CATHERINE BONIER is a graduate of Penn Design's masters program in architecture, and is currently pursuing a PhD at Penn on the topic of “Waterworks – Instrument and Emblem of Health and Democratic Equilibrium.” She has been studying the shaping of cities and landscapes around water, in conjunction with the history of ideas about nature, health, and democratic society. Catherine's current research focuses on early American water supply systems and the associated buildings, parks, and city plans. By looking at these complex and nuanced proto-industrial designs for healthy cities – in which water and architecture, bodily and democratic health were visibly linked – she hopes to recapture important ideas that might shape future reclamation plans for post-industrial urban waters.