In 1984, she joined The Philadelphia Inquirer as the Inquirer'sMoscow correspondent, and served in this capacity until 1998. Saffron covered the Yugoslav Wars and First Chechen War.[4] Beginning in 1999, she became the Inquirer's architecture columnist, writing "Changing Skyline", an architecture column.[2]
Saffron gained notoriety for a 2020 article entitled "Buildings Matter, Too," in which she said destruction of property was not a valid response to the George Floyd incident. Saffron still writes for The Philadelphia Inquirer, which she joined in 1985 as a suburban reporter. She spent five years in Eastern Europe as a correspondent for the Inquirer.
Since becoming The Philadelphia Inquirer's resident architecture critic in 1999, Saffron has won many awards for her insightful and pointed critiques of architecture, planning, and urbanism in her city.
In 2010, she was awarded the Gene Burd Urban Journalism Award.[7]