac
Presented by the Department of Architecture and the McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology

Thursday, November 5, 3:30pm
Honoring a Colleague: Working with an Unfinished MS
Dell Upton, University of California, Los Angeles
Elizabeth Milroy, University of Pennsylvania
McNeil Center for Early American Studies, 3355 Woodland Walk
Presented by the Department of Historic Preservation and the McNeil Center for Early American Studies

Thursday, November 5, 6:00pm
Heidi Lau, Artist
Institute of Contemporary Art, 118 South 36th Street
Presented by the Department of Fine Arts

Tuesday, November 10
Weitzman School Awards: New York
Honoring the 2026 Kanter Tritsch Medalist in Architecture and 2026 Witte-Sakamoto Family Medalist in City and Regional Planning
Whitney Museum of American Art, 99 Gansevoort Street, New York, New York
Ticketed event

Wednesday, November 11, 6:30pm
Oliver Lütjens, Lütjens Padmanabhan Architekt*innen
Presented by the Department of Architecture

Thursday, November 12, 6:00pm
Scaling Up: Landscapes of Productive Planting Exploration
Kate Kennen, Offshoots, Inc.
Presented by the Department of Landscape Architecture

Wednesday, November 18
Work
Thomas Phifer, Thomas Phifer and Partners
Presented by the Department of Architecture

Friday, November 20, 5:00pm
LA+ Media / LA+ Memory Launch
Karen M'Closkey, University of Pennsylvania
Catherine Seavitt, University of Pennsylvania
Presented by LA+ Journal and the Department of Landscape Architecture

Tuesday, December 1, 12:00pm
Penn Climate Seminar
Scott Moore, University of Pennsylvania
Kleinman Energy Forum, 220 South 34th Street
Presented by the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy plus Penn Climate

Thursday, December 3, 6:00pm
Elle Pérez, Artist
Institute of Contemporary Art, 118 South 36th Street
Presented by the Department of Fine Arts