A Busy, Busy Spring

So what if it looks like the depths of winter outside. The spring events schedules are in the mail. In April, some 6,000 urban planners will be scrutinizing our little town with a practiced eye when the American Planning Association meets for its annual conference (April 15-18). They'll be followed in May by the Congress for the New Urbanism . (May 17-19)

Along with nuts-and-bolts seminars with titles like "Dredge Spoils Sites Become Urban Assets," and more lively fare along the lines of, "A Walk Through Ed Bacon's Philadelphia" and "Preserving Doo-Wop in Wildwood Crest," the planners will gather at 8:30 am on April 15 to hear a keynote address from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental advocate from the Natural Resources Defense Council, and a scion of the famous family. The theme for the Congress' meeting is "New Urbanism and the Old City." I think Philadelphia should be able to teach that group, which is sometimes sidetracked by a suburban focus, a few new tricks.

Just in case you think a few thousand city planners weren't enough for one season, the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture is also holding its annual event in Philadelphia, March 8-11. They're bringing in the most interesting (and cheeky) speaker of all, British architect Richard Rogers, who designed the subversive Lloyds of London (above) and collaborated on the Pompidou Center in Paris with Renzo Piano. Rogers has a habit of saying what he thinks, so you won't want to miss his talk March 10 , at 5:30 pm in Irvine Auditorium. You'll need tickets for this one, alas.

Fortunately, Penn's School of Design is offering a long list of free lectures this spring, including:
-Architect Joshua Prince-Ramus, who left Rem Koolhaas' firm after the success of the Seattle Library, April 9
-The provocative critic Hal Foster, who was the only person in "Sketches of Gehry" willing to be quoted as saying he'd doesn't care for Frankie G's work, April 10
- Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, who is designing an addition to Penn's Annenberg School, April 17.
-See the School of Design for the full list.

But the date you really want to save is April 9, when the Design Advocacy Group will put the six mayoral wannabes in the hot seat on design and planning issues. It's being held in the Free Library auditorium, starting at 5:30 pm. If you're one of those folks with strong opinions about the congestion tax - among many other things - this one you won't want to miss.