Weitzman School of Design

The University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design prepares students to address complex sociocultural and environmental issues through thoughtful inquiry, creative expression, and innovation. As a diverse community of scholars and practitioners, we are committed to advancing the public good–both locally and globally–through art, design, planning, and preservation. 

Filters

1998 - 199932000 - 20078
11
Reset filters

Settings

Publication Type: Presentation ×

Search results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 11
  • Publication
    Land Preservation in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania: Strategy, Funding, and Cooperation are Key
    (2005-12-02) Daniels, Thomas L.
    Land use planning in America has traditionally meant "planning for development." Over the past 25 years, hundreds of communities and several states have recognized the need to preserve land for farming, forestry, watershed protection, wildlife habitat, recreation areas, or open space. A common problem is that public planners have not clearly delineated certain lands for preservation. Meanwhile, non-profit organizations have not fully perceived themselves as land use planning agencies (Wright and Czerniak 2000); and have often pursued a piecemeal and reactive preservation strategy in response to weak local zoning and the swift pace of development (McQueen and McMahon 2003). Thus, in most places in America, including New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, privately owned open land seems to be at once for sale for development and available for preservation. The competition to preserve or develop land causes considerable friction between developers and land preservationists. Meanwhile, governments have a schizophrenic relationship to land: they want to see it developed so the tax base will increase and the economy will grow, yet they are also active in preserving land.
  • Publication
    The Persistence of the Open Flame: Work and Waste in the Healthy, Modern Home
    (1999-11-06) Braham, William
    We still maintain open flames in our homes despite the development of cleaner, cheaper, and more efficient devices that can provide the same heat or light, often with greater comfort and control. My attention was drawn to this condition by Wolfgang Schivelbush's thoughtful book on the industrialization of light in the nineteenth century, which recounted the rejection of gas and then electric lighting in the living rooms of bourgeois and upper-class houses in Europe. A similar condition exists in America and, for example, we still light candles when we sit down to particular kinds of meals, whether those are ritual meals like thanksgiving and the Passover Seder, or intimate occasions, or even expensive restaurants.
  • Publication
  • Publication
    Do Houses Evolve? Neo-biology at House_n
    (2002-01-01) Braham, William
    Do houses evolve? The intuitive answer would have to be yes. The general assessment that houses are better apparently supports that conclusion, as does the fact that those improvements occurred incrementally over the last century or so with the steady introduction and refinement of indoor plumbing, central heating, refrigeration, air conditioning, electric lighting. Despite a certain resistance to the conditions of rapid change, best characterized in architecture by historic preservation, belief in evolutionary development is now so very widely accepted that the collective attention of designers has shifted to the process of adaptation itself, to anticipating and providing for the next technique, device, or development.
  • Publication
  • Publication
    WEB Du Bois and the "Negro Problem": Thoughts on Violence in Philadelphia
    (2007-07-22) Hillier, Amy
    This sermon, delivered at First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia, might also be called "Why a white girl from New Hampshire is studying The Philadelphia Negro." This essay/sermon connects Du Bois's 1896 survey of Philadelphia to the violence currently plaguing Philadelphia.
  • Publication
    The Candle at the Table: Work, Waste, and Leisure in the Modern Home
    (1998-10-30) Braham, William
    We still light candles when we sit down to particular kinds of meals, whether those are ritual meals like thanksgiving, or intimate occasions, or even at expensive restaurants. The candle is an outmoded technological device. Its continued use offers a remnant of previous habits and a kind of resistance to the conditions of modern life.
  • Publication
    Emergence-cy! Notes on the Flow of Information in Architecture
    (2002-01-01) Braham, William
    For architecture, the critical tool of the information age has been neither the telephone, the computer, nor even the network, but the constantly expanding Sweet's Catalog and the whole messy system of distributing information about building materials, products, and processes. Sweet's originated in the 1890s as a service of F.W. Dodge Construction (who also began publishing the Architectural Record at the same time).
  • Publication
    The Housing and Slum Clearance Act and its Effectson the Urban Planning Profession
    (1999-10-01) Birch, Eugenie L.
    The Housing and Slum Clearance Act of 1949 transformed the planning profession. It had profound effects in six areas: the demand for planners, the exercise of planning techniques, the planners' self-image, the trappings of the profession, professional qualifying standards and the field's ability to adapt to changing circumstances. In the end, the single most important effect of the Act was its confirming in planners the desire to make the environment a better place.
  • Publication
    Active Glass Walls: A Typological and Historical Account
    (2005-01-01) Braham, William
    This paper provides a summary analysis of the typological and historical development of active glass walls. From the beginning of the glass revolution, the fascination with large areas of transparency has been tempered by the negative environmental effects they can produce: excessive heat loss when it is cold, excessive heat gain when the sun shines, and even excessive daylighting.