Friday, February 27, 2015

Design of Pennovation Center gets approval from Penn board



The University of Pennsylvania's Pennovation Center will move ahead and its design was approved by the school's board.


The plan calls for renovating an existing three-story, 58,000-square-foot industrial building that will become the cornerstone to Pennovation Works, a 23-acre hub for innovation, research and entrepreneurialism along the southern bank of the Schuylkill River and next to Penn's main campus. The design was done by HWKN of New York.

This first phase will cost $37.5 million and is part of a bigger vision that Penn has for the site, which was the former Marshall Labs. At one point, Penn called the property South Bank.

It has big ambitions for the site.

"The Pennovation Center design creates a truly iconic landmark for Penn's innovation ecosystem and a dynamic hub for Penn's culture of innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration," said Penn President Amy Gutmann in a statement.

The design gives "a nod" to the start-ups that formed in personal garages and includes a series of garage doors on the eastern façade that open directly into studio spaces. The building will include co-working space, wet and dry labs, among other spaces for collaboration and look to become a resource to the community. Penn Engineering Field Research Center will take up the third floor.

KSS Architects is the architect of record and Land Collective is the landscape architect. The Pennovation Center and the first phase of Pennovation Works, which includes site work, is expected to be completed by the summer of 2016.

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