Abstract :
The University of Pennsylvania has spent the last decade investing heavily in its neighborhood, University City, a disadvantaged community suffering population decline, property neglect and abandonment, and sporadic gentrification. Informed by contemporary urban planning theory, it crafted a five-pronged approach, known as the West Philadelphia Initiatives (WPI), that has had significant results in neighborhood revitalization. Following the success in the implementation of the WPI, the university created the Penn Institute for Urban Research, which seeks to blend practice and theory in urban-focused research that identifies and examines critical questions for the future. This essay outlines the evolution of the University of Pennsylvaniaʹs urban initiatives in the past decade.
