VIA 1. ECOLOGY IN DESIGN
Rolf Sauer, James Bryan, Thomas Gilmore [Editors]
Rolf Sauer, James Bryan, Thomas Gilmore [Editors]: VIA 1. ECOLOGY IN DESIGN. Philadelphia: Graduate School of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania, 1968. First edition. Large quarto. Photo illustrated thick wrappers. 136 pp. Fully illustrated in black and white including very well reproduced photos by Bruce Davidson and Luis Barragan. Covers lightly worn and creased, with partial (and unobtrusive) delamination. Former owner dated ink signature to first page. Binding tight with clean textblock with a few dogeared leaves. A nearly very good copy of this uncommon cultural debut.
9 x 12 softcover book with 136 pages of magnificent editorial content, with contributions from Bruce Davidson, Ian McHarg. Howard Nemerov, Luis Barragan, Louis Kahn, Aldo Von Eyck, and others. Great stuff, editorially and aesthetically, with high production standards in the design and production.
- 16 Photographs: Bruce Davidson. Images that preceded Davidson’s legendary East 100th Street project.
- Ecology And The Ecological Approach: John Phillips
- Ecology, Economics, And Planning: Nicholas Muhlenberg
- Succession: Jack McCormick
- Natural And Abnormal Communities Of Acquatic Life In Streams: Ruth Patrick
- The Brandywine Project: Ann Louise Strong
- Ecology, For The Evolution Of Planning And Design: Ian McHarg
- 2 More Photographs: Bruce Davidson
- 5 Poems: Howard Nemerov
- “The Construction And Enjoyment Of A Garden Accustoms People To Beauty, To Its Instructive Use, Even To Its Accomplishment.”: Luis Barragan. 15 full-page photos by Luis Barragan.
- Silence: Louis Kahn
- Kaleidoscope Of The Mind: Aldo Von Eyck
- Miracle Of Moderation: Aldo Van Eyck, Paul Parin, Fritz Morgenthaler
- Image Of Ourselves: Aldo Van Eyck
- Notes
The University of Pennsylvania School of Design (PennDesign) is the design school of the University of Pennsylvania. PennDesign offers degrees in architecture, landscape architecture, city and regional planning, historic preservation, and fine arts, as well as several dual degrees with other graduate schools at the University of Pennsylvania, including the Wharton School and Penn Law. The School of Design is known for its distinguished faculty, which have included architects Louis Kahn and Robert Venturi and pioneer of landscape architecture Ian McHarg. Denise Scott Brown graduated from the School of Design in 1960.
Architectural courses were first offered by the University of Pennsylvania in 1868, making the school the second oldest architectural program in the United States. By the turn of the century it was well established, attracting well-known local architects to its faculty: Walter Cope, John Stewardson, Frank Miles Day, and Wilson Eyre, who formed the first Philadelphia School. In 1903, these architects were joined by Frenchman Paul Philippe Cret, winner of seven national competitions.
In 1914, Penn's original initiative was augmented with lectures in city planning and landscape architecture, while within another seven years fine arts and music had joined architectural studies to create an independent undergraduate School of Fine Arts, modeled on the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The School of Fine Arts joined with the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Museum School to offer programs in painting and sculpture. In 1924, Landscape Architecture was made into an autonomous department.
In the 1950s the school was under the leadership of G. Holmes Perkins, recruited from Harvard to reinvigorate the offerings. Perkins, founded the city planning department and focused the landscape architecture program on urban ecology. The Department of Architecture saw the arrival of structural engineers Robert LeRicolais and August Komendant, along with architects Romaldo Giurgola, Robert Venturi, Robert Geddes. He included 1924 Penn graduate Louis I. Kahn among the architecture faculty. A dedicated educator and philosopher, Kahn became the spiritual leader of the revived Philadelphia School at Penn.
In 1958 the School was renamed the Graduate School of Fine Arts, and before long, the GSFA had become a home for the leading figures in each of the disciplines. The City and Regional Planning Department recruited an extraordinary array of faculty including Lewis Mumford, Charles Abrams, Britton Harris, Martin Meyerson, Edmund Bacon, Erwin Gutkind, Denise Scott Brown, and Ann Louise Strong. A renewed Department of Landscape Architecture came under the dynamic leadership of Ian McHarg, while Peter Shepheard, architect, landscape architect and planner, succeeded Perkins as dean. A Civic Design Program later renamed Urban Design and led by David Crane was established as a joint offering by Architecture and City Planning. The Fine Arts Department became a full-fledged professional program under the leadership of Piero Dorazio, Neil Welliver, and Robert Engman. And in the early 1980s, the school added a program in Historic Preservation. The Graduate Program in Historic Preservation is headed by Randall F Mason. Other faculty include Frank Matero (who is also the Director of the Program's Architectural Conservation Laboratory), David De Long, Lindsay Falck, David Hollenberg, John Brayton Hinchman, Gail Winkler, A.E. Charola, John Milner, Donovan Rypkema, and Michael Henry among many others.