May 26, 2023
Stuart Weitzman School of Design
102 Meyerson Hall
210 South 34th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
A group of students from Dean Steiner and Rebecca Popowsky's Megaregions Studio traveled to Austin, Texas, to participate in the CM2 Summer Forum. The students presented their semester-long research projects to planning experts and graduate students on the second day of the summer forum. They each created posters to display throughout the three-day event, detailing their findings from the studio. On the final day, CM2 attendees voted on the poster submissions, distributing awards to the following categories: Most Equitable Project, Most Innovative Project, and Most Impactful Planning Project. MCP'23 graduates Riddhi Batra and Alex Cartwright received awards for their posters.
Alex Cartwright received the Most Impactful Planning Project Award for his project, Cherry Island Wetland Park.
Cherry Island Wetland Park responds to the treatment of landscapes as a blank canvas for infrastructure. These sections explore the existing interactions between hydrology, vegetation, and infrastructure.
Riddhi Batra received the Most Innovative Research Project Award for her project, A Manifesto for Place.
This project uses data and spatial analytics, writing, and photography to suggest three scenarios to strengthen rail connectivity from Philadelphia to Baltimore, capture the corridor aesthetic, and land ethic, as it has developed through the two cities’ industrial legacies, and evaluate the three scenarios using a framework that combines transportation efficiency with environmental stewardship.
The Megaregions Studio work is on display in the Year End Show through June 14, 2023. Click here to view a virtual gallery of the class projects.