Ms. Catherine Seavitt Nordenson is the Martin and Margy Meyerson Professor and Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture at the Weitzman School of Design, The University of Pennsylvania. She also serves as the Co-Executive Director of the Ian L. McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology.
A licensed architect and landscape architect, Ms. Seavitt Nordenson is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects (FASLA). She previously served as Professor and Director of the Master of Landscape Architecture Program at the City College of New York. She emphasizes the essential role that landscape architecture plays in connecting social justice and equity to environmental design.
Ms. Seavitt Nordenson’s research, scholarship, and design work examines the intersection of political power, environmental activism, and public health, particularly as seen through the design of equitable public space and policy in tandem with novel plant science expertise. She studies post-industrial landscapes, disturbed ruderal sites, and environmental justice communities.
She is a published author of multiple works. Her research foregrounds the role of natural and nature-based features as alternatives to traditional hard-engineered solutions and explores a multi-layered approach to resilience and decarbonization that includes natural systems. Her work at Jamaica Bay, New York, was developed through collaborative workshops with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers North Atlantic Division and the New York District as they developed a comprehensive report on the regional impacts of Hurricane Sandy.
EDUCATION
Princeton University, M.Arch., Architecture
The Cooper Union, B.Arch., Architecture
City College of New York, B.S., Landscape Architecture
University of Michigan, B.S., Architecture