Memorials and Monuments on Campus

Penn has recently had a fascinating display of topic specific yet quiet memorialization. I don’t recall seeing quite as much of this last year. As it is nearing the end of the semester and time is short I have not had the time to truly research these memorials and their significance or link to campus. Memorials and monuments are fascinating design challenges that bring…

Beaux Arts on a Boat!

Beaux Arts Ball (BAB) is a traditional architecture ball held annually. At PennDesign this ball gets relocated each year and a new theme choosen to liven up an already lively, much anticipated event. Last year BAB was held in the Mutter Museum. This year The Spirit of Philadelphia, a quite large boat, larger than it looks, was the choosen location. While the food was…

Petty’s Island Cleanup

Petty’s Island: https://nj.gov/dep/njnlt/pettysisland.htm Camden County Historical Society: https://www.cchsnj.org/ A well spent Saturday morning was recently dedicated to joining a clean up effort on Petty’s Island with a studio friend Miriam. This island is located between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Pennsauken, New Jersey. It is also positioned just across from our most recent studio design site. The cleanup lasted 2 hours with a team of roughly…

LARPERS: Swathmore Campus

Swathmore: https://www.scottarboretum.org/ Swathmore campus is a beautiful college campus which doubles as an arboretum. The class toured the campus taking in the tagging system, the variety of species and the overall organization of the campus. During our tour we also saw one of the first greenroofs to be placed on a residential building and a variety of water management tactics integrated into the landscaping…

Penn Paints

Even in the busiest times there is room for a little fun. One of the loveliest happy hours was a Painting with Bob Ross. Despite this being a relaxing activity the shouts of stress when Bob Ross took off painting while Dental and Design students tried to catch up where an unexpected humorous touch. While none of us replicated the masterpiece in the youtube…

LARPERS Spring Outing

Halka Nurseries: https://www.halkanursery.com/our-trees/ The weather is finally turning around and the LARPERS are getting restless. As the sun stays out longer and the temperatures get warmer the syllabus reflects the change and field trips start popping up in the schedule. Tuesdays are getting exciting. First field trip of the semester we went to Halka Nurseries. This was a unique trip as we were able…

Architectural Theory Now!

Symposium Link: https://www.design.upenn.edu/architecture/graduate/events/architectural-theory-now-0 I am eager to attend this event as it pertains to the way we as students and upcoming professionals view our work. From todays sneak peek I noted the interesting format. Somehow when I think of a symposium I think of lectures followed by Q&A or guided conversations. Oddly this symposium was structured more as a roundtable discussion of experts overlooked…

Penn Design Voices

There are many voices at Penn Design and plenty of outlets for students and professionals to express them. A few example outlets include: Babble, S.P.A.M., LA +, PennDesignzzz, and the new Stuart Wietzman School of Design instagram account. Of these platforms I have recently enjoyed the first publication of S.P.A.M. This witty publication, complete with crossword puzzle, capture the ironic attitude to utopic scholarly…

ULI Hines Compeition

ULI Hines: https://americas.uli.org/programs/awards-competitions/hines-student-design-competition/2019-hines-winner-and-finalists/ This is by far one of the most challenging and rewarding competitions I have done. This competition occurs annually with the location changing each year. The competition encourages interdisciplinary teams, at least 3 of the 5 team members must come from different fields. Having multiple disciplines is extremely helpful when one looks at the scope of the design challenge. Each year…

Spring Semester Begins!

Unbelievable how time flies. Equally unbelievable is how this semester bullrushed me. Between the ULI Hines competition, work, studio, preparations for internship applications, and juggling a regular schedule (gym, eat, sleep) I have certainly felt like I dropped the ball. Spring often seems more overwhelming then Fall. The added work of searching for internships and all the preparation, portfolio, resume, cover letter, reccomendations, feel…