PennDesign’s Dean, Chair of Architecture among Most Admired Educators for 2015

Marilyn Jordan Taylor, Dean and Paley Professor, and Winka Dubbeldam, Professor and Chair of Graduate Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design are among an elite group of “30 Most Admired Educators” for 2015, according to DesignIntelligence.

Each year, DesignIntelligence reports excellence in education and education administration, naming 30 exemplary professionals in the design fields—including architecture, industrial design, interior design, and landscape architecture—based on input from thousands of design professionals, academic department heads, students, educators and administrators. 

Dean Taylor was noted as a “brilliant, inspiration[al] leader,” cited for her efforts to integrate a variety of subjects in the design, including design theory, sustainability and technical issues between architecture, planning and landscape architecture. “Taylor is known as strategic and hardworking; she creates opportunities for everyone around her,” the report summarized.

Professor Dubbeldam, meanwhile, was heralded for bringing a “fresh, new vision to PennDesign, as well as a great new attitude.” A noted practitioner as founder of the New York-based firm Archi-Tectonics, Dubbeldam was praised as “forward-thinking” and leading with “clarity and intent, with the purpose of promoting the profession.”

Taylor and Dubbeldam join the likes of Sarah Whiting, William Ward Watkin Professor and Dean of the Rice School of Architecture, Evan Douglis, dean of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Tom Buresh, Chair of University of California, Berkeley’s Architecture program, among other educators on the short list.

DesignIntelligence is part of the Design Futures Council, an interdisciplinary network of design, product and construction leaders exploring global trends, challenges and opportunities to advance innovation and shape the future of the industry and environment. In addition to honoring excellent educators, the DesignIntelligence report ranks architecture and design schools through surveys of students, administrators, and professional practice organizations. In the 2015 report, DI ranked PennDesign’s Master of Architecture program as 7th in the nation and its Master of Landscape Architecture program as 2nd overall.

In an interview with Architectural Record, James P. Cramer, founding editor of DesignIntelligence, lauded Penn for "being increasingly in sync with changes in the profession.”

For more details, view the full report available at www.di.net.