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Press Releases

Announcing the 2017 iDesign Prize Finalists

The University of Pennsylvania’s graduate program in Integrated Product Design presents the 2017 iDesign Prize Championship. Five teams led by Penn students will complete for $50,000 to bring an innovative product to market. The event takes place Tuesday, April 18, 6:00pm at Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, Fisher Fine Arts Building, 4th floor, 220 South 24th Street, Philadelphia. The pitch session will culminate in an awards ceremony and public reception; admission is free.
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EARTH DAY 1970/2017: A Forum on Global Urbanization, Biodiversity and Policy

To celebrate Earth Day 2017, Martin and Margy Meyerson Chair of Urbanism and Professor and Chair of Landscape Architecture Richard Weller unveils his Atlas for the End of the World, a collection of maps which survey land use and urban growth in relation to the United Nation’s targets. Weller is joined by PennDesign Dean Frederick Steiner, who was among the organizers of one of the first Earth Day events, and Eugenie Birch, Nussdorf Professor of Urban Research and Co-Director of Penn IUR. Birch leads sustainable development efforts for the UN as Chair, UN-HABITAT’s World Urban Campaign, and President, General Assembly of Partners.
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New Digital Survey Offers Unprecedented Look Inside Baroque Churches

A major new survey of 18 Baroque churches was unveiled this month with the launch of andrewasaunders.com/baroque/ and the exhibition “Baroque Topologies” at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design. Generated through laser scanning, photogrammetry and digital imaging, and comprised of millions of data points, the survey offers an unprecedented look inside some of the most studied buildings in Western architecture. The initiative is spearheaded by Andrew Saunders, Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture, in partnership with Autodesk and FARO Technologies, and supported by a University Research Foundation grant from Penn.
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Praxis Dialogue: Preservation and the Public Good

On February 28, 2017, PennPraxis, the engagement and consulting arm of the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, and PlanPhilly will present the next installment of Praxis Dialogues, a series of public conversations among design professionals, business and civic leaders, and students on ideas and issues of broad interest to their work. The third in this series focuses on the relationship between the public good and historic preservation. Panelists will discuss preservation's role in civic life; how it contributes to neighborhood identity, collective memory, and economic development; and the politics surrounding our right—and responsibility—to preserve
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Announcing the LA+ IMAGINATION Open Design Ideas Competition

Philadelphia—LA+, the interdisciplinary journal of landscape architecture published by the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, announces the launch of an open design ideas competition for landscape architects, architects, planners, artists, and designers.
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PennDesign Welcomes Robert Stuart-Smith to the Faculty

Philadelphia—The University of Pennsylvania School of Design (PennDesign) welcomes Robert Stuart-Smith to the faculty as Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture, effective January 2017, subject to University approval.
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Marking the 50th Anniversary of Robert Venturi's 'Complexity and Contradiction'

To mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of Robert Venturi’s Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966), Martino Stierli, the Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art, and David Brownlee, the Shapiro-Weitzenhoffer Professor of the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania, are organizing a three-day symposium on November 10, 11, and 12, 2016, bringing together international scholars and architects to discuss the significance and enduring impact of this remarkable book.
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Students Unveil Interactive Sculpture in University City for Hunger Action Month

According to the Coalition Against Hunger, 1 in 4 Philadelphians are at risk for hunger. A team of University of Pennsylvania School of Design (PennDesign) graduate students have built an interactive sculpture that responds to social media posts to raise awareness about hunger issues in the city. There will be a kick-off event on Friday, September 16 at 6:00pm.
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University of Pennsylvania School of Design Welcomes New Faculty Members in Architecture, City and Regional Planning, and Fine Arts

PennDesign welcomes five new members of the standing faculty, subject to University approval. They are: Masoud Akbarzadeh, Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture; Michelle Lopez, Assistant Professor, Department of Fine Arts; Vincent Reina, Assistant Professor, Department of City and Regional Planning; and Lisa Servon, Professor, Department of City and Regional Planning. Joining the faculty on January 1, 2017 is Allison Lassiter, Assistant Professor, Department of City and Regional Planning.
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Four PennDesign Faculty Members and Alumni Earn Prestigious Pew Center Grants

University of Pennsylvania School of Design faculty members Sharon Hayes, Ken Lum and Brian Phillips (MArch’96), along with alumna Kelsey Halliday Johnson (MFA’12), have received funding from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage for new research and public programs dealing with subjects ranging from sexuality in America and pioneering female artists of the 20th century to Philadelphia’s historic row houses and monumentality in the civic sphere.
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Announcing the Publication of LA+TYRANNY

The University of Pennsylvania School of Design announces the publication of the latest issue of the critically acclaimed interdisciplinary landscape architecture journal: LA+TRYANNY. Tyranny takes many forms, from the rigid barriers of military zones to the subtle ways in which landscape is used to 'naturalize' power. What are these forms and how do they function at different scales, in different cultures, and at different times in history? How are designers and other disciplines complicit in the manifestation of these varying forms of tyranny and how have they been able to subvert such political and ideological structures? The new issue is available for purchase online at OroEditions.com and at select retailers.
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Clementine Gilbert, Adriana Vazquez, Sujay Suresh and Allie Looney Awarded $50,000 2016 iDesign Prize

On Monday night the 2016 iDesign Prize was awarded to University of Pennsylvania Integrated Product Design students Clementine Gilbert, Adriana Vazquez, and Allie Looney, and Engineering and Applied Science student Sujay Suresh.
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