The Park of a Thousand Pieces

Penn Praxis has a plan for adding 500 acres of open green space to Philadelphia in the next four years. Their approach, informed by novel research by Penn scholars in areas ranging from real-estate economics to criminology, is a new way of imagining urban parkland.

Penn Fights the Civil War

As soldiers on the battlefield or doctors in military hospitals, Penn alumni and faculty played remarkable roles in the nation’s bloodiest conflict—serving both North and South.

Bones Beneath the Tracks

In the summer of 1832, 57 Irish laborers died suddenly while building the first railroad in Pennsylvania. Alumnus Bill Watson and a host of other Penn people have been trying to find out what really happened. And they’re getting close.

The Man Who Would Never Be Mayor

In the race for Philadelphia’s top job, Michael Nutter W’79 was dismissed as the candidate without a constituency. His journey from last place to landslide victory had the markings of a political miracle. Now the public expects more.