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Awards Guggenheim Fellowship for Social Sciences, US & Canada People also search for Marianne Levinsen, Robert L. Sweeney, Steen Høyer, David G. De Long, C. Ford Peatross Books The Granite Garden, The language of landsc, Daring to Look, Frank Lloyd Wright, The Eye Is a Door: Landscap |
Anne Whiston Spirn is an award-winning American landscape architect, photographer and author. Her work promotes community-oriented spaces that are functional, sustainable, meaningful, and artful. Spirn is a professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning. She is the 2001 winner of the International Cosmos Prize.
Contents
- Early Life and Education
- Career
- West Philadelphia Landscape Project
- Photography
- Published books
- References

Early Life and Education
Sprin was born in Waterbury, Connecticut and grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. She graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College in 1969, where she studied Art History. She received her master's degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania in 1974.
Career

After graduating from University of Pennsylvania, Spirn worked as an ecological designer and planner at the office of Wallace McHarg Roberts and Todd from 1973 to 1977. She then became a professor of landscape architecture at Harvard University from 1979-1986. She left Harvard in 1986 to become the chair of the department of landscape architecture and planning and served as the co-director of the urban studies program at the University of Pennsylvania.
West Philadelphia Landscape Project

Since 1987 Spirn has directed the West Philadelphia Landscape Project in West Philadelphia. This project links landscape design, community development, and urban stormwater management. The WPLP includes development of landscape plans to enhance environmental quality, improvements to stimulate economic development, and strengthening of local school curricula and professional education.
Photography

In 2014, Spirn’s photography was exhibited at the Smith College Museum of Art featuring work that was produced over 35 years during Spirn's travels for her academic and personal research.
Published books
