Innovation in the design of workspaces is a central tenant of architectural Modernism.

Efficiency, technological developments, and even the welfare of workers, impacted the patterns of work and production. In the Philadelphia region – once proudly the “Workshop of the World” – the dramatic changes that reshaped the city and region also reshaped its architecture. This is a body of work that is vibrant in its expression, and yet, remains little known. In a post-pandemic world, workspaces are again in a period of dramatic change, and the question of adapting existing sites are at the forefront of preservation efforts.

Join William Whitaker, Curator of the Architectural Archives at Penn’s Weitzman School of Design, for a lively journey through an architectural heritage that includes the work of well-known architects like Louis I. Kahn, George Nakashima, and Herbert Bayer, along with an array of fascinating sites from across the region.

A self-driving map of significant modern corporate campuses in and around Philadelphia will be distributed to allow participants to see the sites for themselves at their own leisure.

Presented in partnership with the The Athenaeum of Philadelphia and Docomomo US/Greater Philadelphia.

Free for Athanaeum and Docomomo members / $15 nonmembers
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This event is part of Docomomo US Tour Day 2024.

William Whitaker is curator of the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design. He is coauthor (with George Marcus) of The Houses of Louis Kahn and Uncrating the Japanese House: Junzo Yoshimura, Antonin and Noemi Raymond, and George Nakashima (with Yuka Yokoyama). Trained as an architect at Penn and the University of New Mexico, Whitaker works closely with the archival collections of Louis I. Kahn, Lawrence Halprin, and the partnership of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, in support of teaching, scholarship, preservation, and public engagement.

He has co-curated over forty exhibitions including Anne Tyng: Inhabiting Geometry (Graham Foundation and Penn’s ICA), and Design With Nature Now (with the McHarg Center) – a major program of exhibitions, conference, and public programs that highlight the dynamic and visionary approaches to landscape design and development in the face of climate change and global urbanization. Most recently her served as project director for What Minerva Built, an exhibition and book project charting the life and work of America’s first independent female architect, Minerva Parker Nichols.

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