Professor Philip Bess teaches graduate urban design and theory, with a particular interest in Catholic and classical humanist intellectual and artistic traditions in the context of modern American life and the contemporary culture of architecture and urban design. From 2004 to 2014 he was the School of Architecture’s Director of Graduate Studies. During the past decade his graduate urban design studios have completed master plan proposals for Lewis University IL, Cooperstown NY, Northampton MA, Ventura CA, and Skaneateles NY, the latter of which won the 2011 Congress for the New Urbanism CNU Charter Award Academic Grand Prize. In the Fall of 2011 his studios began a multi-year project calledAfter Burnham: The Notre Dame Plan of Chicago 2109, which focuses upon contemporary metropolitan Chicago. In 2012 After Burnham was awarded a two-year grant from The Historical Society as part of the latter’s larger Religion and Innovation in Human Affairs project. It received a 2013 Award for Best Regional Plan from the Illinois Chapter of the CNU, and most recently a 2014 Special Academic Charter Award at the national meeting of the CNU.
Civism and Cities / Christopher C. Miller, Ph.D. 