Notable Alumni
Faris Saad Al-Shathir is an Iraqi American director and designer based in New York City. He is the Executive Director of Boffo, a non-profit arts and culture organization based in New York City and Fire Island. He holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Art in Art from Rhodes College.
Cecil Baker helped form Baker Rothschild Horn and Blyth in 1972. The architectural firm’s first project, Queen Village Mews, was awarded a Progressive Architecture Design Award. Success was short lived. 1972 was the year of the energy crisis, the year Time magazine asked on it’s cover: “Is the U.S. going broke?”
The four architects pooled their resources and became real estate developers. Over the next 10 years BRHB Developers built more than 270 residential units in a variety of projects across Philadelphia’s troubled neighborhoods. The firm’s projects included new construction and repurposed industrial structures. Markets ranged from HUD housing to high end homes and condominiums. The work was crafted at a time when the architect’s professional organization frowned on entrepreneurial work undertaken by architects. Nevertheless, BRHB Developers’ projects were widely published in Europe, Japan and South America. From this seminal experience Cecil Baker evolved his practical aesthetic, best summarized as “spending your money on the sunny side of the drywall.”
Cecil Baker’s real estate holdings allowed him the equilibrium to return to his original architectural yearnings: thus was born Cecil Baker & Associates in 1982. The firm grew steadily over time and became Cecil Baker + Partners in 2006 with the addition of Nancy Bastian and Eric Leighton as partners. Chris Blakelock was added as a partner in 2009.
Cecil Baker + Partners today is a thriving architecture firm in Center City Philadelphia. With a practice that spans a wide variety of clients and project types, Cecil Baker has always had a strong affinity for housing, and the firm’s portfolio reflects that. Recent projects include Philadelphia’s newest high-rise condominiums: 500 Walnut, a 26-story luxury high-rise with 38 dwelling units overlooking Independence Mall, and One Riverside, a 21-story high-end condominium building located adjacent the Schuylkill River Park in the Fitler Square neighborhood. Other residential projects include high end single-family residential, as well as affordable and market rate multi-family housing. Institutional, civic and governmental work rounds out the practice.
Cecil Baker + Partners’ designs have received over fifty local, regional, and national accolades, including awards from the Preservation Alliance, Progressive Architecture, Architectural Record, the U.S. Department of HUD, the American Institute of Architects, the Pennsylvania Society of Architects, the PA Historical and Museum Commission and others. The firm’s designs have been published in the U.S., Europe, Japan and South America.
Karen Beck Pooley, Ph.D., brings to the czb team more than 14 years of experience working on housing and community development issues. Dr. Beck Pooley has become one of the nation’s leading experts in understanding how subsidized investments in housing and community development interact with neighborhood-wide conditions. She is a Professor of Practice of Political Science at Lehigh University. She was the Executive Director of the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Allentown from 2007 to 2011 and, prior to that, a Deputy Director within New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, and a Research Associate at the Institute for Children & Poverty. Dr. Beck Pooley has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Wellesley College, a Master of Urban Planning & Policy from New School University’s Milano Graduate School, and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.
Alan M. Berger is the Norman B. and Muriel Leventhal Professor of Advanced Urbanism at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies & Planning. In addition to his award winning books Drosscape: Wasting Land in Urban America, and Reclaiming the American West, his other books include Designing the Reclaimed Landscape, The Infrastructural Monument and Scaling Infrastructure (with Alexander D'Hooghe), Nansha Coastal City: Landscape and Urbanism in the Pearl River Delta (with Margaret Crawford). His most recently published books are Systemic Design Can Change the World and Landscape + Urbanism Around the Bay of Mumbai (with Rahul Mehrotra). He also co-edited LCAU's 2013 Report on the State of Health + Urbanism (with Andrew Scott). Prior to MIT, Berger was Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at Harvard-GSD, 2002-2008. He is a Prince Charitable Trusts Fellow of The American Academy in Rome.
Natvar Bhavsar (b. 1934) is a contemporary American artist of Indian origin. He lives and works in SoHo, New York. Colors as his medium, Bhavsar has been exploring the sensual, emotional, and intellectual resonance of color since the early 1960s. His paintings evince influences from his childhood in India, surrounded by vivid textiles, practicing rangoli, and witnessing the Holi Festival, and adulthood in New York in the 1960s and ’70s, in a milieu that included fellow Abstract Expressionists like Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still, Ray Parker. To make his paintings, which range from intimate to grand, Bhavsar sifts powdered pigments onto canvas, allowing air currents and his own breath and body movements to determine where they fall, creating layered compositions.
Nisha Botchwey is an Associate Professor in the School of City and Regional Planning. She is an expert in health and the built environment as well as community engagement, holding graduate degrees in both urban planning and public health. Dedicated to effective pedagogy, Dr. Botchwey spent eight years as a professor at the University of Virginia, jointly appointed to the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning and the Department of Public Health Sciences, before arriving at Georgia Tech.
Elsa Bourguignon trained both as an architectural conservator and a conservation scientist. She received a Master of Science in Historic Preservation with a concentration in building and material conservation from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in Materials Science from the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussees, France. She has worked both in the field, notably as an associate project specialist at the Getty Conservation Institute, and in the laboratory, managing a European research project on new inorganic consolidants for the Laboratoire de Recherche des Monuments Historiques, France. Since 2018, she has been the Research Lab Unit Head at Louvre Abu Dhabi.
William W. Braham, PhD, FAIA, is a Professor of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design, where he previously served as Chair, and is currently Director of the Master of Environmental Building Design and of the Center for Environmental Building + Design.
https://www.design.upenn.edu/architecture/graduate/people/william-w-braham
Diane Burko investigates monumental geological phenomena. Her work is held in numerous public, corporate, and private collections. She has been included in over 100 exhibitions throughout her career.
Claudia Cancino manages the Earthen Architecture Initiative at the Getty Conservation Institute. She graduated in architecture and urban planning from Universidad Ricardo Palma in Lima, Peru and earned a certificate in conservation at ICCROM in 1995, followed by training in business administration at ESAN in Lima. She practiced preservation architecture and was on the faculty at the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas in Lima (1996–99), teaching restoration of monuments and earthen building techniques. She earned a Master of Science in Historic Preservation (2001) and an Advanced Certificate in Conservation (2002) from the University of Pennsylvania.
John spent 15 years in the field of architectural conservation prior to founding Materials Conservation in 2006. With a breadth of knowledge and nearly three decades of experience, John’s primary responsibility is the management of the firm and overseeing MC’s spectrum of projects. John holds a MS and an Advanced Certificate in Architectural Conservation from the University of Pennsylvania, School of Design. He completed stone conservation coursework in Rome, Italy, holds a Professional Associate title with the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, and belongs to the Association for Preservation Technology. John has been an active member on the board of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia and the Dean’s Council at the University of Pennsylvania. Ever loyal to his Canadian roots, John is also a member of the Canadian Association of Heritage Professionals.
Yu-Chieh Chiang is a member of the American Institute of Architects and registered architect in New York. He founder, designer and managing director of VAL. In 2010 he moved to Shanghai and was executive director at Aedas, and design practice leader for SOM. Build projects include: Beijing Sina Headquarters, Agile Corporation Headquarters Tower, Suzhou GOlden Concord Group Headquarters office and exhibition center, Zhenro Shanghai Hongqiao Novotel, Suzhou Element Hotel.
Carol Collier is a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners and Fellow in the American Water Resources Association. She practices and teaches in the Delaware Valley. A Certified Senior Ecologist, she specializes in watershed management and resilient systems design. She is a faculty member in the Department of Biodiversity, Earth & Environmental Science at Drexel University.
Keiko Tsuruta Cramer is a Principal and Landscape Architect at WRT, LLC in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her projects have included the Steelstacks Art & Cultural Campus and the Hoover-Mason Trestle in Bethlehem, PA, Crystal City A Placemaking Framework in Crystal City, VA, Philadelphia Holocaust Memorial in Philadelphia, PA for which she is Project landscape architect. In addition, Keiko maintains her architectural license in Japan, and has worked on numerous projects abroad including the Daiichi Mutual Life Insurance Office Landscape in Kanagawa, Japan, and SCBD Lot10 Development in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Ms. DiChiera has been director of advocacy for Landmarks Illinois since 2003. She was the director of Chicago programs from 1994-1997. Lisa administers the statewide Most Endangered Historic Places program and oversees Landmark Illinois’ legislative initiatives. From 1998-2002, she worked for the Detroit office of Hines Interests coordinating the urban planning components and public approval processes for General Motors’ renovation of the John Portman-designed Renaissance Center as its new corporate headquarters. She worked previously for the Midwest Office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Architecture Department of the Chicago History Museum. In Detroit, she served on the boards of Preservation Detroit and the Michigan Historic Preservation Network. She currently serves on the boards of the AIA Chicago Foundation, the Glessner House and on the Land Use & Housing Committee of Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP).She has been twice named to the Newcity “Design 50” list of the 50 people shaping Chicago design. Lisa received her B.A. in art and architectural history from UCLA and an M.S. in historic preservation from the University of Pennsylvania.
Wendy Evans Joseph, FAIA holds a Master in Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania. Winner of a Rome Prize in Architecture, she was a Fellow at the American Academy in Rome. She was the President of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, Chairman of the AIA National Committee on Design, and past-president of the Architectural League of New York. Wendy Evans Joseph is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and an Academician of the National Academy of Design.
Sandra Featherman, Ph.D., was president emeritus of the University of New England, served as a commissioner and vice-chair of the Commission on Osteopathic Medical College Accreditation and as a commissioner of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. Prior to that, Dr. Featherman served as vice chancellor for academic administration at the University of Minnesota/Duluth, and at Temple University as assistant to the president, director of the Center for Public Policy, and president of the Faculty Senate. She was named a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania by the Governor of Pennsylvania, and Administrator of the Year, by Minnesota Women in Higher Education. Over the span of her career, she published more than 50 academic publications as well as numerous magazine and newspaper articles.
Junyuan Feng is an artist and writer based in Shanghai, currently a lecturer at Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts. He received his B.S. in physics from Fudan University and M.F.A. in fine arts from the University of Pennsylvania. His recent projects and exhibitions include Hic sunt leones, 798 Art Center, Beijing, 2019; Building Code Violations III: Special Economic Zone, Times Museum, Guangzhou, 2018; Parentheses, David Nolan Gallery, New York, 2018. He co-curated the exhibition Whatever works, whatever it takes with Zhihui Zhang at Goethe-Institut China in 2019. He was a finalist for the 2018 Huayu Youth Award.
Nancy Goldenberg is the Vice President of Planning & Development for the Center City District (CCD), Philadelphia’s downtown business improvement district, where she leads strategic planning and fundraising efforts for capital and programmatic initiatives. She also serves as Executive Director of the Center City District Foundation, the charitable affiliate of the CCD. She previously served for 12 years as CCD’s Vice President of Strategic Planning, responsible for a number of capital and public space improvements, including the planning, fundraising and renovation of Three Parkway Plaza, Sister Cities Park, Collins Park and Dilworth Park. Nancy also led the CCD’s research and policy efforts, along with its transportation initiatives.
Lauren Reynolds Hall currently serves as a Conservator for the US Department of State Bureau of Overseas Building Operations, Office of Cultural Heritage. She was previously the conservator at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami, Florida, where she oversaw the preservation of a diverse collection of historic structures, decorative art objects, and outdoor sculpture. She holds a Master of Science in Historic Preservation from the University of Pennsylvania and earned an Advanced Certificate in Conservation as a Samuel H. Kress Foundation fellow. Lauren is published in the Journal of the American Institute for Conservation, Change Over Time: An International Journal of Conservation and the Built Environment, and Robert Winthrop Chanler: Discovering the Fantastic. She is a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation and serves on the Arts Advisory Panel for the city of Coral Gables, Florida.
John R. Hoke III is Chief Design Officer, Nike, and also a director at Herman Miller and a trustee at Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum, as well as at the Oregon College of Art & Craft.
Brian Holland is an architect, researcher, and educator, and the founder of Open Set. Holland is an assistant professor of architecture at the University of Arkansas' Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, and has previously taught at Sarah Lawrence College, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Parsons, the University of Pennsylvania, the American University of Beirut, and the Ohio State University, as a LeFevre Fellow. From 2011–2018 he was assistant director of The New York Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, where he led research and design studios exploring the future of architecture and urbanism in New York City. Holland received his M.Arch from the University of Pennsylvania and his B.Arch from Cal Poly Pomona.
Founded in 1970, Heerim Architects & Planners is the leading architectural practice of Korea successfully expanding its mark in both domestic and international markets.
Penn Studio Collaboration with Seoul National University
Vanessa Keith is a registered architect and the Principal of Studioteka, an award-winning design firm she founded in 2003. Her work has appeared in notable international design publications such as Frame, Hinge, Surface Asia, Design Bureau and Mark Magazine. Vanessa Keith is the author of 2100: A Dystopian Utopia – the City After Climate Change, a book on the future of cities in a hotter world published by Terreform as part of Michael Sorkin’s Urban Research Series, and is also an editor of “Kingston Harbor: Development Transects,” a book of urban design work published by Columbia University in 2010. She has taught graduate and undergraduate design studios in architecture, urban and interior design, and economic development at Columbia University’s GSAPP and SIPA, Pratt Institute, and the City University of New York.
Michael Kihn was a member of GBQC Architects from 1974 to 2001. As a principal and president of the firm from 1991 until 2001, he was responsible for the design of the Franklin Institute Futures Center and University of Pennsylvania’s 3401 Walnut Street mixed use development in Philadelphia, the Headquarters Building for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection in Harrisburg, PAand Innovation Park, Phase I – Penn State’s Research Park at its University Park campus. From 2002 until 2010, Michael initiated and developed the Higher Education practice and was the Higher Education Market Sector Leader for the New York office of Perkins+Will; he led the firm’s Northeastern US Regional Higher Education Practice and Perkins+Will’s Philadelphia office from 2010 to 2013.
Jonathan Mandell Mosaics can be seen at: Citizens Bank Park (home of the Philadelphia Phillies), the National Constitution Center, the University of Pennsylvania, the National Liberty Museum, Dickinson College, the Alfred I. DuPont Children's Hospital, Philadelphia Family Court, Drexel University, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, Bridgeport Hospital of the Yale-New Haven Health System and the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center among other sites nationally.
Susan A. Maxman founded Susan Maxman Architects in 1985, which she expanded to Susan Maxman & Partners Ltd in 1995. Projects include design of old and new buildings, restoration and rehabilitation works, master and site planning, feasibility reports, programming, historic preservation, and interior design. She was the first woman elected as president of the American Institute of Architects in 1992.[1][2] Her expertise in adoption of the "principles of sustainable design" in her projects has received national appreciation, and in 2011 Maxman was nominated by President Barack Obama to the Board of Directors of the National Institute of Building Sciences.
Mohammadreza Mirzaei is an Iranian photographer and writer based in Santa Barbara, where he is a doctoral student at UCSB. Mirzaei's work has been exhibited extensively in numerous solo and group exhibitions. He was the founder and the editor of Dide Magazine, an online magazine dedicated to contemporary Iranian photography. His latest photobook "Here Comes the Sun" is published by University of Pennsylvania Common Press and features an essay by Carlos Basualdo.
Chris Reed is Founding Director of Stoss Landscape Urbanism as well as Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture and Co-Director, Master of Landscape Architecture in Urban Design Program, at Harvard Graduate School of Design. He is recognized internationally as a leading voice in the transformation of landscapes and cities, working alternately as a researcher, strategist, teacher, designer, and advisor. Chris is particularly focused on creating resilient social spaces that foster vitality, equality and community within the public realm. His work collectively includes urban revitalization initiatives, climate resiliency efforts, adaptations of former industrial sites, and the creation of vibrant public spaces that act as a catalyst for change—environmentally, culturally and economically. Chris is a recipient of the 2012 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award in Landscape Architecture, a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, and the 2017 Mercedes T. Bass Landscape Architect in Residence at the American Academy in Rome.
Following more than a decade of practice in Philadelphia, London, Boston and Washington, DC, he and his partners established Rhodeside & Harwell in 1986. Following his life-long interest in the diverse challenges presented by different scales of work, Elliot currently leads design and planning projects ranging from gardens to regions.
Ms. Santos was the founding Dean of the new School of Architecture at the University of California, San Diego, and was the Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at MIT from 2004-2014. She is currently a Professor of Architecture and Planning at MIT. Her academic career includes professorships within the graduate programs of Harvard, Rice University and the University of Pennsylvania, where she also served as Chairman of the Department of Architecture and the University of California, where she was founding dean of the School of Architecture at UCSD. Ms. Santos received her architectural degree from the Architectural Association in London and holds a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from Harvard and a Master of City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania.
Denise Scott Brown is an architect, planner, writer, educator, and principal of the firm Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates in Philadelphia. Scott Brown is regarded as among the most influential architects of the twentieth century, both through architecture and planning, and theoretical writing and teaching.
Denise Scott Brown wikipedia page
Eleanor Sharpe oversees the Philadelphia City Planning Commission (PCPC), the Historical Commission, the Art Commission and the Zoning Board of Adjustment. Her oversight includes being the Executive Director of the Planning Commission, where her duties include working with City Council, City Agencies, and civic and community organizations to implement the recommendations of Philadelphia2035, the city's comprehensive plan; aimed at improving the city’s built environment. Sharpe, has a Bachelor of Architecture from Howard University and a Master of City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania.
Liang Sicheng (Chinese: 梁思成; 20 April 1901[1] – 9 January 1972) was a Chinese architect and scholar, often known as the father of modern Chinese architecture. His father, Liang Qichao, was one of the most prominent Chinese scholars of the early 20th century. His wife was the architect and poet Lin Huiyin. In 1924, he and Lin went to University of Pennsylvania funded by the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program to study architecture under Paul Cret.
Article in Sixth Tone, The Ivy League Architects Who Revitalized Design in China
Henry Smith-Miller is an architect and co-founder of SM+H and professor in the graduate program at Pratt Institute. An alumnus of Princeton University and the Graduate School of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design, he received a Fulbright Grant to study architecture in Rome, Italy. Henry Smith-Miller has held visiting adjunct professor positions at Columbia University, the City University of New York, the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, the Thomas Jefferson Professor in Architecture at the University of Virginia, and the Saarinen Chair at Yale University. He has also served on the Board of Creative Time and on the Associate Council of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Anne Whiston Spirn is an American landscape architect, photographer and author. After graduating from University of Pennsylvania, Spirn worked as an ecological designer and planner at the office of Wallace McHarg Roberts and Todd in Philadelphia from 1973 to 1977. From 1977-1978 she worked at Roy Mann Associates in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She then became a professor of landscape architecture at Harvard University from 1979-1986. She left Harvard in 1986 to become the chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Planning at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design and also served as the co-director of the Urban Studies Program there from 1996-2000. Spirn joined the faculty in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT in 2000.
As Chief of Design for the Central Park Conservancy, Starr worked intensively to forge consensus among diverse groups of stakeholders, renovating major destinations such as Harlem Meer, the West Side, and the Great Lawn. She collaborated on landscape transformations such as the Battery Upper Promenade, the Battery Bosque, and a pair of historic courtyards on Front Street at South Street Seaport. Starr was president of ASLA-NY from 2013 to 2014. She is a founding partner of Starr Whitehouse. She has negotiated public/private partnerships both internationally, on master plans for Tel Aviv’s Park Ariel Sharon and Gazelle Park in Jerusalem, as well as locally, collaborating with BIG Architects on the innovative VIA 57 West development.
Ceaphas Stubbs received his BFA from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ and his MFA from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. In 2013, Stubbs gave artist talks at the SALT Institute in Beyoğlu District, Istanbul, Turkey; and at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA. His works have been reviewed in AGAVE Magazine, Brooklyn Rail, The New York Times, Skowhegan’s SPACE/LAUNCH and EXPOSE Magazine. In 2014 Stubbs was an Adjunct Professor at Brookdale Community College, Lincroft, NJ. He is currently a tenure-track Assistant Professor at Lycoming College, Williamsport, PA.
Multi-media artist exhibiting internationally.
Jessica Vaughn’s practice is directed by relationships and experiences in and outside of the studio, and considers how materials accumulate and inhabit spaces. With a studio process that is rooted in research, Vaughn’s multidisciplinary approach encompasses working with discarded and mass-produced materials to create artworks and installations that convey complex histories of place, production, and use. She received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania (2011) and a Bachelor of Humanities & Arts from Carnegie Mellon University (2006). Her work has been exhibited at MOMA PS1, Studio Museum in Harlem, Project Row Houses, and in galleries in the United States and abroad.
Theresa Williamson, Ph.D., is a city planner and founder and executive director of Catalytic Communities (CatComm), an NGO working since 2000 in support of Rio’s favelas. In addition to fostering strategic networking, training and communications support on behalf of community organizers, the organization has become known for advocating a community-controlled asset-based development approach to informal settlements, through Favela Community Land Trusts and CatComm’s Sustainable Favela Network. Dr. Williamson received the 2012 NAHRO Award for her contributions to the international housing debate, 2018 American Society of Rio prize for her contributions to the city, and 2005 Gill-Chin Lim Award for Best Dissertation on International Planning. She is editor-in-chief of RioOnWatch, CatComm’s internationally recognized watchdog favela news service. Dr. Williamson earned her B.A. in Biological Anthropology from Swarthmore College and Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the University of Pennsylvania.
Jiwon Woo is a multidisciplinary artist, designer, and researcher. Woo investigates role of the art, design, life science, and technology. She researches new biologically designed materials and fabrication methods derived from the nature and human body. Woo is also a CEO and Creative Director of hypha design.