Richard Weller

Meyerson Chair of Urbanism - Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania


Richard Weller is the Meyerson Chair of Urbanism and Professor and Chair of Landscape Architecture and co-executive director of the McHarg Center at the Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania.

At Weitzman he teaches subjects in the history of ideas of nature, contemporary urbanism and advanced design studios. In both 2017 and 2018 he was voted by the Design Intelligence Survey as one of North America's "most admired" teachers.

In over 30 years of design practice he has worked simultaneously as an academic and a consultant specializing in the formative stages of design and planning projects ranging across all scales. Weller's creative work has received numerous awards, predominantly in international design competitions, and been exhibited in major galleries such as the Guggenheim and the Venice Biennale.

Weller's recent research concerns global flash-points between biodiversity and urban growth as documented in the web-based publication 'Atlas for the End of the World' and the 'The Hotspot Cities Project'. His current project is a feasibility study into the concept of a 'World Park'.

Weller has 6 books to his name, and over 100 academic papers and his work has been covered in the popular press by Scientific American and National Geographic. He is also the Creative Director of the interdisciplinary journal LA+.