This ground-breaking symposium has been organized to address the role of urban design in the face of one of the most profound and important challenges facing global society: the need to re-imagine and rethink how cities are designed and organized in a future without the plentiful and abundant oil upon which prosperous urban economies have been built. 

The event marks the 50th Anniversary of the 1958 University of Pennsylvania/Rockefeller Foundation “Conference on Urban Design Criticism,” whose participants included Jane Jacobs, Louis Kahn, Kevin Lynch, Ian McHarg, Lewis Mumford, and I.M. Pei. That historic conference helped shape the new field of urban design in the 20th Century. Now, we hope you will participate in this critical exploration of new directions for 21st Century urban design.

The program speaks to the depth and diversity of the challenge with sessions on innovations in the way cities are conceived, adapted, designed, developed, and managed in a post-carbon world. The conference will conclude with a manifesto on educating the next generation of urban designers and how best to equip them for the road ahead.

An accompanying exhibition showcases innovative ideas, projects, initiatives, and policies from around the world that seek to reduce emissions by changing the way we inhabit cities. Documenting the rise in oil dependency, changing development patterns, and demographic trends, the exhibition threads prescient theories and artifacts surrounding the 1958 conference with contemporary challenges of the urban design profession.

Thursday, November 6

9:00 am-5:00 pm | Exhibition Open to the Public

Friday, November 7

8:00 am | Registration/Continental Breakfast

9:00 - 10:15 | Opening Plenary: Framing the Problem
Panelists will provide ways of addressing challenges of reducing carbon emissions and unprecedented energy prices from scientific, historical, and global perspectives.

Moderator/Framer: Elizabeth Kolbert, staff writer, The New Yorker; Panelists: David Orr, Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics, Oberlin College; Saleem Huq, Head, Climate Change Group, International Institute of Energy and Development

10:30 - 12:15 | Morning Breakout Sessions: Adaptation Strategies
Five breakout sessions will focus on how urban places are adapting to environmental and energy problems. Each session consists of a moderator, panelists, and a respondent who are all leaders in design education and practice. The respondent will also record and interpret the findings of the session for the conference’s closing session – drafting a manifesto for urban design education after the age of oil. Panels will feature an international group of experts working in inventive ways to address the problems at the following scales:

Regional urban design: Moderator: Robert Yaro, professor of practice, City and Regional Planning, University of Pennsylvania School of Design; President, Regional Plan Association; Panelists: John Fregonese, President, Fregonese Associates; Dinesh Mohan, Henry Ford Professor of Transportation Safety at Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi; Samuel Babatunde Agbola, Professor of Urban & Regional Planning University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria; Respondent: Timothy Beatley, Teresa Heinz Professor of Sustainable Communities, University of Virginia School of Architecture

City urban design: Moderator: Nancy Levinson, Director, Phoenix Urban Research Lab, Arizona State University; Panelists: Adrian Masson, Program Manager, Strategic Projects Unit, Ethekwini Municipality, Durban; Mark Alan Hughes, Director of Sustainability, City of Philadelphia; Rohit Aggarwala, Director, Mayor's Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability, City of New York; Respondent: Jonathan Barnett, professor of practice, City and Regional Planning, University of Pennsylvania School of Design; Senior Consultant, Wallace Roberts and Todd, LLC

Local urban design: Moderator: Marion Weiss, Graham Chair Professor of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania School of Design; Founding Partner, Weiss/Manfredi; Panelists: Jonathan Rose, President, Jonathan Rose Companies, LLC; Chairman, Commission on Sustainability and the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority; Hillary Brown, Founding Principal, New Civic Works; Arjun Appadurai, Senior Advisor, Global Initiatives and John Dewey Professor in the Social Sciences, The New School; Respondent: JK.T. Ravindran, Professor and Head of the Department of Urban Design, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi

Building and landscape design: Moderator: Karen Van Lengen, Dean, School of Architecture, University of Virginia; Panelists: Jose Picciotto, Founder, Picciotto Arquitectos; Gita Goven, Founding Partner, ARG Design Cape Town, South Africa; Thomas Herzog, Founding Principal, Herzog + Partner; Respondent: Frederick Steiner, Dean, School of Architecture, University of Texas at Austin

Product design and engineering: Moderator: William Braham, Associate Professor of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania School of Design; Panelists: Daniel Hendrix, President and CEO, Interface; Robert H. Socolow, Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; Co-Director, The Carbon Mitigation Initiative, Princeton University; Alison Kwok, Professor, Department of Architecture, University of Oregon; Himanshu Parikh, Engineer, Himanshu Parikh Consulting Engineers; Respondent: Neelkanth Chhaya, Director, Faculty of Architecture, CEPT University, Ahmedabad

12:30 - 1:45 | Lunch Address: Innovative Urban Design Work and Its Challenges 
A leader in the field will highlight groundbreaking design solutions from around the world.

Introduction: David Leatherbarrow, Professor of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania School of Design; Speaker: Peter Head, Global Leader of Planning and Project Director of Eco-City Master Planning, Arup; Commissioner, London Sustainable Development Commission

2:00 - 3:00 | Afternoon Plenary: Post-Carbon Thinking
Thought leaders on post-carbon thinking will illustrate the future of design from mega-regions to pioneering product design.

Moderator/Framer: Alex Steffen, Executive Editor and Co-founder, Worldchanging; Speakers: Jack Dangermond, President, ESRI; Richard Saul Wurman, Chairman, 19.20.21.; Founder, TED

3:15 - 5:00 | Afternoon Breakout Sessions: New Urban Forms and Strategies
These five breakout sessions will focus on the opportunities for urban design of all scales in new development. Just as the morning breakout session, each session consists of a moderator, panelists, and a respondent who will record and interpret the session for the purpose of informing the manifesto.

Regional urban design: Moderator: Tom Campanella, Associate Professor Department of City and regional Planning, University of North Carolina; Panelists: Paul Brown, Senior Vice President, CDM; Tridib Banerjee, James Irvine Chair in Urban and Regional Planning, University of Southern California; Wang Lin, Director of Urban Design and Historical Conservation, Shanghai Urban Planning Administration Bureau; Respondent: William Rees, Professor, School of Community and Regional Planning, University of British Columbia

City urban design: Moderator: Anne Vernez Moudon, Professor of Urban Design and Planning, University of Washington; Panelists: Michael Kwok, Director and General Manager, Arup, Shanghai; Edgar Pieterse, African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town; Diana Balmori, Founding Principal, Balmori Associates; Respondent: Ann Forsyth, Professor, Department of City and Regional Planning, Cornell University

Local urban design: Moderator: Harrison Fraker, College of Environmental Design, UC Berkeley; Panelists: Douglas Farr, President and CEO, Farr Associates; Bill Dunster, Founder, Bill Dunster architects ZEDfactory Ltd.; Jennifer Henry, Director, LEED-ND, U.S. Green Building Council; Respondent: Matthew Carmona, Professor, Professor of Planning and Urban Design; Head of the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London

Building and landscape design: Moderator: Jim Corner, Professor and Chair of Landscape Architecture, University of Pennsylvania School of Design; Principal, Field Operations; Panelists: Lance Hosey, Director, McDonough Partners; Michael Singer, Artist; Stephen Kieran, Founding Principal, KieranTimberlake Associates LLP; Respondent: Jane Wolff, Associate Professor, Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto

Product design and engineering: Moderator: Ali Malkawi, Professor of Architecture and Director, TC Chan Center for Building Simulation and Energy Studies, University of Pennsylvania School of Design; Panelists: Robert Harris, Principal, Environ International Corp.; William Mitchell, Director, MIT Design Laboratory; George Beylerian, Founder and CEO, Material ConneXion; Respondent: Michelle Addington, Professor of Architecture, Yale University

5:15 - 5:45 | Summing Up: Rapporteurs’ Reports
Respondents report on the day’s events.

6:00 - 7:30 | Evening Plenary: Getting the Message Out - Urban Design and 21st Century Media
Panelists will discuss the opportunities of traditional and new media to change public perception of urban design possibilities.

Moderator: Joan Walsh, Editor in Chief, Salon.com; Panelists: Paul Goldberger, Architecture Critic, The New Yorker; Andrew Revkin, Reporter, dot Earth, The New York Times; Witold Rybczynski , Architecture Critic, Slate.com; Norbert Young, President, McGraw Hill Construction; Susan Szenasy, Editor in Chief, Metropolis

7:30 | Exhibition Opening and Reception

Saturday, November 8

8:30-9:30 | Managing Cities After the Age of Oil
Leading city managers from around the world will share innovative responses to climate change and energy strategies.

Moderator: Andrew Altman, Deputy Mayor of Economic Development, City of Philadelphia; Panelists: Manny Diaz, Mayor, City of Miami; President, U.S. Conference of Mayors; Carolina Barco Isakson, Ambassador of Colombia to the United States, former Director of Planning, Bogotá; Ken Livingstone, former Mayor, City of London; Sadhu Johnston, Chief Environmental Officer, Mayor’s Office, City of Chicago; Wu Jiang, Deputy Director General, Shanghai Urban Planning Administration Bureau

9:30-10:30 | An Agenda for Urban Design Education 
Panelists will address the central questions of how we will educate the next generation of urban designers and what research is needed.

Moderator: Gary Hack, Dean emeritus, University of Pennsylvania School of Design; Panelists: Marilyn Jordan Taylor, Partner in Charge of Urban Design and Planning, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP; incoming Dean, University of Pennsylvania School of Design; Sudeshna Chatterjee, Principal, Kaimal, Chatterjee Associates, New Delhi; Rodrigo Pérez de Arce, Professor, Architecture, Design and Urban Studies, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile; Douglas Kelbaugh, Dean and Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan; Mohsen Mostafavi, Dean, Harvard University Graduate School of Design

10:45-12:30 | Working Groups
Four groups led by international leaders in the teaching of urban design will forge an educational agenda. Each group will focus their recommendation in one of four areas: 1) teaching fundamentals, 2) integrating new approaches in professional education, 3) producing urban design specialists, and 4) in-service professional development.

12:30-2:00 | Working Lunch: Manifesto for Urban Design After the Age of Oil