Research + Design Group
Authors
Richard Weller
Richard Weller
Richard Weller is Professor and Chair of Landscape Architecture, Meyerson Chair of Urbanism, and Co-Executive Director of the McHarg Center at The University of Pennsylvania. Weller has published over 100 academic papers and seven books, and his creative work has received numerous awards in international design competitions and has been exhibited in major museums including the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Maxxi Gallery in Rome, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, as well as at the Venice Biennale. In 2017 and 2018, Richard was named by DesignIntelligence as one of North America’s most admired teachers of design, and in 2020 he was inducted into the Academy of Fellows of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture. His recent work—The Atlas for the End of the World—explores global flashpoints between biodiversity and urban growth and has been profiled in National Geographic and Scientific American.
Zuzanna Drozdz
Zuzanna Drozdz
Zuzanna Drozdz is the Research Coordinator of the Hotspot Cities Project. She has a Masters of Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelors of Science in Product Design from Stanford University. She sees her professional and personal projects as an imperfect practice in remaining tender and motivated to work for change in the face of widespread ecological degradation, social struggle, and future forecasts of precarity. Her interest in curated trans-disciplinary conversations grew largely out of her experience planning the Hotspot Cities Symposium in 2019.
Affiliated Faculty
David Gouverneur
David Gouverneur
David Gouverneur received his M.Arch in Urban Design from Harvard University and his B.Arch from Universidad Simón Bolívar in Caracas, Venezuela. He is an associate professor of practice at the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design, where he teaches cross-disciplinary studios and theory/case study courses focusing on cities in the Global South. His recent research focuses on informal armatures as a method to address the rampant urbanization in developing countries, where a high percentage of the population will live in self-constructed areas. This research is condensed in his publication, Planning and Design for New Informal Settlements. Throughout his career, Gouverneur has served as the Chair of the School of Architecture at Universidad Simón Bolívar, Adjuct Secretary of Urban Development of Venezuela, Cofounder and Professor of the Urban Design program and Director of the Mayor's Institute in Urban Design at Universidad Metropolitana, Caracas, Venezuela.
Rebecca Popowsky
Rebecca Popowsky
Rebecca Popowsky is a Research Associate at OLIN, a registered landscape architect, and coordinator of OLIN Labs. Since joining OLIN in 2009, Rebecca has contributed to a wide-range of design, planning, and construction projects including Canal Park in Washington, DC, Dilworth Park in Philadelphia, and collaboration with the Army Corps of Engineers to restore the FEMA floodplain at the Potomac Park Levee on the National Mall. Her current focus is on external research collaborations, including the development and testing of a renewable manufactured soil blend, and the use of recycled waste materials in site construction. Rebecca is a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, where she coordinates the first semester of the MLA program. Rebecca earned dual master’s degrees in Architecture and Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture and Urban Studies from Yale University.
Researchers
Nanxi Dong
Nanxi Dong
Nanxi Dong is a landscape designer. She received her Bachelor of Urban Planning from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and holds a Master of Landscape Architect and Urban Design certificate from the University of Pennsylvania. Her design interests center around build environment impacts of climate change. She views landscape architecture through an artistic lens and believes that the environments shaped by the practice play a critical role in shaping a positive experience for its inhabitants.
Chieh Huang
Chieh Huang
Chieh Huang is a landscape and urban designer from Taiwan. Much of Chieh’s work have been about the conflicts and synergy between urban and natural environments. He is one of the core members of Atlas for the End of the World, a research project which led to the creation of Hotspot Cities.
Tone Chu
Tone Chu
Tone is a dual degree student in Landscape Architecture and Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Astronomy from the University of Hong Kong. Her research and design interests center around climate resiliency, geoengineering, interspecies relations, and non-human timescales. Having so far spent her entire adult life away from her hometown Taipei and across three continents, she’s excited to see where to go next.
Claudia Silver
Claudia Silver
Claudia is a recent graduate from the University of Pennsylvania College of Arts and Sciences. She holds a BA in Urban Studies with minors in Architecture and Landscape Studies. Her professional background includes geospatial analysis for various National Park Service sites in relation to climate change. Her interests center around using GIS and design technologies for societal and environmental balance. She is involved with community organizing, specifically on environmental and anti-gentrification issues, outside of work.
Thomas Delahouliere
Thomas Delahouliere
Thomas Delahouliere graduated from Penn with a B.A. in Architecture in 2020. He is currently pursuing a Master of Architecture at the Harvard GSD. His design interests lie at the intersection of vernacular design traditions and sustainable practices.
Josh Ketchum
Josh Ketchum
Joshua Ketchum is a design fellow at PennPraxis working on a regional trail system and quarry park in Pennsylvania. Before coming to PennPraxis Joshua worked as a sustainable design consultant and landscape designer on living roofs, living walls and water reuse systems. He is also a practicing artist whose work has been exhibited nationally, from Space 1026 in Philadelphia to Machine Project in Los Angeles. Joshua holds a dual Masters in Architecture and Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelors degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. Recently he was recognized with a Merit Award from the ASLA and with a Special Award in Experimentation by the Landscape Architecture faculty at UPenn.
Nicole Leonard
Nicole Leonard
Nicole holds a Bachelor’s in Journalism & Mass Communications from UNC Chapel Hill and a Master’s in City Planning from University of Pennsylvania. While pursuing her graduate degree in Philadelphia, Nicole explored a variety of environmental planning and policy topics, including working for the City of Philadelphia’s Solarize Philly campaign, co-authoring a research article on emerging urban-scale water technologies, developing a communications strategy for Global Water Alliance, and producing research for the Hotspot Cities publication. She now works at Rocky Mountain Institute, supporting the organization’s efforts to lead a global clean energy transition.
Richard Weller
Richard Weller is Professor and Chair of Landscape Architecture, Meyerson Chair of Urbanism, and Co-Executive Director of the McHarg Center at The University of Pennsylvania. Weller has published over 100 academic papers and seven books, and his creative work has received numerous awards in international design competitions and has been exhibited in major museums including the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Maxxi Gallery in Rome, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, as well as at the Venice Biennale. In 2017 and 2018, Richard was named by DesignIntelligence as one of North America’s most admired teachers of design, and in 2020 he was inducted into the Academy of Fellows of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture. His recent work—The Atlas for the End of the World—explores global flashpoints between biodiversity and urban growth and has been profiled in National Geographic and Scientific American.
Zuzanna Drozdz
Zuzanna Drozdz is the Research Coordinator of the Hotspot Cities Project. She has a Masters of Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelors of Science in Product Design from Stanford University. She sees her professional and personal projects as an imperfect practice in remaining tender and motivated to work for change in the face of widespread ecological degradation, social struggle, and future forecasts of precarity. Her interest in curated trans-disciplinary conversations grew largely out of her experience planning the Hotspot Cities Symposium in 2019.
David Gouverneur
David Gouverneur received his M.Arch in Urban Design from Harvard University and his B.Arch from Universidad Simón Bolívar in Caracas, Venezuela. He is an associate professor of practice at the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design, where he teaches cross-disciplinary studios and theory/case study courses focusing on cities in the Global South. His recent research focuses on informal armatures as a method to address the rampant urbanization in developing countries, where a high percentage of the population will live in self-constructed areas. This research is condensed in his publication, Planning and Design for New Informal Settlements. Throughout his career, Gouverneur has served as the Chair of the School of Architecture at Universidad Simón Bolívar, Adjuct Secretary of Urban Development of Venezuela, Cofounder and Professor of the Urban Design program and Director of the Mayor's Institute in Urban Design at Universidad Metropolitana, Caracas, Venezuela.
Rebecca Popowsky
Rebecca Popowsky is a Research Associate at OLIN, a registered landscape architect, and coordinator of OLIN Labs. Since joining OLIN in 2009, Rebecca has contributed to a wide-range of design, planning, and construction projects including Canal Park in Washington, DC, Dilworth Park in Philadelphia, and collaboration with the Army Corps of Engineers to restore the FEMA floodplain at the Potomac Park Levee on the National Mall. Her current focus is on external research collaborations, including the development and testing of a renewable manufactured soil blend, and the use of recycled waste materials in site construction. Rebecca is a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, where she coordinates the first semester of the MLA program. Rebecca earned dual master’s degrees in Architecture and Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture and Urban Studies from Yale University.
Nanxi Dong
Nanxi Dong is a landscape designer. She received her Bachelor of Urban Planning from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and holds a Master of Landscape Architect and Urban Design certificate from the University of Pennsylvania. Her design interests center around build environment impacts of climate change. She views landscape architecture through an artistic lens and believes that the environments shaped by the practice play a critical role in shaping a positive experience for its inhabitants.
Chieh Huang
Chieh Huang is a landscape and urban designer from Taiwan. Much of Chieh’s work have been about the conflicts and synergy between urban and natural environments. He is one of the core members of Atlas for the End of the World, a research project which led to the creation of Hotspot Cities.
Tone Chu
Tone is a dual degree student in Landscape Architecture and Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Astronomy from the University of Hong Kong. Her research and design interests center around climate resiliency, geoengineering, interspecies relations, and non-human timescales. Having so far spent her entire adult life away from her hometown Taipei and across three continents, she’s excited to see where to go next.
Claudia Silver
Claudia is a recent graduate from the University of Pennsylvania College of Arts and Sciences. She holds a BA in Urban Studies with minors in Architecture and Landscape Studies. Her professional background includes geospatial analysis for various National Park Service sites in relation to climate change. Her interests center around using GIS and design technologies for societal and environmental balance. She is involved with community organizing, specifically on environmental and anti-gentrification issues, outside of work.
Thomas Delahouliere
Thomas Delahouliere graduated from Penn with a B.A. in Architecture in 2020. He is currently pursuing a Master of Architecture at the Harvard GSD. His design interests lie at the intersection of vernacular design traditions and sustainable practices.
Josh Ketchum
Joshua Ketchum is a design fellow at PennPraxis working on a regional trail system and quarry park in Pennsylvania. Before coming to PennPraxis Joshua worked as a sustainable design consultant and landscape designer on living roofs, living walls and water reuse systems. He is also a practicing artist whose work has been exhibited nationally, from Space 1026 in Philadelphia to Machine Project in Los Angeles. Joshua holds a dual Masters in Architecture and Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelors degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. Recently he was recognized with a Merit Award from the ASLA and with a Special Award in Experimentation by the Landscape Architecture faculty at UPenn.
Nicole Leonard
Nicole holds a Bachelor’s in Journalism & Mass Communications from UNC Chapel Hill and a Master’s in City Planning from University of Pennsylvania. While pursuing her graduate degree in Philadelphia, Nicole explored a variety of environmental planning and policy topics, including working for the City of Philadelphia’s Solarize Philly campaign, co-authoring a research article on emerging urban-scale water technologies, developing a communications strategy for Global Water Alliance, and producing research for the Hotspot Cities publication. She now works at Rocky Mountain Institute, supporting the organization’s efforts to lead a global clean energy transition.