Inga Saffron Meets with Penn IUR Fellows in Urban Leadership

Pulitzer-prizing winning journalist and local architecture and urbanism critic Inga Saffron met with students at the January meeting of the Penn IUR Fellows in Urban Leadership program. The program provides a competitively selected cohort of outstanding Penn undergraduates with the opportunity to engage with and learn from prominent urban leaders drawn from government, business, and civil society. 

Inga Saffron is the architecture critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer where, for over 20 years, she has written a weekly, Philadelphia-focused column on architecture, urban design, and planning. She has covered a broad range of topics, from historic preservation, to union hiring practices, to gentrification, transit, parking, equity, public spaces, and more. Her Pulitzer-prize winning coverage of Philadelphia’s built environment—including stories on the then-new zoning codes and the impact of Avenue of the Arts on the city—can be found here. Her work has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, the Vincent Scully Prize from the National Building Museum and a Loeb Fellowship from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.

The students’ January meeting with Saffron was the fifth of seven meetings with urban leaders from the public, private, and civil society sectors. Students met with Eva Gladstein, Philadelphia’s Deputy Managing Director of Health and Human Services, in September 2019; Richard Florida, Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto and the inaugural Philadelphia Fellow, in October 2019; Michael Nutter, former Mayor of Philadelphia (2008-2015), in November 2019; Howard Neukrug, former Water Commissioner for Philadelphia and Executive Director of the Water Center at Penn, in December 2019. In Spring 2020, students will meet with Anne Fadullon, Director of Philadelphia’s Department of Planning and Development, and Rebecca Rhynhart, Controller for the City of Philadelphia.

Penn IUR Fellows in Urban Leadership meetings are off-the-record and candid; this allows students opportunities to engage personally with urban leaders and helps students consider their own paths to future civic leadership roles.

Penn IUR is now accepting applications for the 2020-21 class of Penn IUR Fellows in Urban Leadership. Admission is open to rising juniors and seniors from the four undergraduate schools at Penn. Outstanding rising sophomores may also apply. A committee composed of members of the Penn IUR Advisory Board and the Penn IUR Executive Committee will select the Fellows. The application, due April 3, 2020, calls for demonstrated interest in urban issues exhibited through relevant coursework, internships and/or employment, a short essay, a faculty recommendation, and a transcript. Finalists will be interviewed.  

For additional information and for application links, please visit the Penn IUR Fellows in Urban Leadership page on the Penn IUR website.