University of Pennsylvania School of Design

Meyerson Hall is a building in West Philadelphia, and the site of the University of Pennsylvania School of Design. The building, designed by the architecture firm of Martin, Stewart, Noble & Class, was constructed in 1967 in reinforced concrete, brick cavity wall, and asbestos, with a total area of the building is 93,780 square feet (8,712 m2). It is named for Martin Meyerson, President of the University of Pennsylvania from 1970 to 1981. Meyerson Hall is located at the corner of Walnut Street and South 34th Street in University City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Immediately adjacent to the south is the Fisher Fine Arts Library, designed by Frank Furness and completed in 1890. Immediately to the west is the College Green, the heart of the University. The building currently houses the main offices of the following departments of the School of Design: Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Historic Preservation, and City and Regional Planning. Fine Arts is the only department in the school not housed in Meyerson, and is located across 34th St. in the Morgan Building. The Basement contains the newly opened PennDesign Cafe, eight lecture halls, custodial staff support spaces, and the materials library. The Ground Floor contains the main lobby, Lower Gallery, faculty offices and the Operations and Planning office. The First Floor contains departmental offices for Landscape Architecture, Preservation, and Urban Planning, Dean's Alley critique space, the Upper Gallery, and offices for the Dean, Alumni Affairs, Admissions, and the Registrar. The Second Floor contains offices for Architecture, as well as studio space. The Third Floor contains two computer labs, a plotter room, student lounge (with vending machines), and additional architecture studio space. The Fourth Floor contains studios for Landscape Architecture and Historic Preservation, the Architectural Conservation Laboratory, the Fabrication Laboratory, and the 4th Floor Hall critique space.

The Penn Institute for Urban Research (Penn IUR) is an interdisciplinary research center at the University of Pennsylvania. The Institute is affiliated with the 12 schools at the University of Pennsylvania, and housed at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design.The Institute was founded in 2004, and focuses on three main research areas: 1) Exploring innovative urban development strategies; 2) Building the inclusive 21st century sustainable city; and 3) Understanding the role of anchor institutions in urban places.Eugenie L. Birch and Susan M. Wachter are the Co-Directors of Penn IUR.

Edgar Fahs Smith is a monumental statue located on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The statue was designed by sculptor R. Tait McKenzie and honors its namesake, a former provost of the university.

The Fisher Fine Arts Library was the primary library of the University of Pennsylvania from 1891 to 1962. The red sandstone, brick-and-terra-cotta Venetian Gothic giant—part fortress and part cathedral—was designed by the acclaimed Philadelphia architect Frank Furness (1839–1912). The cornerstone was laid in October 1888, construction was completed in late 1890, and the building was dedicated in February 1891.Following completion of the Van Pelt Library in 1962, it was renamed the Furness Building (after its architect), and housed the university's art and architecture collections. The building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985.The Furness Building was renamed the Anne and Jerome Fisher Fine Arts Library following a 6-year, $16.5-million restoration, completed in 1991. It is located on the east side of College Green, at Locust Walk and 34th Street.

The Charles Patterson Van Pelt Library (also known as the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, and simply Van Pelt) is the primary library at the University of Pennsylvania. The building was designed by architects Harbeson, Hough, Livingston & Larson, and built in 1962. It has a gross area of 201,215 square feet (18,693 m2). In addition to being the primary library on campus for social sciences and humanities, it also houses the Lippincott Library of The Wharton School, the Ormandy Music Library, and the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. Van Pelt houses strong Area Studies collections in African, Japanese, Latin American, Chinese, Middle East, South Asia, and Judaica & Ancient Near East Studies. The Henry Charles Lea Library is located on the 6th floor of Van Pelt Library. The library holds the Weigle Information Commons, located on the west side of the 1st floor. Vaguely Grecian with a massive colonnade, but screened by brick panels with small windows that resemble an old French library, the Van Pelt Library is a major presence on the campus. A large modern art sculpture, called The Button, sits at its southern entrance.

The Curtis Organ, named for publisher Cyrus H.K. Curtis, is one of the largest pipe organs in the world with 162 ranks and 10,731 pipes. The concert organ, of American Symphonic design, was manufactured by the Austin Organ Company as its Opus 1416 in 1926 for the Philadelphia Sesquicentennial Exposition. It was known as the "Organists' Organ" because the specifications were formulated by Henry S. Fry, John M'E. Ward, Rollo F. Maitland, Frederick Maxson, and S. Wesley Sears, all prominent Philadelphia organists.Curtis acquired the instrument after the Exposition went bankrupt and donated it to the University of Pennsylvania, where it was divided into two halves and incorporated into Irvine Auditorium at the time of the building's construction. The organ contains the largest Universal Air Chest ever built by Austin. In its original configuration in the Auditorium building, the organ spread 75 feet across its platform at the Sesquicentennial Exposition. This pressurized room under the pipes allows access to the organ's pneumatic mechanisms while it is playing, and was touted as being able to seat 100 people to dinner comfortably. The organ's mechanical actions were renewed in the 1950s through the generosity of Mary Louise Curtis Bok Zimbalist, daughter of Cyrus H.K. Curtis and founder of The Curtis Institute of Music. In the later 1980s and early 1990s, the organ was connected to a customized MIDI interface, making it, at that time, the world's largest MIDI-capable instrument. In more recent times, the Austin Organ Company carried out a complete mechanical restoration of the organ (with a new console and relay system added), carefully preserving the organ's tonal integrity. It was rededicated in October 2002. In October 1972 Keith Chapman accompanied the Lon Chaney silent film "[The Phantom of the Opera]" as a fund-raiser for the organ that evolved into an annual campus Halloween event. Cyrus Curtis also gave an Austin organ to nearby Drexel University, and to the auditorium of City Hall in Portland, Maine.

Irvine Auditorium is a performance venue at 3401 Spruce Street on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia. It was designed by the firm of prominent Philadelphia area architect Horace Trumbauer and built 1926–1932. Irvine Auditorium is notable for its nearly 11,000-pipe Curtis Organ, the world's 22nd-largest pipe organ (by ranks), originally built for the Sesquicentennial Exposition of 1926 and donated to the university in 1928. The building was opened in May, 1929. A persistent but untrue campus legend holds that the building was a Penn architecture student's design project that received a failing grade. He was forced to give up architecture to go into business, where he amassed a fortune. Years later, he made a major bequest to the university in his will, but only on the condition that his project be built. Seating capacity is 1,260. (Prior to renovation the seating capacity was 1,976.) The octagonal auditorium featured side balconies that faced each other, at right angles to the stage. The building was restored and renovated in 1997–2000 by Venturi, Scott Brown & Associates, Inc, who removed the side balconies to improve the acoustic quality, as well as to create more intimate performance spaces.

Sansom Row is a row of historic houses at 3402 to 3436 Sansom Street in the University City neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Built in 1869 to 1871, the rowhouses are constructed in matching three-story pairs, with brownstone facades and slate mansard roofs. They are significant as a surviving example of post-Civil War architecture in the area. Madame Blavatsky, a founder of Theosophy and the Theosophical Society, lived here at 3420 Sansom Street for a time.The houses were built as residences but most have been converted to other, mainly commercial uses.

College Hall is the oldest building on the West Philadelphia campus of the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to its construction, the university was located on Ninth Street in Center City, Philadelphia. The building was designed by Thomas Webb Richards and completed in 1873. The characteristic green color of the building is due to its composition of green serpentine stone. College Hall was placed on the National Register of Historic Places February 14, 1978. It is also a contributing property of the University of Pennsylvania Campus Historic District. The building currently houses the undergraduate admissions office, the university president's offices, the Department of History, and classrooms. The top floor of College Hall is also home to the Philomathean Society, a literary society founded in 1813. Although College Hall and the now-demolished Blanchard Hall were rumored to be the model for the Victorian Gothic mansion in The Addams Family cartoons, the cartoonist Charles Addams repeatedly denied the claims.

The Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management & International Studies (The Lauder Institute) offers a joint degree program at the University of Pennsylvania, combining an MA in international studies from the School of Arts & Sciences with an MBA from The Wharton School or JD from the Law School. Students pursue one of six Programs of Concentration focused on five regional areas (Africa, East and Southeast Asia, Europe, Latin America, or South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa) or the Global Program. Within the regional Programs of Concentration, students must attain superior language proficiency based upon an oral proficiency interview certified by Language Testing International in either Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, or Spanish. Each year 60-70 students from around the world join the Lauder Program in May starting in Philadelphia before departing on an 8-week summer immersion to their respective regions of study. Students return to campus in August to join the MBA or JD program and then graduate with their class two years later. In the most recent incoming class, 60% of the class were US Citizens and 40% were international or dual citizens.

Houston Hall is the student union of the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Completed in 1896, it was the first student union built on an American college campus.Houston Hall was listed as a National Register of Historic Places contributing property in the University of Pennsylvania Campus Historic District in 1978.

The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (also known as Penn Law or Penn Carey Law) is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is among the most selective and oldest law schools in the United States, and it is currently ranked sixth overall by U.S. News & World Report. It offers the degrees of Juris Doctor (J.D.), Master of Laws (LL.M.), Master of Comparative Laws (LL.C.M.), Master in Law (M.L.), and Doctor of the Science of Law (S.J.D.). The entering class typically consists of approximately 250 students, and admission is highly competitive. Penn Law's 2020 weighted first-time bar passage rate was 98.5 percent. The school has consistently ranked among top 14 ("T14") law schools identified by U.S. News & World Report, since it began publishing its rankings. For the class of 2024, 49 percent of students were women, 40 percent identified as persons of color, and 12 percent of students enrolled with an advanced degree.The school offers an extensive curriculum and hosts various student groups, research centers, and activities. Students publish the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the oldest law journal in the United States. Students also publish The Regulatory Review, a regulatory news, analysis, and commentary that publishes daily. Penn Law students have the option to earn certificates of specialization in fields such as East Asian Studies or Gender and Sexuality Studies. Prior to graduation, each student must complete at least 70 hours of pro bono service. Among the school's alumni are a US Supreme Court Justice, at least 76 judges of United States court system, nine state Supreme Court Justices, and three supreme court justices of foreign countries, at least 46 members of United States Congress as well as nine olympians, five of whom won thirteen medals, several founders of law firms, university presidents and deans, business entrepreneurs, leaders in the public sector, and government officials. Based on student survey responses, ABA and NALP data; 99.6 percent of the Class of 2020 obtained full-time employment after graduation. The median salary for the Class of 2019 was $190,000, as 75.2 percent of students joined law firms and 11.6 percent obtained judicial clerkships. The law school was ranked #2 of all law schools nationwide by the National Law Journal, for sending the highest percentage of 2019 graduates to join the 100 largest law firms in the U.S., constituting 58.4 percent.