Inga Saffron: What Just Happened? 20 Years of Transformation in Philadelphia

Architecture critic Inga Saffron discusses the policies and physical changes that have shaped Philadelphia over the past two decades.

A Weeknights at the Wagner online lecture, July 1, 2020.

Pulitzer-Prize winning architecture critic Inga Saffron has been chronicling the stories of Philadelphia's buildings and development for the Philadelphia Inquirer since 1999. Her new book, Becoming Philadelphia: How an old American city made itself new again, is a collection of 80 columns from the over 1,600 she's written in the last 20 years. In this talk, discusses her observations and lessons from Philadelphia's transformation.

About Inga Saffron:
Architecture Critic Inga Saffron has been writing about the design of buildings and cities for the Philadelphia Inquirer since 1999. Her work has been recognized with numerous awards, including the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, the 2018 Vincent Scully Prize from the National Building Museum and a 2012 Loeb Fellowship from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. In June 2020, Rutgers University Press will publish a collection of her Inquirer columns from the last 20 years, Becoming Philadelphia: How an old American city made itself new again. Before becoming the Inquirer’s architecture critic, Inga spent the 1990s as a foreign correspondent for the Inquirer in Russia and the former Yugoslavia, covering the wars in Bosnia and Chechnya, and witnessing the destruction of Sarajevo and Grozny. In addition to her writing about architecture and urbanism, she is an expert on the cultural history of sturgeon. Her book, Caviar: The Strange History and Uncertain Future of the World’s Most Coveted Delicacy, appeared in 2003 to rave reviews. Although she was born in New York, and has lived in Paris, Dublin, Belgrade, Moscow and New Jersey, she identifies as a Philadelphian.