A Sprouting of Spring 2: UPenn Photoblog

The weekend has been so beautiful that yesterday's venture to Penn Treaty Park did not satisfy my craving to explore Philadelphia, a city that, though I've lived here since 2002, I have criminally ignored. For all of the extraordinary places in the city that I have seen, there are many others that I've missed. I left my house today to take a trip to one of those places - and I didn't even make it there!

I tried to go to the Woodlands Cemetery by hopping on the El and switching to one of the four trolleys that took me to the 40th St. Portal. But at 30th Street the 16 stopped because of track issues further on down the line, so I hopped off the trolley and reverted to my backup plan.

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The University of Pennsylvania has aggressively expanded their campus recently, and new buildings by esteemed architects have filled in some of the gaps on the Ivy League campus. Some of these designs are bold, and dare to challenge the traditional redbrick architecture at UPEnn; others pay respect to tradition by employing similar materials, or by maintaining a scale dictated by the existing campus fabric. The following three photographs show some of UPenn's latest additions:

Fumihiko Maki - Annenberg Public Policy Center

The Japanese Pritzker Prize winner has inserted a boxy, double-wall volume between two traditional buildings of similar scale. The double-wall is intriguing to me; the subtlety of the warm wood behind the glass distinguishes the building without making it blatantly stand out. This wall also suggests an eye for sustainability, as double-wall facades are typically designed to be far more energy efficient than the previous generation of glass curtain walls.

Tod Williams Billie Tsien - Skirkanich Hall

The firm that made their name on the Folk Art Museum, adjacent to MoMA in New York City, employs a similar tactic to their treatment of Skirkanich Hall's design. Unlike the Annenberg Center, this building does not respect the traditional scale of the campus, jutting high above the adjacent buildings. However, the use of brick, albiet of an unusual hue, does pay respect to the rest of the block. Tod Williams Billie Tsien have designed the new, highly controversial Barnes Foundation building now under construction on the Ben Franklin Parkway, so be prepared to hear more about them.

KieranTimberlake - Levine Hall

KieranTimberlake is, in my estimation at least, Philadelphia's most prestigious architecture firm. Both Kieran and Timberlake got their M. Arch's from UPenn, and have given back to the campus by designing this building for the school of engineering. The street facade is modest, retaining similar materials and keeping a similar scale with the surrounding campus. At the right of this photograph is the distinctive curtain wall that typically attracts the attention of the architectural magazines - honestly, I was surprised that this facade wasn't more prominent on the street once I finally saw it. Therein lies the power of the photograph!

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I also took pictures of some of UPenn's older buildings, but I'll save those for a part 2, because it's Sunday night, I'm tired, and Jenny's put Up on, a movie that has made me choke up twice so far 25 minutes in. I'm turning into a sap.