perspective/taylor:
Marilyn Jordan Taylor Dean, PennDesign
University of Pennsylvania 2010
Since becoming Dean in 2008, Marilyn Jordan Taylor has connected with students across disciplines, elevated research and scholarship among faculty, and embraced
the legacy and future of PennDesign. As a professional, her reputation was built on leadership, large-scale urban projects —from New York’s Moynihan Station to
Hong Kong International Airport’s SkyCity—and an indomitable vivacity and compassion for the world of design.
We are committed to longevity based on integrity over trend. PennDesign/Now puts into print what cannot be
of short essays for John Dixon Hunt, spoke strongly on
captured on paper. The events, words, images,
behalf of saving Ben’s House, and went to Montenegro
provocations, propositions, actions and experiences
to preserve the heritage of Kotor. We boldly advocated
of a thriving school, an inventive place of learning, in a
high-speed rail and stalked the Schuykill River watershed
great urban research university, in a city of legacy and
from its headwaters to the Delaware. Humans from
promise, are recorded here as a prompt to memory and
the Pig Iron Theater Company and robots from the
an impetus toward action.
imaginative minds of design and engineering students
The year 2010 sat midstream between the shock
danced in the woods and fell in love at the Prince Theater.
of slow recovery and the disappearance, at all levels
The beauty of place, history, words and animation filled
of government, of the resources with which to
our house and spilled outside. We urged each other to
rebuild. With characteristic verve the University of
cross the “unspoken borders” of bias that impact design
Pennsylvania began the construction of Penn Park, a
and community.
glorious green swath of playing fields and planted berms
While much of the year is documented in photographs,
designed for connecting university and community.
PennDesign/Now also preserves the words that
The City of Philadelphia launched a comprehensive
stirred our souls or, in some cases, invaded our calm.
planning effort, the first in decades, while also setting
Curator Barry Bergdoll spoke of architecture rather
an objective of putting a park within a ten-minute walk
than architects, City Council member Peter Brown
of every city resident. The Tea Party cheered their
underlined the role of cities in creating wealth for all,
impending victories and prepared to shelve billions
and Professor David Leatherbarrow talked about sense
of federal initiative dollars. Snow fell in near-record
and non-sense in design. Landscape architect Laurie
amounts and stayed around in the winter chill.
Olin was, as always, our voice for the quality of beauty.
We’re trained to know that context—political,
At PennDesign we believe in the power and artistry of
economic, social and environmental—affects us, yet
design and in the importance of design to the policies,
in the academic year that stretched from July 2009 to
investments, and public will of the future.
June 2010, context did not define or limit the range of
In Anu Mathur’s Mumbai: City in an Estuary and in
our imagination. Students and faculty at the School of
Matthias’ Hollwich’s Aging in Africa, we set the table for
Design warmly welcomed Fumihiko Maki, Zaha Hadid,
the year ahead in 2011.
and Thom Mayne for star turns on the Meyerson
—Marilyn Jordan Taylor
stage, and listened closely as Narcisco Rodriguez and John Hoke questioned one another about sources of inspiration for material designs. We created a “Fest”
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