Part of a planned 3,700-acre riverfront redevelopment zone between the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) and the Philadelphia Navy Yard along the Schuylkill River, the 23-acre Pennovation Works extends academic research and become one of the City’s key innovation incubators. The new campus is one of the first initiatives toward re-imagination of this waterfront site of former heavy industry. The campus combines professionals and researchers from wide-ranging disciplines such as robotics, cyber physical systems, and security. The landscape of Pennovation Works, the first project on the campus, promotes DAVID RUBIN Land Collective’s mission of connecting people from various backgrounds to solve complex problems and advance knowledge and culture. Surrounding the Pennovation Works, a generous plaza and landscape incorporate green infrastructure, as well as naturalize existing lawn into wildflower meadows and native planting. The design accounts for future development while creating meaningful places on the campus in the short-term. Within the landscape is an instrumented, outdoor laboratory with netting which enables the testing of high performance outdoor aerial and ground robots. The design is the result of a successful collaborative and creative process between Penn, HWKN, KSS Architects, LAND COLLECTIVE, Bruce Mau Design, Ballinger, Focus Lighting and Atelier Ten. Through workshops and charrettes, each party contributed to the vision of the broader site as well as the architecture, landscape, identity, signage and program.
Project Recognition:
- 2016, Wired Magazine, List of 25 Masterpieces that Prove 2016 was an Incredible Year for Architecture
- 2016, Redshift, One of the 10 Most Innovative Architectural Projects of 2016
- 2016, Crew Philadelphia, Community Impact Award
- 2016, Architect’s Newspaper, Best of Design Awards – Honorable Mention
- 2015, Curbed, One of Best New Architecture and Urban Design of 2015
Project Images
