Weitzman and Netter Center to Tackle Urban Heat in West Philadelphia

Dorit Aviv, assistant professor of architecture at the Weitzman School for Design and director of the Thermal Architecture Lab at Weitzman, is teaming up with Penn’s Netter Center for Community Partnerships and the Annenberg School for Communications to work with West Philadelphia community members to combat urban heat through design.

The team has been awarded an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Thriving Communities Grant for $137,000 to work with a local high school on measurement of urban heat and solution design. The school, William L. Sayre High School, is a University-Assisted Community School (UACS). The overall goal is a partnership where Sayre students and staff will learn about urban heat islands and develop proposals to improve their own environment. They will get peer, school and community feedback on the proposals, and then move to an implementation phase. 

Like many Philadelphia schools, and many urban neighborhood public schools generally, Sayre lacks central air conditioning and has few window units. The building is located in an area which is among the hottest 10% areas of Philadelphia, with an average summer temperature that is up to 7.8°F higher than that found in other neighborhoods. These temperatures pose a health threat to children and adults.

The conditions at Sayre are an example of an urban heat island (UHI), the phenomenon of increased temperatures in urban areas compared to rural landscapes that result from a lack of tree canopy or built structures providing shade, combined with an abundance of asphalt, concrete, or other surfaces that store and radiate heat.

Under Aviv’s guidance, Weitzman graduate students will collaborate with Sayre students on developing knowledge and skills for measuring UHI, including the usage of different types of environmental sensors as well as understanding and analyzing the collected microclimate data. Sayre students will also contribute to developing the most effective solutions.

Aviv was part of a team of faculty and students at the Weitzman School who previously partnered with Sayre to transform the school’s courtyard into a community garden and social space, and brought together faculty, students, and staff from PennPraxis—the applied research, engagement, and practice arm of the Weitzman School—the Graduate School of Education, and the Perelman School of Medicine, as well as the Netter Center.