Dr. Khosrow Bozorgi, Architecture professor, and Dr. Keith Gaddie, Associate Dean of Gibbs College, have authored a book manuscript titled “Philadelphia House: Genius Loci - Concept of Placemaking.” The manuscript has been peer-reviewed and strongly recommended to Rowman & Littlefield Publishers in New York for publication. Based on over ten positive reviews, the Editorial Board of Rowman & Littlefield has approved the manuscript and the contract has been signed for publication. The original research and the early development of the book were supported through an award from Graham Foundation that was granted to Dr. Bozorgi.
The architects of the projects discussed in this book shared a common social and educational background in the Philadelphia Quaker tradition with long-standing cultural ties to Europe. All architects, Mellor, Meigs and Howe, McGoodwin, and Willing and Sims received their professional education under the Ecole des Beaux-Arts system. A conceptual synthesis reconciling the English Romanticism of the Arts and Crafts movement with the Beaux-Arts method of composition as rationalized in the late nineteenth century provided the key.
The book also represents a new approach to the historical and professional analysis of landscape architecture in East Coast America. All the architectural examples studied in this book are the products of a common cultural heritage that has uniquely characterized the natural and rural image of the Chestnut Hill landscape in Pennsylvania within a framework of inward-looking courts and gardens. Organically integrated with the natural form of the site, such uniformity makes a particular contribution to the notion of genius loci.
Gibbs College of Architecture is proud to recognize Petya Stefanoff, who is pursuing her doctorate in the Planning, Design & Construction (PDC) program, has been appointed the new role of Director of Community Development for the City of Shawnee, Oklahoma. She joined the city in 2024.
Gibbs College of Architecture is pleased to announce that Amber N. Wiley, Ph.D., associate professor in the Division of Planning, Landscape Architecture and Design and director of the Institute for Quality Communities, has received national recognition for her book Model Schools in the Model City. The book has been named a finalist for the 2026 the PROSE Awards.
Gibbs College of Architecture Regional + City Planning Professor of Practice Vanessa Morrison and Associate Professor of Architecture Deborah Richards’ Open Design Collective received top honors at the inaugural BlackSpace Urbanist Collective Studio KIN Pitch Night Competition, held last month in Brooklyn, New York City.
