Franklin Conference on School Design

Posted by on March 18, 2005

As you may know the School District of Philadelphia and the School Reform Commission have a $1.5 billion capital improvement program. This program offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rethink the relationship between schools and community renewal. A new series of public forums will provide Philadelphians with the opportunity to participate in a robust public conversation about the community building opportunities presented by this unprecedented investment in the city?s schools.

I would like to invite you to take part in the first forum of this series, called the Franklin Conference, to be held on March 28th from 3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the World Caf? Live, 3025 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (http://www.worldcafelive.com), in West Philadelphia.

President Amy Gutmann of the University of Pennsylvania is scheduled to kick off the series that afternoon. A panel of national experts in school design, planning and pedagogy will speak during the evening ? including Frank S. Kelly, FAIA of the SHW Group in Houston, Bobbie Hill and Steven Bingler of Concordia, Ruth Nield of the Graduate School of Education at Penn, and Patti Smith of The Education Alliance at Brown University ? followed by table and plenary discussions. The event is free and open to the public and a light supper will be provided. Seating is limited.

This project was first publically announced in Chris Satullo’s editorial from last week (http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/11060770.htm).

The Franklin Conference on School Design is a civic engagement program of the Penn Institute for Urban Research. The program is sponsored by the William Penn Foundation, the Penn Institute for Urban Research and World Caf? Live.