The Penn Institute for Urban Research celebrates 20 years.
Luke Campo C’24 and Eugenie L. Birch sliced through the bay in a water taxi, heading toward a hulking container ship off the Galápagos Islands.
Then a junior international relations major from the Bay Area, Campo had never been to South America before, let alone conducted research there. Now he was shooting photos and jotting notes right alongside Birch, the Lawrence C. Nussdorf Professor of Urban Research and Education. “I was amazed,” Campo remembers, adding that the experience “felt like we were making an important contribution.”
International research trips may not be the norm for spring-breaking college juniors, but when you’re an undergraduate who’s linked up with the Penn Institute for Urban Research, memorable moments abound. One day you may be meeting with a big-city mayor or talking to senior state department officials. Another you’re on a water taxi in Bogotá, next to Penn IUR’s codirector, tracking how shipping and tourism are threatening the fragile environment there.
It isn’t only undergrads who feel IUR’s impact, either. Since its launch in 2004—making it 20 years old this academic year—the interdisciplinary center has sponsored dozens of conferences and events, published more than 50 books, and affected countless students, scholars, and practitioners from across Penn and beyond. Through it all, the focus has remained on understanding urban areas and striving to improve them.
Cities are, after all, growing faster and housing more people than ever before. More than half of the world currently lives in urban areas, and the United Nations predicts that number will reach 68 percent by 2050. Even in countries where “the numbers may not be that high now, they are urbanizing at a hugely fast pace,” Birch says. And because cities are such large, multifaceted places, “a lot of disciplines contribute to the understanding of what urbanization is and how cities operate,” she adds.
That’s obvious when you look at any lineup from the center’s past events. A webinar on “greening” cities, for instance, included the president of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, a Penn criminology professor, an expert on statistics and data science, and a social scientist from the USDA Forest Service. A conference on sustainable urban development rounded up professors of law, real estate, design, and international affairs, plus leaders from UN-Habitat, Habitat for Humanity, and South Africa’s Federation of the Urban Poor.
“In addressing urban issues, we really need to have all hands on deck, from all different backgrounds,” says Susan Wachter, the center’s codirector.
The idea for Penn IUR bubbled up in the early 2000s. Judith Rodin CW’66 Hon’04, Penn’s president at the time, had been focused on revitalizing West Philadelphia for nearly a decade. Along the way, she’d clocked “the passion that so many of our faculty had around urban issues,” she says now. “We felt that creating an institute for urban research would really consolidate that faculty interest and expand it and allow it to grow.”
Birch and Wachter, Wharton’s Albert Sussman Professor of Real Estate and professor of finance, became codirectors of the new center—and they’re both still at it today, 20 years later. “There was no doubt in my mind that this was needed,” Wachter says. But she also knew a cross-university institute might not succeed. “I was not feeling as though this was a slam dunk at all,” Wachter says, “but I was very heartened by the fact that Genie and I would take it on together.”
Wachter and Birch were both newer faculty members at the time, and each had a longstanding interest in cities. A specialist in real estate economics, Wachter had recently worked at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Birch had joined Penn’s Urban Studies department a few years earlier as an expert in global urbanization and city planning.
After quickly assembling two boards—one of Penn faculty and staff and the other of outside urban experts—“we set about figuring out what to do,” Birch recalls. They knew research would be a major piece of Penn IUR’s work, but how could they make sure people took notice? In under a year, the center launched its book series, “The City in the 21st Century,” which released its 53rd installment (and counting) with Penn Press in 2024. (The titles have covered a wide range over the years—from how urban living impacts women’s health, to how New Orleans rebuilt post-Katrina, to the urbanization of China, and how to grow greener cities.)
Next they strategized on reaching students, since a center can’t offer its own courses the way a department does. They landed on the Urban Undergraduate Research Colloquium, which pairs undergrads with faculty who are conducting urban-focused research. It’s spawned numerous collaborations ever since—and brought Campo and Birch to Bogotá together in 2023. Today there’s also a Fellowship in Urban Leadership for undergrads, a Master of Urban Spatial Analytics degree, and an urban-focused network and symposium for doctoral students.
“Regardless of what students do in their life after they finish their work here, they’re likely to live in or be involved in cities,” Birch says. “We want them to understand the importance of cities—particularly the importance of urban leadership—and how they can participate no matter what their profession is.”
The center also engages with around 75 faculty fellows from across the University. “It is at the heart of Penn’s values and priorities,” notes Provost John L. Jackson Jr., adding that Penn IUR has been “essential” to his own urban ethnography research through the years.
“Penn IUR has led the way for what an interdisciplinary research center can be,” says William W. Burke-White, a Penn Law professor and one of the center’s faculty fellows. “I’ve been most impressed with how it has been able to link cities to global networks and global conversations that matter.”
It’s been a busy year as the center celebrates its first two decades. It held events for Climate Week at Penn in the fall, and in January hosted a conversation with Enrique Peñalosa Londoño, the former mayor of Bogotá who wrote Equality and the City from Penn IUR’s book series. “Beautiful public spaces make everyone happier,” Londoño said at the event, “but for the poor they are crucial.”
The center was scheduled to hold its 20th annual Urban Leadership Forum on April 25 (after this issue went to press), with a theme of urban leadership for the 21st century, nods to its milestone anniversary, and awards for standout leaders in the field.
As these 20 years have passed, change has been inevitable. New faculty arrive; students graduate. Issues like climate change and resilience, which didn’t get much airtime back in 2004, are now major concerns. But Birch says the center’s focus has always remained on sustainable urban development and anchor institutions—places like Penn that are deeply rooted to their cities.
“Twenty years seems like a really long time,” Wachter adds, “but it’s not nearly enough to accomplish all we potentially could. Penn is a very long-lived institution. Hopefully Penn IUR will be as well.”
—Molly Petrilla C’06
