University Graduate School of Pennsylvania of Fine Arts Department of City Special Issue The Link and Regional Planning 2001 Newsletter of the Department of City and Regional Planning G S F A The Link 2001 Special Golden Anniversary Edition The City Planning Department Celebrates Alumni Herbert Gans, PhD ‘57 is the Robert S. Lind Professor in the Department of Sociology at Columbia University is Penn’s first graduate of its PhD program in City Planning. After completing his doctorate, he took a faculty position in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning and then moved to Columbia where he has concentrated on urban sociology, poverty and antipoverty policy, stratification and equality, ethnicity, the news media, and popular culture. He is the author of nine books and more than 160 articles. He has recently completed his latest book, Making Sense of America, Sociological Analyses and Essays (1999). He is also past president of the American Sociological Association [ Fifty Years of and the Eastern Sociological Society. Excellence In the course of his career, Gans has made outstanding and noteworthy contributions to the field. While at Penn he was [ inspired by Martin Meyerson and John Dyckman who helped Fifty Years of him develop the critical faculties that would lead to his seminal Tradition study The Urban Villagers (1959), an outgrowth of his dissertation, and to The Levittowners (1967), one of the nation’s first suburban studies. Together, these works would transform Herbert Gans Inside the theory and practice of planning. continued on page 3 1, 3-5 Alumni Profiles 2 From the Chair... 6 Local Planning News James Nelson Kise, BArch ‘59, Gabby Jones, MCP ‘98 is Director 6 Digital Divide MArch ‘63, MCP ‘64 is the of Economic Development, 7 Recent Awards founding principal of Kise Straw & Partnership Community Development Corporation, 7 Class of 2003 Kolodner, Architects, Planners, and Historians. a key redevelopment organization in West 7 Fall Lecture Series His current projects include the connection Philadelphia in January 2001. Previously a project 8 Planning in Camden between I-95 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike manager for the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, she covered Center City and University 8 2001 APA Conference and the revision of the connection from I-95 to City, and worked on the new Phillies stadium and 9 Photo Gallery Frankford via Cottman Avenue. He is also the Philadelphia Convention Center expansion. In 10 Class of 2001 working on a plan for Eastern North Philadelphia for the Philadelphia Housing Authority to identify her new position, Jones is responsible for the new Keystone Opportunity Zones with strong Partnership CDC’s economic development projects Contact the Link! potential housing markets. In 1999, he was the including the West Philadelphia Economic It is now easier than ever to Philadelphia designer for the proposed Development Strategy, and the 40th Street, 52nd contact us with your news - DisneyQuest project at 8th and Market Streets Street, and 60th Street economic development until the project’s collapse. projects. E-mail: [email protected] continued on page 4 continued on page 8 1 The Link 2001 Special Golden Anniversary Edition and development.” Finally, in January the French came across the Atlantic to compare Anglo- government recognized Denise Scott Brown MCP ‘60 American approaches to smart growth, an event honoring her with its coveted “Chevalier” award. we co-sponsored with the Philadelphia chapter of the Urban Land Institute. On September 5, 2001, As we move into the next fifty years we are Jeremy Nowak, President of The Reinvestment building on our grand traditions and there is an undeniable Fund and chief strategist of Mayor John Street’s air of excitement in the Department. Our students, as I Neighborhood Transformation Initiative (NTI) have written elsewhere, are extraordinarily qualified and updated us on NTI’s progress. Gary Hack and very enthusiastic. The masters candidates, 117 strong, Roger Simmonds will preview their new book, are literally devouring the curriculum! They seem to Global Regional Cities, in November. have unlimited energy for extra-curricular activities like field trips— they surveyed three New Jersey Last Fall, John Keene welcomed six communities in Camden, Radburn, and Newark in a mayors to Penn’s second Mayors’ Institute on one-week period —and social life—they continue to City Design (MICD). This one, co-sponsored by Genie Birch populate “Happy Hour,” GSFA’s convivial end-of-week the National Endowment of the Arts and the U.S. libation! Eight of our Ph.D. students presented papers at Environmental Protection Agency, paves new Fifty Years of the ACSP, three funded by the Fannie Mae Foundation. ground by linking design issues to brownfields Excellence… Fifty By all accounts, they universally represented us very clean-up and development. This was the first well, stimulating much discussion with their work that national MICD on this subject. The participants Years of Tradition is a covered a range of topics from faith-based community included the mayors of Salt Lake City, Lawrence, phrase that has deep meaning for this organizations (yes, they are and will continue to work Niagara Falls (home of Love Canal), Buffalo and department. For five decades our faculty with Graduate Group member John Dilulio, the former Bridgeport. and students have contributed blood, Bush appointment to head the office of faith-based sweat and tears to build this reality. As initiatives) to transportation modeling to urban design. Finally, we launched our new course, you read this selection of alumni profiles, Secret Seeds of Form, The Role of Rules and which merely scratches the surface of As in the past, we have had wonderful Limits in Design, taught by Richard Tustian, MCP our nearly 2,000 graduates, you can’t visitors to the Department. Last Fall our first Annual ‘62 and M.Arch.’62, our contribution to reviving help but see how true this is. Symposium on Large City Planning, moderated by Todd the GSFA tradition of sharing knowledge across Bressi, editor of Places, featured discussion by three of department boundaries. It has drawn enrollment Our graduates form the base the nation’s leading directors of planning; Maxine Griffith from every program distributed across all the of our excellence. They have entered all (Philadelphia), Con Howe (Los Angeles), and Andy disciplines. This promises to be a very special aspects of planning. They are and have Altman (Washington) served as a backdrop for our happy experience not only for the students, but also for been practitioners in the public and private news, Dean Gary Hack has been appointed chair of the dozen instructors who are collaborating on this sectors changing the faces of our cities the Philadelphia Planning Commission. Yet another effort. and regions. They are and have been Penn tradition, one of highlighting and supporting distinguished teachers and researchers leadership, goes forward! We will be circulating the So please enjoy this issue and share who have made a difference to practice. symposium proceedings on our web page and Planning our collective pride in our Fifty Years of As we illustrate the accomplishments of magazine had a short piece on it in its December 2000 Excellence…Fifty Years of Tradition. this group, the Department plans to issue. This Fall, Elizabeth Blume (Cincinnati) and Michael expand its recognition of its graduates Dobbins (Atlanta) will join Maxine and Todd for our Genie by adding a new alumni section to our second annual symposium on October 18. web page (http://www.upenn.edu/gsfa/ The Link is an alumnae city_plan/index.htm) so check it Last year, our other speakers showed how newsletter published by regularly to find out more about your they are in the center of some of the world’s most students of the Department of colleagues. And send us your news. We interesting issues. Catherine Ross, Executive Director City and Regional Planning at would love to include it. Just drop me a of the remarkable Georgia Regional Transportation the University of Pennsylvania. line or email: [email protected] Authority breezed in from Atlanta to outline her agency’s newly emerging agenda. Steve Putman and I, along The Link Department of City and Other indicators mark our with Richard Wesley, Chair of the Department of Regional Planning excellence as well. For example, Penn Architecture joined author Joseph Rykwert to discuss University of Pennsylvania graduates and faculty constitute the his wonderful new book The Seduction of Place, The 127 Meyerson Hall largest cohort in the College of Fellows City in the Twenty-First Century (Pantheon, 2000). Philadelphia, PA 19104-6311 the American Institute of Certified Alexander Garvin, author of The American City What (215) 898-8329 Planners (AICP). This past spring, Works, What Doesn’t and Director of Planning, 2012 fax (215) 898-5731 Martin Meyerson and Tony Tomazinis New York Olympics, presented a scintillating talk on e-mail: were inducted into the College. In the city’s recently submitted bid, outlining it as a gigantic [email protected] addition, Penn faculty are over- planning problem. Professor of Practice, Jonathan Co-Editors: represented among the recipients of the Barnett, moderated a panel of Penn contributors to the Paul Christner Association of Collegiate Schools of recently published Planning for a New Century: The Meghan Sinnott Planning (ACSP) Distinguished Regional Agenda (Island Press, 2000). While Sir Peter Kristin Szwajkowski Educator awards and in 1998 the Hall, Professor of Planning, The Bartlett School, Department received the “AICP University College, London and member of Britain’s Contributors: Tanya Washington President’s Award for the contribution of Urban Task Force whose report, Towards an Urban Theresa Williamson From the Chair... thought, time, and effort given to its affairs Renaissance, has stimulated widespread discussion, 2 The Link 2001 Special Golden Anniversary Edition Donald A.