City Futures Seminar 19th February 2026

Join us in person at the City Analytics Lab, Basement Anita B. Lawrence Centre West Wing or online via Microsoft Teams

Please join us on Thursday 19th February, 4-6pm for a special edition of the City Futures Seminar Series as we welcome visiting Professor John Landis. Following the seminar, we invite those attending in person to join us in the Anita B. Lawrence Gallery from 5:00–6:00pm for light refreshments and networking. We ask that you please RSVP by 12th February for catering purposes.

Big Cities, Bold Moves, Good Outcomes: A Success Manual for Global Cities

Big Cities, Bold Moves, Good Outcomes examines what it takes to create prosperous and livable cities on the world stage. Based on a series of 30+ case studies of city-building efforts from around the world, it explores how a group I call “place and policy entrepreneurs” has successfully implemented urban development and place-making initiatives that now serve as global exemplars. PPEs are as varied as Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore, Sheik Rasheed bin Saeed al Maktoun in Dubai, Paul Reichman of Olympia & York in London, Jaime Lerner and Enrique Penalosa in Brazil and Colombia, Ed Koch and William Bratton in New York City, professional transport planners in Copenhagen, trumpet virtuoso Ludwig Guttler in Dresden, and New South Wales Premier Bob Carr in Australia. Each faced significant structural challenges and responded by developing innovative initiatives to address those challenges.

Emeritus Professor John Landis

John Landis is Emeritus Professor of City and Regional Planning at the Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania. John’s current research and writing focus on the relationships between planning practice, urban entrepreneurship and innovation, and successful urban development outcomes. Recent publications include Megaprojects for Megacities: A Comparative Casebook (Edward Elgar 2022); “Why America Needs a More Entrepreneurial Planning Modality” (Journal of Planning Education and Research, 2024); “Fifty Years of Local Growth Management in America” (Progress in Planning, 2021); and “Do Restrictive Land Use Regulations Make Housing More Expensive Everywhere?” (with Vincent Reina, Economic Development Quarterly, 2021). Prior to joining the Penn faculty in 2007, John served on the planning faculties of the University of California-Berkeley, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Rhode Island.