424 Stuckeman Family Building • University Park, PA • 16802
ph: 814.865.9511 • Email: exp8@psu.edu

Education
B.A. in philosophy, St. John's College
M.L.A., University of Virginia
Full CV

Interests
Design History, Theory, and Criticism

Eliza Pennypacker has been a faculty member in Penn State's Department of Landscape Architecture since 1982. She has taught a wide range of courses, including the History of Landscape Architecture, First-Year Seminar, and all levels of design studio. Her current research has two focus areas: one is directed toward studio pedagogy and the pursuit of inculcating effective critical thinking skills in design students; the other addresses "artful" stormwater management in designs that not only exhibit BMPs but do so in ways that the public finds aesthetically and/or didactically valuable. This latter research subject is an outgrowth of prior research addressing historical and contemporary American middle-class taste in landscape design. Professor Pennypacker's creative work has included the winning entry to the national design competition for a Korean War Veterans' Memorial in Washington, D.C. (in collaboration Veronica Burns Lucas, landscape architecture, John Lucas and Don Leon, architecture); design and curation of an award-winning, traveling interpretive exhibition and exhibition catalog titled Abstracting the Landscape: the Artistry of Landscape Architect A. E. Bye (in collaboration with Kristi Wormhoudt, art history); and design of an environmentally-responsible miniature golf course site plan that won a 2004 Georgia Chapter ASLA design award for its ecological sensitivity.

Professor Pennypacker has enjoyed a variety of activities at Penn State: In 1987 she served as Acting Associate Dean for Research in the College of Arts and Architecture; from 1989 to 1991 she served as Associate Director of Penn State's Institute for the Arts ands Humanistic Studies; from 1993 until 1999 she served as head of the Department of Landscape Architecture; in 1995-96 she was a CIC Academic Leadership Fellow, a Big 10 initiative that brings together "junior" leaders from each institution to refine their leadership skills; from 1997 to 1999 she served as the faculty planning consultant for Penn State's University Park Masterplan effort, then became Penn State's Director of Campus Planning and Design in 2000, overseeing the quality of all masterplan, landscape, and building designs at Penn State's 23 campuses. In 2003 she returned to the Department of Landscape Architecture where she serves as a faculty member and coordinator of the Graduate Program.