Denise Scott Brown

Architect; Urban Designer; Product/Industrial Designer / United States / Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Inc.

www.vsba.com

Denise Scott Brown is an architect, planner, and urban designer, and a theorist, writer, and educator, whose work and ideas have influenced architects and planners worldwide. Scott Brown participates in the broad range of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates’ projects in architecture and is principal-in-charge for many projects in urban planning, urban design, and campus planning. Her years of experience in interdisciplinary work and teaching contribute to the firm’s unusual breadth and depth in architectural design.

Scott Brown’s recent projects include campus planning for Brown University and Tsinghua University in Beijing. She directed precinct planning and pre-schematic design of a new Biomedical/Biological Sciences Research Building at the University of Kentucky; she also directed the University of Michigan campus master plan, plans for several of its sub-campuses, and site planning and pre-schematic design of the university’s Life Sciences Institute, Undergraduate Science Building, and Palmer Commons complex. She has also directed campus plans for the University of Pennsylvania, Williams College, and the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Studies at Harvard University.

In the last decade, Scott Brown has worked on the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman Quadrangle; the Mielparque Nikko Kirifuri resort in Kirifuri National Park near Nikko, Japan; and the French Departement de la Haute-Garonne provincial capitol building in Toulouse, France. She has written and advised on urban planning issues related to New York’s World Trade Center site, Philadelphia’s Penn’s Landing, and New Orleans. Her other projects include the development of program requirements for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian; urban plans for South Street, Philadelphia, Miami Beach, Florida, and Memphis, Tennessee; and advising on a regional plan for the Bouregreg Valley in Morocco.

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Now is Better by Stefan Sagmeister

Now is Better

By Stefan Sagmeister
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: October 2023

Combining art, design, history, and quantitative analysis, transforms data sets into stunning artworks that underscore his positive view of human progress, inspiring us to think about the future with much-needed hope.

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Design Emergency: Building a Better Future by Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future

By Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: May 2022

Rawsthorn and Antonelli tell the stories of the remarkable designers, architects, engineers, artists, scientists, and activists who are at the forefront of positive change worldwide. Focusing on four themes—Technology, Society, Communication, and Ecology—the authors present a unique portrait of how our great creative minds are developing new design solutions to the major challenges of our time, while helping us to benefit from advances in science and technology.

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Love Letter to a Garden by Debbie Millman

Love Letter to a Garden

By Debbie Millman
Contributions by Roxane Gay
Publisher: Timber Press
Published: April 15, 2025

From the award-winning artist, designer, and the host of the podcast Design Matters, Debbie Millman, this book tells the visual story of falling in love with gardening—and the philosophies that work conjures. Spread throughout are simple recipes using the garden’s ingredients from Millman’s wife, best-selling author Roxane Gay.

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The Picture Book Book: The Art of Seymour Chwast by Seymour Chwast; curated by Steven Heller

The Picture Book Book: The Art of Seymour Chwast

By Seymour Chwast, curated by Steven Heller
Publisher: Gestalten
Published: June 2026

Seymour Chwast, legendary co-founder of Push Pin Studios, reinvented how we see and read picture books. The Picture Book Book gathers over 40 of his works, curated by Steven Heller, and offers a rare look at his playful, incisive approach to visual storytelling. From bold graphics to sly wit, Chwast’s books expanded the boundaries of design and children’s literature alike.

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Seymour Chwast: The Works, edited by Steven Heller

Seymour Chwast: The Works

Edited by Steven Heller
Publisher: Prestel
Published: October 2026

Seymour Chwast’s work has shaped the look and language of American graphic design for more than seven decades. This expansive and visually rich volume — created in close collaboration with Chwast — presents the most comprehensive account of his life, ideas, and prolific creative output. Features a wealth of previously unpublished images and ephemera and a fold-out dust jacket with a collectible poster printed on the reverse. The book includes an afterword by Paula Scher.

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Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition) by Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller

Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition)

By Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller
Publisher: Letterform Archives Books
Published: October 2023

This facsimile edition of Die Fläche, recreates every page of the formative design periodical in full color and at original size, accompanied by essays that contextualize the work, highlighting contributions by pathbreaking women, innovative lettering artists, and key practitioners of the new “surface art,” including Rudolf von Larisch, Alfred Roller, and Wiener Werkstätte founders Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann.

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