In KieranTimberlake's 40th anniversary year, our projects continued to receive accolades locally, nationally, and internationally for design excellence, sustainability, and innovation. Each award reflects our team's dedication to thoughtful architecture integrated to site, program, and people.

2024 was a busy and celebratory year for KieranTimberlake. 
 
We recognized our 40th anniversary with a series of public programming hosted at Ortlieb's Bottling House, our COTE Top Ten Award-winning office space and fabrication studio in Northern Liberties, Philadelphia.

As of December 2024, we're pleased to announce that Ortlieb's Bottling House, our historic office space and living laboratory, has been fully electrified.

Last week, KieranTimberlake hosted an evening of art and conversation in celebration of the new publication Building Ghosts: Past Lives and Lost Places in a Changing City. This event concludes our year of public programming in celebration of our 40th anniversary.  

Building Transparency, a nonprofit organization that provides open access data and tools to foster a better building future, announced it is developing Tally® 2.0, the next iteration of its tallyLCA tool, in collaboration with KieranTimberlake. The new version of the tool will continue to support the building industry by providing insight into the environmental impact of materials and different building designs. 
 
“We are honored to partner with Building Transparency on the development of Tally 2.0," said Ryan Welch, Principal and Research Director at KieranTimberlake.  
"By transitioning Tally to a free and open-access tool, we aim to move the AEC industry towards design strategies that minimize environmental impact."

KieranTimberlake staff recently traveled to the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) campus to celebrate the opening of the state-of-the-art New Science Building. It is one of the most energy efficient biological and chemical laboratory facilities in North America. 
 
The four-story, 177,000 GSF research center was designed to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration and innovation while meeting ambitious sustainability goals. Various life science research and entrepreneurship initiatives are now centralized, including advanced diagnostics, cancer phototherapy, neuroscience, chronic pain treatment and drug discovery, among others.

As our 40th anniversary comes to a close, we're wrapping up the year with a final round of celebratory events, conferences, and other engagements captured quarterly in the Happenings Poster designed by our in-house team. 
 
This fall, KT staff will be traveling the world—from Salt Lake City to Singapore—for conference presentations and awards juries. Featured project presentations include the recently completed John A. Paulson Center at New York University and the forthcoming Penn's Landing Pavilion, which broke ground last year.  
 
We'll also be hosting two public events at our office in Northern Liberties, Philadelphia, including the Bottling House's latest exhibition. 
 
For registration links, visit our Lectures and Conferences page.

Curious to see how a university facility can foster student and community entrepreneurship in a shared urban location? Take a virtual tour of the Eric J. Barron Innovation Hub, a multi-disciplinary nexus that does just that.

As part of our ongoing 40th anniversary programming, we transformed Ortlieb's Bottling House, our COTE® Top Ten award-winning historic office space and living laboratory, into an interactive exhibition titled More or Less, showcasing KieranTimberlake's interventions at colleges and universities across the country.  
 

This summer, KieranTimberlake welcomed eight students from across the country to work alongside our staff on various architectural and research projects. 
 
The internship provides a meaningful opportunity for students to participate in a range of professional design activities and gain broad exposure to ideas that push the practice of architecture forward. 
 
The 2024 cohort brings together undergraduate and graduate students from as far as Texas and Louisiana to Philadelphia. Their academic and professional interests range from carpentry and book collecting to AI modeling and designing sustainable clothing.  
 
Throughout the summer, interns work directly on project teams, gaining hands-on experience while also inspiring our staff with fresh perspectives and insights. The program includes topical presentations and roundtable discussions, mentorship activities, site visits, and intern-driven group projects. 
 
The internship program is led by Associate Brandon Cuffy and Architectural Staff María José Fuentes. 

2024 marks 40 years of KieranTimberlake and we're continuing to celebrate with more events, conferences, and other happenings. To better capture all that we're up to, we'll be sharing quarterly posters designed by our in-house team.  
 
In July, August, and September, KT will be presenting the recently completed Folger Shakespeare Library, a case study on collaboration with the Eric J. Barron Innovation Hub, the multi-facade design for 2300 Market, and insights from our Research Group. 
 
See below for more details. We look forward to connecting soon at events both near and far.

KieranTimberlake projects earned three 2024 Design Awards at last week's AIA Conference: 

• Architecture Award for the John A. Paulson Center at New York University
• Education Facility Award for the John A. Paulson Center at New York University
• Housing Award for North Campus Housing at the University of Washington

New construction photos of 2300 Market reveal exciting progress on the 8-story, 225,000-square-foot life science research and discovery building.

We're thrilled to share Architectural Record's June 2024 cover story featuring the newly renovated Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC.  
 
Reopening to the public on June 21, the Folger houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare's printed works. Over the past ten years, KieranTimberlake has partnered with Folger to provide strategic planning services, culminating in an expanded site and reimagined visitor experience.

2024 marks 40 years of KieranTimberlake and we're continuing to celebrate with more events, conferences, and other happenings. To better capture all that we're up to, we'll be sharing quarterly posters designed by our in-house team.  
 
In April, May, and June, KT will be connecting with industry leaders, sharing our latest research with the ARPA-E HESTIA program, and presenting our newly completed work with the Folger Shakespeare Library and the John F. Kennedy Center. 
 
See below for more details. We look forward to connecting soon at events both near and far.

We are excited to announce the advancement of Ryan Welch to Research Director. Ryan brings deep experience, knowledge, and curiosity to this leadership role. His work with Billie Faircloth and the Research Group over the past 12 years affords continuity and growth. At the same time, his expertise and energy offer great potential as we plan a vibrant new chapter for research at KT. Working in collaboration with Christopher Connock, Design Computation Director, Ryan will guide the RG in its next stage of inquiry, exploration, discovery, and action.  
 
Specializing in building performance, Ryan's past projects include Roast, a customizable thermal comfort survey application, Pointelist™, a high-density wireless sensor network that provides real-time temperature and relative humidity measurements via custom web application, and Tally®, an LCA application that allows architects to calculate the environmental impact of building materials. Ryan has taught architectural design at the Cooper Union, Yale University, and Princeton University. He is currently a Co-Principal Investigator on an ARPA-E-funded research project into 3D-printed carbon-negative structures in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania.

On March 8, we hosted a Tour + Toast at our studio, the former Ortlieb's Bottling House in Northern Liberties, Philadelphia. The first in-person event of the year, we invited friends and colleagues to join us for a casual evening of art, architecture, and conversation.  
 
The event coincided with the 2024 Building Museums Symposium by the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums (MAAM), where Principal Johann Mordhorst presented our decade-long master plan and renovation of the Folger Shakespeare Library, reopening to the public on June 21.

In 2023, KieranTimberlake's projects continued to earn international acclaim. Each award recognizes our team's dedication to thoughtful architecture integrated to site, program, and people.

With gratitude for your ongoing trust in us.

The glass pavilions that serve as gateways to Dilworth Park's transit concourse are defined by the arc of a circle centered on the top of the west facade of City Hall. This gesture suggests a monumental presence for the pavilions in spite of their modest scale. 
 
In 2024, we'll celebrate a decade of public placemaking in the heart of Philadelphia. As reported by the Center City District, Dilworth Park welcomes 10 million visitors annually. 
 
We're taking a short hiatus for the holidays and returning on January 2.  
We look forward to reconnecting in the New Year. 

In anticipation of the AIA's Committee on the Environment (COTE®) Top Ten Awards submission deadline on October 26, KieranTimberlake staff have been contemplating how the Framework for Design Excellence principles can be interpreted beyond the built environment. 
 
To initiate this thought exercise, the first KieranTimberlake Music League (KTML) was launched. Each week, staff from across the office would submit one song that they thought corresponds with or engages a specific principle.  
 
After ten weeks, we compiled the playlists onto a public Spotify account. We invite you to listen, consider, and enjoy. 
 
The COTE® Top Ten Award has become the industry's leading award program for rigorously examining both sustainability and design excellence. KieranTimberlake has previously earned five COTE® Top Ten Awards and is committed to confronting climate change, social inequity, and biodiversity loss on every project.

In celebration of DesignPhiladelphia, KieranTimberlake is pleased to present Generally Electric, a group exhibition featuring an eclectic and electric collection of work by Philadelphia-based artists, designers, and makers.  
 
We welcome you to join us for the exhibition opening on October 11 at 4:30pm.

We are excited to announce the advancement of five staff members who are working to question, explore, and improve the built environment.

The new Penn's Landing Park is scheduled to break ground on September 6. The 11.5-acre park will reconnect Philadelphia to the Delaware River, guiding pedestrians from city sidewalks to a new public landscape, amenities, and attractions that bridges over I-95. 
 
KieranTimberlake's scope of work includes the architectural design of the central pavilion which will house and support park amenities, including a café, skate rentals and support for the adjacent ice rink/summer plaza, and office space for the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation (DRWC) park operations team. It is projected to be Philadelphia's first mass timber and zero carbon structure for public use.

This week the United States Department of State announced that KieranTimberlake has been selected to design the new home for the U.S. Embassy to the Kingdom of Belgium and U.S. Mission to the European Union. 
 
Strategically located within walking distance of Belgian government ministries, EU institutions, other foreign missions, two major parks, embassy housing, and public transportation, the selected site offers unparalleled accessibility and convenience for supporting U.S. diplomats abroad. 
 
KieranTimberlake's commitment to sustainability and climate action will be reflected in the design and construction process by aligning with the U.S., Belgian, and the EU's global CO2 reduction strategies and initiatives.  
 
The new diplomatic facilities will provide a secure, modern, sustainable, and resilient platform for U.S. diplomacy in Belgium. 
 
Prior design work by KieranTimberlake for the Department of State includes the U.S. Embassy in London and the Foreign Affairs Security Training Center.

KieranTimberlake is participating in the International Union of Architects (UIA) World Congress of Architects in Copenhagen, Denmark. Meeting July 2-6, the UIA is an international non-governmental organization recognized by UNESCO as the only architectural union operating at an international level. The group convenes every three years.  
 
Partner and Research Director Billie Faircloth is a co-chair of the Design for Climate Adaptation panel with Maibritt Pedersen Zari of the Auckland University of Technology. The panel convenes delegates from more than 30 counties to exchange worldviews on the urgency of climate adaptation across five themes: Indigenous Knowledges, Frameworks and Feedback, Architectural Technologies, Nature-Based Solutions, and Behavior Change and Action.  
 
“We hope this congress serves not solely as a forum for gathering knowledge but also as an inspiration for transforming the professional practice of adaptation in the built environment,” Faircloth recently told ArchDaily.  
 
In addition, Leslie Louie, a delegate to the subpanel Partnerships for Change: Reframing Agency, will present “How Alternative Governance Models Can Help the Design Community Combat Forced Labor.” In this paper, KieranTimberlake proposes that as architects engaging issues of forced labor and supply chain equity should learn from the legacy of fair-trade and community-based, worker-driven programs.

KieranTimberlake's innovative work with prefabrication was recently highlighted in a WIRED Magazine article on sustainable building practices.  
 
As the global construction industry creates about one-third of the world's waste, the article emphasizes a necessary shift towards circular building, or "the practice of making buildings that can be more easily disassembled, moved, or repurposed." 
 
In a list of recent examples, they note "KieranTimberlake's innovative prefab, sustainable homes Loblolly House and Cellophane House™." 
 
Completed in 2006, Loblolly House used integrated assemblies of parts, fabricated off-site, to build a house in an entirely different way. The conception and detailing were formed about four new elements of architecture: scaffold, cartridge, block, and equipment. The connections between elements were designed to be made using only simple hand tools.

The East End Transformation at Washington University in St. Louis has earned a 2023 Regional & Urban Design Award from the American Institute of Architects.  
 
It is one of the most significant design awards for recognizing excellence in urban design, regional and city planning, and community development. 
 
"On behalf of the full consultant team and our client, Washington University in St. Louis, KieranTimberlake, along with our partners BNIM, Tao+Lee Associates, Moore Ruble Yudell, Mackey Mitchel, Perkins Eastman, Michael Vergason Landscape Architects, and Schulze and Grassov, is honored to receive this recognition from the American Institute of Architects for the East End Transformation project," remarked partner James Timberlake. 
 
"The mandate and vision to provide for a sustainable future through a 'new front threshold,' connecting Forest Park to the historic campus and incorporating five new structures, is a once-in-a-century opportunity."

In 2022, KieranTimberlake's projects continued to earn international acclaim. Each award recognizes our team's dedication to thoughtful architecture integrated to site, program, and people.

The adaptive reuse of the Bulletin Building transformed an architecturally and culturally significant 1955 structure into a contemporary life science building in Philadelphia.

KieranTimberlake was on campus for the celebration of the future renovation and expansion of historic Stuart Weitzman Hall at the University of Pennsylvania's Weitzman School of Design. 
 
This will be the first major capital project for the School in more than 50 years. 
 
KieranTimberlake has several Penn alumni on staff, including Partners Stephen Kieran, James Timberlake, and Matthew Krissel. Partner Billie Faircloth and Principal Efrie Escott are current instructors at the School.

We are excited to announce the advancement of 14 staff members to leadership positions within the firm who will continue to question, explore, and improve the built environment.

These six new Principals and eight new Associates demonstrate exceptional commitment to KieranTimberlake's mission and values. Advancement recognizes each person's leadership qualities and extensive design and research experience. 

As our renovation of the Folger Shakespeare Library continues, Partner Stephen Kieran joined Folger Director Michael Witmore and Anneliza Kaufer of Olin for a discussion on the project's architectural vision scope.

On September 8, 2022 the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts unveils its new permanent exhibit, “Art and Ideals: President John F. Kennedy.” Led by KieranTimberlake, this exhibit was deemed by the organization's leadership to be a high-priority initiative in the updating of the Center's public spaces.

This fall the University of Washington will break ground on a new, $90 million Interdisciplinary Engineering Building, with $10 million donated from Boeing. The state of Washington will also contribute $50 million to help foster a pipeline of local engineering talent. The project is a design-build in partnership with Hensel Phelps.

On June 30, the Supreme Court ruled by a 6–3 majority in West Virginia v. EPA that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cannot compel utilities to switch from coal power plants to renewables. 
 
Read the full essay in response to this ruling, published in Architectural Record, and co-authored by KieranTimberlake Principal Efrie Escott along with fellow thought leaders from LMN Architects, Sustainable Performance Institute, SERA Architects, Integrus Architecture, P.S., Moseley Architects, ZGF Architects, BuildingGreen, Inc, and LPA, Inc.. 
 
"Design professionals and our clients have a stake in this decision because buildings use over three-quarters of all electricity in the U.S," they write. 
 
"While architects and engineers often design energy-efficient buildings and advocate for energy efficiency through policies and codes, we rarely advocate for renewable electricity generation even though it is central to our decarbonization goals."

Partner and Research Director Billie Faircloth, Principal Ryan Welch, and Associate Efrie Escott are part of a team that has been selected to receive $2.4M in funding from the US Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).  
 
KieranTimberlake, in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania, Texas A&M University, The City College of New York, and Sika, will design carbon-negative, medium-sized building structures by developing a high-performance structural system for carbon absorption and storage over buildings' lifespan.

The University of Pennsylvania has approved formal plans to renovate and expand the historic Morgan Building at the Stuart Weitzman School of Design. 
 
After its transformation into Stuart Weitzman Hall, the building will retain historic architectural elements of the original structure, especially on the façade, including the porch and balcony. 
 
“Notably, this is the most significant building expansion project for the School in 55 years,” said Frederick Steiner, Dean and Paley Professor. 
 
KieranTimberlake has deep ties to the University and School of Design. Partners Matt Krissel, Stephen Kieran, and James Timberlake are all alumni. Billie Faircloth, Partner and Research Director, is an adjunct professor. 
 
Read the full release here.

The American Institute of Architects has selected KieranTimberlake's US Embassy in London as a recipient of the 2022 Architecture Award, one of the most significant design awards for completed works of architecture.  
 
“On behalf of the full consultant team and our client, the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations of the US Department of State, KieranTimberlake is honored to receive this recognition. In designing the new Embassy in London, we endeavored to set a new paradigm for the architecture of diplomacy. The building creates an environment for diplomacy by becoming a diplomat of the environment and establishing a special place within London representing the values of the United States of America,” remarked partner James Timberlake.

In 2021 KieranTimberlake's projects were honored in award ceremonies across the country. Each award recognizes our team's dedication to thoughtful architecture integrated to site, program, and people. See the award-winning projects—including Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake's Award of Distinction from AIA Pennsylvania—below.

The Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis has awarded its most prestigious distinction to KieranTimberlake. The Dean's Medal recognizes significant contributions to the fields of architecture, art, and design and to the school.

Henley Hall is the new home for UC Santa Barbara's Institute for Energy Efficiency and supports their research mission to develop breakthrough technologies that save energy while advancing the standard of living worldwide. Recently, Henley Hall received the Gold Medal from AIA Philadelphia.

The new Penn State Innovation Hub in State College, opened in October 2021, supports the university's entrepreneurial and innovation work with 85,000 square feet of cutting-edge makerspaces, collaboration areas, and classrooms.

The Philadelphia chapter of the American Institute of Architects has recognized two KieranTimberlake projects with honors at the 2021 Design Awards Celebration.

The latest renderings of the Park at Penn's Landing, from the design team comprised of KieranTimberlake and HargreavesJones, are now available for the public to view. The renderings show built and landscape features of the 11.5-acre park, including a playground and skating rink, as well as the KieranTimberlake-designed events pavilion and café.  
 
The park will reconnect Philadelphia's Old City neighborhood to the Delaware River by covering a portion of Interstate 95 and Christopher Columbus Boulevard. The design team envisions a welcoming civic space lush with trees and activity. 

AIA Central States has recognized Anabeth and John Weil Hall, part of Washington University in St. Louis' East End Transformation and home of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, with an honorable mention award at the 2021 AIA Central States Region Excellence in Design Awards.  
 
Jury comments noted the building's internal connections and light-filled spaces, "it is a study in translucency and light. It is thoughtful and articulate, full of connections," as well as the precision of the project, "there is no part of the space that is overlooked.”

KieranTimberlake founding partners Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake were honored by The Center for Architecture and Design with the 35th Louis I. Kahn Award in a ceremony in Philadelphia on November 2, 2021. 
 
“To a student, and young architect, Louis Kahn exemplified practicing at the pinnacle of architecture,” said James Timberlake. “Louis Kahn was an architect's architect.” 
 
The award honors the most influential and accomplished architects from around the world in memory of Philadelphia architect Louis Kahn [1901-1974], whose monumental designs have influenced generations of architects, including Stephen and James. 
 
Previous recipients of the Louis I. Kahn Award include Sir David Adjaye (2018) and Jeanne Gang, FAIA (2017). 
 
“We are humbled and grateful for this award,” James said. “As for Steve and me, and the firm at-large, it is recognition of the diligence, effort, and hard work that we give to each and every commission and an acknowledgement to our clients that they made the right choice.” 
 
Steve and James were awarded at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archeology on November 2, 2021. Proceeds from the event will benefit architecture education for young people in Philadelphia through the Charter High School for Architecture + Design and The Center for Architecture + Design's Architecture in Education program.   

KieranTimberlake's first home designed with the OpenHome system is now under construction in New Hampshire and featured in FastCompany. OpenHome is a collaboration with Bensonwood that combines prefab, virtual reality, and architectural expertise.  
 
OpenHome's predesigned base components allow architects to spend less time those parts and more time understanding the home's site, its orientation, and the kinds of views and experiences the owner hopes to have. The OpenHome system combines prefab, virtual reality, and the touch of an architect to bring architect-designed homes in about half the time, and at a cost savings.

KieranTimberlake Partner Billie Faircloth has joined Building Transparency's Board of Directors. This collaboration supports the transfer of KT Innovations-built Tally® to Building Transparency's suite of open-source carbon accounting tools. Building Transparency's board ensures that programs are effective, ethical, and serve the public interest as they address embodied carbon's role in climate change. See the rest of the board here.

KieranTimberlake's Industry-Changing, Life Cycle Assessment App Tally® Transferred to Open-Access Organization Building Transparency

Increasing availability of the powerful design tool to design professionals significantly limits the damaging effects of new building construction on the environment

This month, firm partner and director of research Billie Faircloth received the title of Fellow from the American Institute of Architects' Jury of Fellows. The fellowship is the AIA's highest honor, recognizing an individual for their exceptional work and contributions to architecture and society. 
 
The College of Fellows recognized Billie, who joined the firm in 2008, for her work education, research, literature, and the practice of architecture. 
 
Billie leads KieranTimberlake's transdisciplinary group of professionals leveraging research, design, and problem-solving processes from fields as diverse as environmental management, chemical physics, materials science, and architecture. She fosters collaboration between disciplines, trades, academies, and industries in order to define relevant problem-solving boundaries for the built environment.  

Faced with an increasing shortage of affordable housing for medical residents and trainees, the University of California, San Francisco, commissioned the Tidelands, a mixed-use urban housing complex providing sustainable accommodations for over 700 occupants. The Tidelands' mix of micro-unit, studio, and two-bedroom apartments are offered at rates 40% below market and are spread across two courtyard buildings. An adapted integrated project delivery model fast-tracked completion and occupancy. 

The University of Washington has selected KieranTimberlake as the architect for the Interdisciplinary Engineering Building, an approximately 75,000 sq. ft. building serving 950 new students. We are excited to continue our partnership with UW and to work alongside Hensel Phelps to create a student-focused building that includes flexible teaching spaces, research facilities, and collaboration space for UW's growing College of Engineering. This building is part of a 10-year strategic growth plan that incorporates expansion of enrollment, instruction, and facilities for the university's engineering departments which currently occupy space in 25 buildings across campus. This project is sited just a quarter mile from UW's North Campus Housing, another KieranTimberlake project which recently completed construction.  
 
Read more at the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce.

Here's to the homes we live in and the homes we create, and here's to 2021! 
 
The Tidelands | Loblolly House | Ortlieb's Bottling House

In 2020, KieranTimberlake received awards recognizing the firm and its projects. Each of these awards recognizes how we balance analysis with intuition to create innovative architecture. We are proud of our team and grateful to our clients and collaborators for these achievements.  
 

Five buildings at Washington University in St. Louis achieved Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum designations from the United States Green Building Council. LEED Platinum is the highest level awarded by the USGBC and recognizes a building that achieves superior sustainability measures. Read the full release here. 
 
Three of the five buildings are KieranTimberlake designs: Sumers Welcome Center, Schnuck Pavilion, and Weil Hall. Located on the on the newly transformed east end of the Danforth Campus, they feature flexible, naturally lit space for classes, studios, presentations, and recreation, all positioned around a new landscape designed by Michael Vergason Landscape Architects to support a lush and more connected campus experience. 
 
The project reshaped Washington University's east end of campus by transforming it into a welcoming and lush environment for learning. The Society for College and University planners recognized the project with for Excellence in Planning for a District or Campus Component, noting the remarkable change from a parking-dominated landscape. While remaining faithful to the university's original Cope and Stewardson plan, each of these buildings embodies a vibrant, contemporary approach to materials, technology, and sustainability. 
 
The projects also represent KieranTimberlake's dedication to creative stewardship of our planet's irreplaceable resources. KieranTimberlake is a signatory of the AIA 2030 Commitment and a founding signatory of US Architects Declare. We believe it is our collective ethical obligation to tackle climate change, social inequity, and ecological fragility on every project. Since 2006, KieranTimberlake has completed 13 LEED Platinum projects.

We are pleased to announce the advancement of nine staff members to new positions within the firm, including four new principals, who will continue to question, explore, and improve the built environment.

These individuals demonstrate commitment to KieranTimberlake's practice and values, and advancement recognizes each person's extensive design and research experience and leadership qualities. The advancements include four new principals, and five new associates. 

On 26 June, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and City of Philadelphia moved to a green phase of reopening, which lifted stay-at-home and business closure orders. Since then, we have begun to carefully welcome KieranTimberlake staff members back to the office with a hybrid model of working remotely and a controlled population of about 20 people in the studio per day. All staff members also continue to work from home and juggle their responsibilities while caring for others. 
 
At our studio (aka Ortlieb's Bottling House), we are now hosting occasional design team meetings in small groups, physically distanced, and fully masked. Those who have seen KieranTimberlake's studio know we have ample room for distance, abundant natural ventilation, a managed building system for environmental control, and flexibility to arrange ourselves across multiple work platforms for this next phase of a new reality. We have the broad technical capability to host meetings with both in-person and remote participants. And lastly, our travel is limited to instances of direct support of projects under construction, and is in full compliance with local, regional, and state advisories.  
 
It has been refreshing to be working well together in this more broadly defined "office space” and progressing our firm's projects and goals. We are especially pleased to be joined by four talented interns with us for the summer and into the fall from architecture programs around the country, including Rice, Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, and the University of Texas at Austin. 
 
We continue to be grateful for the partnership of our clients, consultants, collaborators, and staff as we work through the nexus of 2020 challenges together.

KieranTimberlake landed on Fast Company Magazine's list of Most Innovative Companies of 2020. The annual round-up of thought leaders recognized architecture firms' progress in reducing embodied carbon in the industry. The KT Innovations app Roast , an occupant comfort survey app that lets architects and facilities managers create surveys, collect responses, and visualize data for green building accreditation, received a shout-out in the nomination:

8. KIERANTIMBERLAKE 
For figuring out where an office is cold or drafty with its Roast survey app, so issues can be fixed 
 
KieranTimberlake is a rare example of a midsize firm that has a thriving research and technology division. The company is deeply focused on connecting spaces and has developed its own software to measure things like energy usage to inform architecture. An architecture firm that acts more like a tech company.

We grieve as we witness the horrific patterns of racism, bias, and white privilege in our country. We denounce the senseless murders of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, Ahmaud Arbery in Glynn County, Georgia, and countless others at the hands of a cruel, violent, and unjust system. We condemn the wrongful acts that are hidden and swept aside, without recourse, without change. 
 
These crimes, and the routine transgressions against Black lives must end. The protests bring into sharp focus the pain our communities of color face every single day. The emotional, physical, and social damage is profound. We must examine ourselves, listen and hear, and work harder with our communities of color to build a better society.  
 
KieranTimberlake is committed to building a more just and equitable world. We call upon the architecture and design community nationwide to do the same.

University of Toronto Magazine recently published an article highlighting the school's efforts to reduce its carbon footprint, including a new science building designed by KieranTimberlake. Located on the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) campus, the building will offer cutting-edge laboratory, support, and office space for wet research sciences as well as a headquarters for several key departments. The labs were planned in concert with UTM researchers and are designed to maximize collaboration and sharing of specialized equipment.  
 
The new science building is part of an ambitious long-term commitment to cut the university's carbon footprint to 37 per cent below 1990 levels by 2030. Numerous features of the design reduce consumption in a laboratory building that would traditionally be highly energy intensive, including ultra-low velocity fume hoods in the labs, heat recovery systems, and demand control ventilation. A ground-source heat pump field located under the building, and a rooftop photovoltaic array allow building systems to run almost entirely on electricity.  
 
The final design performs more than 50% better than ASHRAE 90.1 - 2013 energy targets, placing it among the most energy efficient lab buildings of its kind in North America.  
 
Read more about the new science building and University of Toronto's path to a low-carbon future.

In April 2020, the US Embassy in London received a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum certification from the United States Green Building Council. LEED is the most widely used green building rating system in the world and the Platinum designation is the highest possible rating a building can receive.

The East End Transformation of the Danforth Campus at Washington University in St. Louis was awarded an Excellence in Planning Honor for 2020 from the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP). The award recognizes excellence in creating an integrated plan for an entire geographic or functional area of a campus. Five design firms, including KieranTimberlake, Michael Vergason Landscape Architects, BNIM, Moore Ruble Yudell, and Perkins Eastman worked together to fulfill the vision. 
 

The Engineering Research Center at Brown University has received a Lab Design Excellence Award for 2020. Established by Lab Manager in 2019, these awards recognize the best new projects in research laboratory design, planning, and construction. A panel of industry experts evaluated each project for its innovation, sustainability, and safety.  
 
The Engineering Research Center, which was awarded an Honorable Mention for Innovation, opened in 2017. It unites three formerly disconnected laboratories, offering welcoming open space to the larger university community, and creating a new Engineering quadrangle. The core of the building's program is a suite of state-of-the-art, multi-disciplinary laboratories that are designed to adapt to shifting research types. Loft-like and accessible, the labs encourage dialogue among researchers and include connecting flexible workspaces that maximize daylight and views. 

On April 6, 2020, the board of directors of the National Institute of Building Sciences voted to approve the installation of four new officers, including KieranTimberlake founding partner James Timberlake. Timberlake will hold the office of Vice Chair of the 21-member board. The President of the United States appoints six members while the remaining fifteen are elected from the building industry community.

KieranTimberlake has been named to Fast Company magazine's prestigious annual list of the World's Most Innovative Companies for 2020. The list honors the businesses making the most profound impact on both industry and culture, showcasing a variety of ways to thrive in today's fast-changing world. 

“Innovation and invention have driven us ever since we started KieranTimberlake over thirty-five years ago. We invent software, innovate in material science, and lead in sustainability and carbon reduction, all while exploring form and design in architecture,” says Partner James Timberlake. “We are thrilled to be recognized by Fast Company for our work in all of those areas.”

Our redesign of Washington University's East End appeared in Architect magazine's February 2020 issue. The article emphasizes the project's energy efficiency, carbon reduction, and focus on preserving history on a 120-year-old campus while also keeping pace with innovation.  
 
It highlights the university's goal, announced in 2010, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020—while doubling its square footage with new construction. The efficiency of the five new buildings we designed (all of them achieving at least LEED Gold) helps meet that ambitious goal.  
 
The university architect reported that a student experience survey had uncovered a desire for more welcoming architecture. The new buildings meet this need, creating a more inviting experience for students through transparent glass facades and informal spaces that contrast with the existing formal Collegiate Gothic architecture.  
 
With regard to the new buildings, Partner James Timberlake is quoted as saying that the goal was to make them “all work together as a community of new buildings, yet also make the other buildings around them better. There's this oscillation between that new language and the existing one, and the glass buildings become a logical extension, creating something unique while still being very much part of Washington University.” 
 
The project also restores the expansive green space of Tisch park, moving parking and roadways underground via the innovative East End Garage, which is designed with the flexibility to accommodate additional programs in the future. 
 
Read the full article in Architect.

OpenHome, a new system for constructing customizable prefab homes, was unveiled recently in Dwell magazine. Created in collaboration with Bensonwood, a builder of timber-frame houses and high-performance architectural components, OpenHome aims to strengthen ties between the architect and the builder, offering homebuyers an easier and faster design-build experience with higher quality construction.

KieranTimberlake is committed to reducing carbon footprints both in our own projects and across the architecture industry. We help our clients understand and reduce their buildings' total greenhouse gas contributions, including contributions from both operational carbon emissions and embodied carbon.  
 
Understanding embodied carbon—the emissions associated with materials and construction processes throughout the whole life cycle of a building—requires Life Cycle Assessment, a practice that until recently has been new and confounding for most building professionals. KieranTimberlake has been a forerunner in the movement to quantify embodied carbon early in the design process when adjustments can be made to reduce embodied carbon in a building. In 2013, KieranTimberlake's affiliate company KT Innovations released Tally, a Revit plugin that makes LCA practices accessible to building professionals.

On February 14, 2020, KieranTimberlake Partner Jason E. Smith was named Fellow of the American Institute of Architects by the College of Fellows jury. This distinction is the AIA's highest honor, awarded to those who have made significant contributions to the profession and society. 
 
In more than two decades leading architectural projects across the country, Jason has evolved a wide-ranging and inclusive design process, resulting in a body of work that is collegial, artful, and spontaneous. As a partner at KieranTimberlake, Jason has led the design and construction of several award-winning projects, including Brockman Hall for Physics at Rice University and Pound Ridge House. 

A new training center for government officials that we designed in Blackstone, Virginia, was recently featured in Wired magazine. The Foreign Affairs Security Training Center (FASTC) is a project of the US State Department that provides an extensive campus of simulated learning environments alongside high-speed driving tracks and classroom buildings. 
 
Wired praises FASTC's “centerpiece”: the military operations in urban terrain simulator (MOUT). This simulated city is designed to help foreign affairs agents develop hard skills for situations they may encounter in the real world.  
 
Consolidating several existing training centers, FASTC will train thousands of government professionals on a daily basis as the “largest and most comprehensive of any US law-enforcement training resource.” 
 
 

Metropolis recently featured our work at Washington University in St. Louis to transform the East End of campus, bringing a unified, contemporary identity, creating a welcoming gateway to the university, and restoring the original intentions for a park-like setting. The story highlights our response to the existing Olmsted-designed campus, including the early 20th Century neogothic work of Cope & Stewardson and two 2005 buildings by Fumihiko Maki—modern limestone structures—that influenced our additions.  
 
Our work here included five elements: the new Weil Hall for the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts; Sumers Welcome Center and Schnuck Pavilion, which form a pair of glass pavilions that frame the towers of Brookings Hall beyond; the renovation and expansion of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum; and below-grade parking to replace surface lots with new green spaces in keeping with early aspirations for a campus composed of “outdoor rooms.” 

Associate Fátima Olivieri-Martinez was presented with the 2019 Young Architect Award from AIA Philadelphia last night. Each year, the award recognizes a registered architect between the ages of 25 and 39 for remarkable contributions in leadership, practice, and service.  
 
Originally from Puerto Rico, Fátima credits time spent in different regions of the US with sparking her interest in the built environment—and its cultural and climatic context. She pursued this interest at the University of Puerto Rico School of Architecture and the University of Virginia before coming to KieranTimberlake in 2011.  
 

On September 23, 2019, the Carbon Leadership Forum announced the release of a visionary new tool to evaluate the carbon emissions of building materials during the design process. As the impact of embodied carbon has become more widely recognized, the tool was developed in partnership with more than 30 industry leaders with the objective of reducing the carbon footprint of building materials.  
 
Embodied carbon refers to the emissions associated with building material manufacturing and construction. The Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (called EC3) is an open-source tool for architects, engineers, building owners, construction companies, material suppliers, et al that allows them to compare the embodied carbon of different construction materials and make selections that reduce those emissions. As new construction continues to accelerate across the country and around the world, empowering the industry to make positive change to reduce harmful emissions is extremely important.

KieranTimberlake acted as an EC3 tool methodology partner in this effort, with KT Innovation's Tally® functioning as a technology partner. Tally was created in 2013 as a software tool to allow designers and other users to evaluate the environmental impacts of their building material selections and design options. The developers of Tally and EC3 worked together to enable a bill of materials generated in Tally to be imported directly into EC3, where the imported materials are matched to manufacturer-specific products and associated embodied carbon figures based on Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs).  
 
The assignment of a specific manufacturer product or procurement spec in EC3 ensures the intent of the Tally Life Cycle Analysis is carried through to the completed project, resulting in reduction of embodied carbon and bringing carbon accountability to the building material supply chain. We are looking forward to adding this powerful tool to our practice—in combination with Tally—to further lower the embodied carbon of our projects. 
 
The EC3 tool was demonstrated during Greenbuild 2019 in Atlanta and released in November 2019. The public beta version can be accessed at http://buildingtransparency.org/auth/register.

We are thrilled to announce the publication of our new monograph, titled KieranTimberlake: Fullness, on November 19, 2019. This two-volume set focuses on our work over the past decade--including a range of projects, from the new US Embassy in London, to the renovation of Dilworth Park at Philadelphia's City Hall, and the recyclable dwelling known as Cellophane House™. The book's title reflects its foregrounding of the fully resolved work of architecture, in contrast to the design fragments that came to the fore in earlier monographs. The first volume features sweeping views of each project, showcasing the visual integrity of the work, while the second volume reveals the sum of its parts--through drawings, diagrams, and stories. Together, they capture the communicative, collaborative nature of our process and the alchemy of art and science that gives rise to final form.

In the wake of Hurricane Maria, how can Puerto Rico become more resilient and serve as an example and an inspiration to other communities? 
 
This is the question that prompted Puerto Rico native and KieranTimberlake Associate Fátima Olivieri to travel to the island in June of 2018. Thanks in large part to her efforts, this query also set the framework for KieranTimberlake's initiatives on the island for the past year and a half. 
 
After the devastation of Hurricane Maria, a Category 5 storm that catastrophically impacted the island in September 2017, it was imperative that communities in Puerto Rico think about long-term resilience strategies in addition to disaster relief and recovery efforts. The University of Puerto Rico's National Institute of Energy and Island Sustainability (INESI) invited KieranTimberlake to participate in a three-day workshop along with 42 other local and international universities, private organizations, NGOs, community partners, and government agencies. The goal of the workshop was to organize on-the-ground efforts and match local community groups with partner organizations through a RISE (Resilience through Innovation in Sustainable Energy) network for both immediate and long-term resilience initiatives.

Can architecture improve patient care? That's the question that led to the collaboration between KieranTimberlake Research and Dr. Bon Ku, an emergency department physician and Director of Jefferson University's Health Design Lab. Faced with few precedents for how layout affects communication between doctors, nurses, and patients, our team embarked on a two-year study to quantify the relationship between quality of care and emergency room design. Though still in analysis, our work has already begun to influence the Emergency Department layout at Jefferson University Hospital and was recently featured in a video on Wired. While the study's immediate impacts are exciting, Research Director Billie Faircloth is more interested in its larger implications. “The idea that you're giving people a way to study their space, thinking through some of the interventions they want to make, that's what's actually really important about the study.”

KieranTimberlake's innovative, energy efficient studio was recently cited by Penelope Green in The New York Times article, “Do Americans Need Air-Conditioning?” Green's story comments on the paradox of overcooled spaces during the summer months, and highlights our passive cooling experiment in which we eschewed air-conditioning for the entire summer of 2015. Instead, we relied on fans, open windows, dehumidifiers, and a nighttime flushing system that exhausted hotter air that accumulated during the day and replaced it with cooler evening air. While we ultimately installed an air-conditioner the following summer, as Green notes, our studio is as “a model of energy efficiency” thanks to our mixed mode operation.  
 
Also mentioned in the article is Roast, a comfort survey app developed by our affiliate company KT Innovations. As its name implies, Roast was born from our building manager's efforts to keep the office comfortable during our 2015 summer experiment. The first iterations ultimately led to a relaxed dress code, flexible work hours that avoided the afternoon heat, and additional fans. Over time, the survey evolved to collect feedback not only on temperature and humidity, but also brightness, noise levels, smells, cleanliness, productivity, and more.  
 
The full article is available online at The New York Times.

We're excited to announce the completion of the first phase of the University of Washington's North Campus Housing project! Designed in conjunction with landscape architect OLIN, this placemaking initiative connects a previously disjointed university district to the original campus core. In addition to providing much-needed student housing, the three new residence halls, the first of five planned for the North Campus, form a new University community defined by a network of intimate and memorable outdoor spaces.  
 
In this video, Partner Stephen Kieran and Associates Christopher Boskey and Melissa Clark discuss how the new buildings capture the classic Pacific Northwest landscape and the ways in which the architecture fosters a close-knit community.

The College of Physicians of Philadelphia's $25 million renovation and expansion campaign was recently highlighted in The Philadelphia Inquirer.  
 
Best known as the home of the infamous Mütter Museum and its troves of medical oddities, the College is the oldest medical society in the United States. The centerpiece of its campaign, the largest in its history, are renovations and restoration work that will improve visitor experience and expand and reorganize the College's available space.  

KieranTimberlake's work on Philadelphia's iconic Bulletin Building was recently featured in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Commissioned by the Brandywine Realty Trust, the project reimagines the former headquarters of the now-defunct Evening Bulletin newspaper at 30th and Market Streets in the city's booming University City neighborhood.

Since 2018, KieranTimberlake has partnered with UNICEF, GerHub, Arc'teryx, The North Face, the University of Pennsylvania, and others to reimagine the traditional Mongolian ger in order to find low-cost, high-value solutions for decreasing coal consumption and improving indoor air quality in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. 
 
We began by working closely with Mongolian communities to better understand how they kept their homes warm and improved their gers' thermal performance during brutal winters—the city is the world's coldest capital and regularly sees temperatures below -40 ºC. Five families allowed us to collect thermal data on their homes over the winter, providing our team with valuable insights into real-life fuel use and building performance.

The Folger Shakespeare Library recently announced its partnership with KieranTimberlake to renovate and expand its historic, Paul Cret-designed building. The project is part of a comprehensive master plan that will transform the Library's facilities for a new, broader, and more diverse audience.  
 
The expansion will revive the building and grounds with new and renovated exhibition and education spaces and universally accessible main entries, lobbies, and visitor amenities, as well as improved circulation. Many of the interior updates will be housed in the underground addition located beneath the Library's signature raised terrace along East Capitol street. To either side of this addition, new gardens designed by landscape architect OLIN will welcome visitors and serve as a park-like amenity.  
 
More information about this project is available in The Washington Post.  

Earlier this month the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis announced that it will unveil two of the four KieranTimberlake-designed capital projects that will transform the campus, reshape the student and visitor experience, and enhance the prominence of its on-campus art museum.  
 
The newly constructed Anabeth and John Weil Hall will house state-of-the-art graduate studios, classrooms, and digital fabrication spaces. At the same time, a major expansion and renovation of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will strengthen the museum's visibility, better showcase its renowned collection, and accommodate larger and more varied special exhibits. 

Melissa Clark and Erica Ehrenbard discuss their work on a series of wood panel installations made for the University of Washington. 
 
To accommodate its growing undergraduate population, the University of Washington commissioned KieranTimberlake to develop housing for the northern edge of its Seattle campus. This project, which came to be known as the New North Campus, includes a new master plan and series of residence halls, each with a mix of building-specific and campus-wide programming, as well as a network of outdoor spaces designed to foster community and attract students to an underutilized portion of campus. Last fall marked the completion of the project's first phase, and we celebrated the opening of Madrona, McCarty, and Willow Halls.  

KieranTimberlake is pleased to announce that three new projects have been honored with design awards by the American Institute of Architects, Autodesk, and the World Architecture Festival.  
 
High Horse Ranch, an off-site fabricated private residence in California's Mendocino County, won the Villa category at the World Architecture Festival in Amsterdam. It was also honored with Merit Awards from the AIA Philadelphia and the AIA California Council, as well as an Honor Award from the AIA Pennsylvania. Jurors were drawn to the way the ranch's main house and two guest cabins were carefully placed and designed to highlight their stunning natural surroundings. “The project is nestled seamlessly into the site and takes maximum advantage of the views,” the AIA Pennsylvania jury noted, adding that “the use of modular construction in such a remote location was captivating.” 

In Philadelphia, residents' life expectancy is a product of their zip code. That's what Dr. Bon Ku and Kr. Robert Pugulsi of Thomas Jefferson University's JeffDESIGN and Health Design Lab found while researching the health of Philadelphia's lower income communities, where life expectancy can swing as much as 20 years between neighborhoods.  
 
CoLab Philadelphia is an initiative born out of this research that aims to bring health and wellness outside of traditional medical facilities and directly into the neighborhoods that need it most. The Community Design Collaborative convened the New Kensington Community Development Corporation, Impact Services, Thomas Jefferson University's JeffDESIGN, KieranTimberlake, Ballinger and Cohere to convert an Airstream trailer into a mobile, multi-use platform that builds healthier communities through creative placemaking.  
 
“Health services are not readily accessible in a number of communities,” said Georgeanna Foley, a member of the design staff and leader of KieranTimberlake's CoLab team. “We wanted to design a creative, mobile, wellness-centered space, but faced a number of questions: What is a mobile health service? What issues should it address? What is health at the community level?”  
 
To answer these questions, we met with Kensington residents to discuss what makes a community healthy, what residents need to lead healthier lives, and what role they saw CoLab Philadelphia playing in their neighborhood, as well as how designers, policy makers, non-profits, and healthcare providers can work together to bring wellness into different neighborhoods.  

KieranTimberlake was recently named a Design Company of the Year Finalist as part of Fast Company's 2018 Innovation by Design Awards. The annual awards recognize creative, problem-solving designers and business across 15 different categories. In addition to Design Company of the Year, KieranTimberlake earned accolades for our work on Ideal Choice Homes (Social Good Finalist), Roast (Space, Places, and Cities Finalist), and the US Embassy in London (Space, Places, and Cities Honorable Mention).

In the Mongolian city of Ulaanbaatar, the cold climate and air pollution go hand in hand. The city is the coldest capital on earth, and its population relies largely on coal to survive the harsh winters. As a result, 42% of Mongolia's children suffer from pollution-related health effects and Ulaanbaatar is home to the most toxic air on earth. 
 
To help reduce the city's pollution and bring cleaner air to its residents, a UNICEF Innovation team including KieranTimberlake, Stanford University, the University of Pennsylvania, and others traveled to Ulaanbaatar to reimagine the traditional ger. By incorporating better insulation and healthier heating options, the team aims to maintain ger culture while also helping families save money and breathe easier.  
 
During the trip, which was recently featured in Forbes, the team built their own traditional ger and met with community members to better understand their wants and needs. The lessons learned from these experiences informed a series of prototypes currently in development that test different materials and technologies. The final prototypes will be evaluated in Ulaanbaatar in the winter of 2019.  
 
Watch the video above or read the full article to learn more about the project and how you can help.  

The Northern Liberties Neighbors Association (NLNA) recently celebrated the opening of its new Pavilion designed by KieranTimberlake's Community Involvement group and funded through a grant from the Penn Treaty Special Services District. Located just a few blocks from our studio, the NLNA Pavilion provides a permanent landscaped space for the community to host many types of events.

KieranTimberlake recently joined Brown University to celebrate the official dedication of a new Engineering Research Center. The state-of-the-art research facility, which broke ground in October 2015, establishes a unified identify for the School of Engineering while also expanding the University's capacity for multidisciplinary collaboration. This project also marks Brown's first new building executed with a multi-party integrated project delivery agreement.  

“This building is a statement about the importance of engineering at Brown and also the world at large,” University President Christina Paxson said during the dedication ceremony, adding that the University's goal is “to blend engineering with a keen appreciation and understanding of the humanities, ethics, and social sciences.”

 
The new Engineering Research Center joins together three existing buildings, creating a welcoming convening point for the School of Engineering and the greater campus complete with a configurable common space and lawn that accommodates study groups, poster sessions, receptions, meetings, events, art shows, and more. The building, which is tracking LEED Gold certification, hosts specialized research facilities for nanomaterials, photonics, and environmental science, and is designed to expand research in renewable energy, advanced materials, and other areas. 
 
The project team included Shawmut Design and Construction as Contractor, Research Facilities Design for Laboratory Planning, BuroHappold for Structural and MEP Engineering, Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. for Civil Engineering, Gustafson Guthrie Nichol for Landscape, and Vidaris for Sustainability Consulting. 
 
To read more about the Engineering Research Center, click here.  

Earlier this month, KieranTimberlake researchers Billie Faircloth, Christopher Connock, and Ryan Welch attended the Smartgeometry conference in Toronto and conducted a week-long workshop called "Materials as Probes." The workshop was an outgrowth of an ongoing research collaboration between KieranTimberlake and the Center for Information Technology and Architecture (CITA) in Denmark about the design potential of thermodynamic modeling. 
 
Watch the video above and read more about the workshop on the Smartgeometry website.

The AIA has selected KieranTimberlake's studio at 841 North American Street as a 2018 Committee on the Environment (COTE) Top Ten Plus awardee. The COTE Top Ten honors projects that integrate environmental performance with design excellence, with a Plus designation reserved for projects with exemplary building performance metrics and occupant feedback. In their decision statement, the jury applauded our studio renovation for “emphasizing occupant comfort rather than prescribed metrics” and highlighted the way our firm “actively monitors, learns from, and improves the building's performance over time.”

Three months after architecture writer Witold Rybczynski outlined our journey to achieve passive comfort amidst Philadelphia's hot, muggy summers, we are proud to announce that Roast, the latest software application development project from KT Innovations, has been officially released for external beta testing.  
 
Designed to ease the process of conducting post-occupancy evaluations, Roast is a web-based survey app that captures how people experience their space. Created with ASHRAE standards in mind, Roast measures comfort using a range of factors including temperature, humidity, personal activity level, air quality and movement, and visual and auditory stimulation. Survey administrators can include any or all of these questions in customized surveys and can filter and analyze results directly in the app. Since responses are tied to each participant's location, Roast also helps identify trends and pinpoint improvements.

KieranTimberlake is proud to announce the elevation of 17 Principals, 19 Associates, four Directors, four Managers, and three Specialists. These new roles reflect the firm's steady expansion over the past 35 years as our team has grown to include 120 interdisciplinary professionals with backgrounds ranging from architecture and design to computation, urban planning, research, and visualization. Joining a leadership group that includes seven Partners, these individuals will continue to push our practice forward as they bring confidence, experience, and creativity to each of our projects.

In 2015, Rice University commissioned KieranTimberlake to design a combined administrative building and parking structure for a newly activated campus entrance in an area defined by live oaks, an alee of cedar elms, and longstanding campus buildings. “We needed to find a way to carefully situate this tall structure within the existing campus context,” Associate David Hincher said. 
 
Its position alongside the President's Office and the Cohen House, a popular indoor/outdoor event space, meant that the garage needed to do more than just blend in. It had to function within a distinctive landscape and extend a legacy of thoughtful planning at Rice.  
 
Our solution took the form of a paneled facade of woven, permeable polymer material. Cost effective, tensile, and incredibly strong, the material is stretched between trapezoidal paneled frames that are angled to break up the garage's scale, maintain visual interest, and create strategic breaks in the facade that allow light and natural air into the garage while reducing the glare that can be seen from its neighboring spaces. “Angling the panels away from the outer structure was our way of providing balance,” Hincher offered. “It helps enliven the facade as light and shadow pass across it, but it also helps to break down the scale of the building while ventilating the garage's interior to avoid the cost and emissions associated with mechanical ventilation.”

The US Embassy in London opened its doors to the media for the first time last month, nearly nine years after the Department of State's Overseas Building Operations first announced a design competition for the project. Having outgrown the current, Eero Saarinen-designed embassy in Grosvenor Square, the Department of State selected KieranTimberlake to build a new home for diplomacy that was open, transparent, and welcoming while still being secure and environmentally responsible. “In the form and expression of the new Embassy, we envisioned a holistic fusion of urbanism with site, of building and urban form with landscape,” said James Timberlake in his remarks to the press. “We wanted to create a new embassy that is both evocative and that performs, one that represents our democracy and our relationship with the United Kingdom beautifully but at the same time conserves and produces energy.”

This fall, our research on occupant behavior and building design made the news. In 2013, after conducting spatial survey research that explored the relationship between occupant behavior and urban park design, we began working with Dr. Bon Ku, the Assistant Dean for Health and Design and Director of JeffDESIGN at Thomas Jefferson University, to determine if this type of analysis could also be applied to the field of healthcare. In September, our resulting collaborative research was covered by the Philadelphia Inquirer. “People ask me: ‘Are you just trying to make the E.R. look prettier or polished, with the walls a more soothing color?'” Dr. Ku told the paper. “No. You can design spaces to change the behaviors of people.” 
 
Together with a team of Dr. Ku's doctors, nurses, medical students, and hospital administrators, we used spatial analytics to investigate how workspace layout affects communication and team interaction amongst nurses and doctors in the ER department. The primary goal of our research was to uncover opportunities to introduce design thinking and innovation to emergency departments.

In designing a 10,000-square-foot addition for Pendleton West, Wellesley College's art and music facility, we wanted to highlight and reflect the building's idyllic woodland site by creating a facade that mimics the pattern and texture of tree bark. We selected board-formed concrete as the primary building material for the addition, a process that imprints the grain and texture of the wood casting forms onto the concrete. “With a lot of concrete, you can't tell how it's made,” said Tim Peters, the Associate in Charge of the project. “With board-formed concrete, the memory of the wood used in the casting remains in the finished product. That was important for this building, since we wanted it to feel more like a tree than a building, but we also wanted to reference some of the stone that's prevalent throughout Wellesley's campus.”

How will wood age over time? What might it look like in six months, a year, or even 80 years after construction? We confronted these questions while designing new residence halls for the University of Washington. During design, we developed a concept for a cedar rainscreen that complements the buildings' brick and concrete facades, pays homage to the Pacific Northwest, and remains beautiful in its unfinished state. But, before featuring this material on 215,000 square feet of building envelope, we wanted to be sure that untreated, lower-maintenance wood could weather artfully in Seattle's damp climate. “Wood ages very visibly,” researcher Efrie Escott noted. “It can turn silver and become even more beautiful over time, or it can blacken and warp.”  
 
To better understand how the cedar rainscreen would change over time, KieranTimberlake developed a predictive modeling script that visualizes how wood ages in various locations. To do this, we gathered peer-reviewed research from laboratory weathering experiments and compiled the findings in a script that accounts for two principal factors influencing wood weathering: solar exposure and exposure to wind-driven rain. The first version of our Predictive Wood Weathering Tool included only those two variables because other factors, such as climate and airflow, were already accounted for. “There were some simplifications and assumptions that we were able to make because we knew the specific climate we were building in,” Escott said. “For example, we knew the rainscreen's exterior was likely to be saturated each day because we were building in a climate that reaches dew point every day.”  

KieranTimberlake's work on Wellesley College's Pendleton West was recently featured in Architectural Record. Written by Beth Broome, the article heralds the renovation and 10,000-square-foot addition as a prominent and accessible new gateway to Wellesley's historic Academic Quad. Though surrounded by predominantly brick buildings, Broome calls out Pendleton's concrete facade as a way to “help the building assert itself as a portal through its distinctiveness while subtly nodding to the [neighboring Rudolph and Klauder-designed] buildings, with their recast and limestone copings and trims,” adding that the precast and cast-in-place concrete panels “give the exterior a rich tactility.” 
 
To read the full article, click here.

This fall, the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania chapters of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) honored three KieranTimberlake projects with 2017 Design Awards.  
 
Pendleton West at Wellesley College was named an AIA Philadelphia Honor Award winner and also awarded the AIA Pennsylvania's top prize, the Silver Medal. Comprised of a renovation and addition that consolidates Wellesley's arts program into one cohesive structure, Pendleton West helps establish the college's arts department as a prominent and unified fixture on campus. “There wasn't a moment where you didn't understand the building or the architects' intent,” said AIA Pennsylvania's Head Juror Reed Kroloff, AIA, adding that the building “communicates as a piece of architecture but communicates as an entry as well. Each time you return to it, you're going to get something new from it and it's going to continue to inform and enrich your life. That's the difference between buildings and architecture.”

Last week, Wellesley College celebrated the opening of the renovated Pendleton West building with a dedication ceremony and a series of performances. After two years of construction, the new interdisciplinary arts space reopens with an overhauled, open floor plan and a 10,000-square-foot addition that connects Pendleton West to the neighboring Jewett Art Center. 
 
Designed as a cutting-edge contemporary arts space, both the addition and 48,000-square-foot renovation make room for Wellesley's evolving and interconnected arts curriculum, which include traditional arts, music, and digital media programs. The new Pendleton West houses a suite of flexible art making spaces including classrooms and studios alongside acoustically tuned rehearsal and performance spaces.  

“The idea was to completely integrate a performative acoustical system into the architecture of the building so that you couldn't tell what was architecture and what was performance,” said Stephen Kieran.

 
Wellesley's week-long celebration, titled Transformations: Celebrating Pendleton West, featured a discussion with Stephen Kieran and Jesse Nicholson, landscape architect at Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates. The celebration also included performances from the pioneering vertical dance group BANDALOOP, the Wellesley College Chamber Singers, and the Wellesley College Theatre.

KieranTimberlake Partner and Research Director Billie Faircloth has been honored with a 2017 Women in Architecture Award from Architectural Record. The award, presented to an architect for outstanding work in “innovative design, materials or building type,” celebrates Faircloth's work in spearheading an inventive transdisciplinary approach in KieranTimberlake's Research Group and across the firm.

CANopy, an installation and app developed by KieranTimberlake's Community Involvement group, was recently unveiled at The Beneficial Bank's headquarters at 1818 Market Street in Philadelphia, where it will be on view through November 2017. The structure is designed to be assembled in various locations, expanding the idea of a food drive into an engaging, educational, and mobile piece of artwork.

The Architects Newspaper recently hosted Facades+ Philadelphia, a multi-city conference series that brings together architects, industry experts, academics, and building owners to discuss “all things building skin.” The event was co-chaired by Partner Matthew Krissel and moderated by KieranTimberlake staff Efrie Freidlander, Fátima Olivieri, and Jon McCandlish.

Last week, KieranTimberlake partnered with Metropolis Magazine to host a Think Tank discussion about new paradigms for planning and designing 21st century cities. The event, titled “Pedestrians, Bikes, and Cars: Designing a Balanced Multi-Modal 21st Century City,” was moderated by the magazine's Director of Design Innovation, Susan S. Szenasy. 
 
Using Philadelphia as a case study, Szenasy led a panel of experts to explore how the city might re-balance its infrastructure as equitable for all modes of transportation. The panelists were KieranTimberlake partner James Timberlake, former Mayor's Office of Transportation Chief of Staff Andrew Stober, Sarah Clark Stuart, director of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, safe streets advocate Dena Ferrara Driscoll, and Drexel University professor and department head Alan Greenberger.

On September 19, 2017, KieranTimberlake and Metropolis magazine will host a Think Tank discussion on Pedestrians, Bikes, and Cars: Designing a Balanced Multi-Modal 21st Century City.  

Can we re-envision a historic city like Philadelphia to balance the needs of pedestrians, cyclists, and automobiles? 
 
In 2015, several square miles of Center City Philadelphia were blocked for a Papal visit. Suddenly, citizens glimpsed urban space relieved of the usual congestion, smog, and anxiety caused by car traffic. The event sparked regularly-scheduled free street events that opened areas for people to engage the city differently. It also raised broader questions: How can we holistically reimagine our streets to improve quality of life and the environment? And what would such a radical transformation look—and sound—like?

 
TIMING 
4:00 pm Discussion 
5:30 pm Networking and Refreshments 
Free | 1.5 AIA CEU HSW credits available 
To RSVP for the event, click here. 
 
PANELISTS 
James Timberlake, FAIA 
Partner, KieranTimberlake 
 
Dena Driscoll 
Co-Chair, 5th Square PAC 
 
Alan Greenberger, FAIA 
Department Head and Distinguished Teaching Professor 
Department of Architecture Design and Urbanism 
Drexel University 
 
Andrew Stober 
Vice President of Planning and Economic Development, University City District 
 
Sarah Clark Stuart 
Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia 
 
MODERATOR 
Susan S. Szenasy 
Director of Design Innovation, Metropolis 

The Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia recently honored KieranTimberlake's studio at 841 North American Street with a Grand Jury Award. This award recognizes projects that contribute to the Philadelphia area's unique character and architectural identity by focusing on the restoration, rehabilitation, and adaptive reuse of historic buildings, or by incorporating sympathetic additions or new constructions to valued historic resources. Alongside projects such as the John Bartram House in Bartram's Gardens, the University of Pennyslvania's Pennovation Center, and the Walnut Lane Bridge, KieranTimberlake was honored for our commitment to creative and adaptive reuse during our transformation of the former Ortlieb's Brewing Company's Bottling House into our current studio space, which includes a fabrication lab and prototyping shop in the former loading dock.  
 
To read more about the award, or to see a full list of award winners, click here. 

KieranTimberlake is home to a curious bunch that finds inspiration in unlikely places. In anticipation of the fast-approaching summer season, we asked our designers to tell us about their architectural must-reads. Whether you're reading on the beach or in a crowded train car, these staff suggestions are sure to stir up your summer:

Tally®, a Revit®-integrated Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) application developed in-house by KT Innovations, recently released a Submission Guide to help its users earn LEED v4 credits. The Submission Guide is a free resource that gives Tally users step-by-step instructions to help them document and submit for the LEED v4 Building Life Cycle Impact Reduction Credit, Option 4. Through this credit, users can earn up to five points for reducing the environmental impacts a building's materials and processes over its full life cycle.  
 
To learn more about Tally, or to download the free Submission Guide, click here.

At KieranTimberlake, we use several mediums at one time to develop our designs. That means it's important for us to move between sketches, computer models, and physical prototypes with ease. We also want our entire team, including experts and non-experts alike, to engage with our digital models in order to derive insight from what they see and contribute to the design process. One of the tools we've tested to achieve this ideal collaboration and integration is Modelo, a web-based application for presenting 3D and virtual reality models. The results have been so positive that when the company asked us to share our experience with their product in a video, we were happy to oblige. 
 
To learn more about some of the other technologies we use in our design process, click here. 
 
To see more Modelo content featuring Partner Matthew Krissel's speculation on the architecture in the next 5–10 years, click here.

The US Embassy in London was recently featured on the art and design website Artsy. Listed alongside such striking works as the Ghana National Museum of Slavery and Rio de Janeiro's Museum of Image and Sound, the embassy was named cited as one of the buildings that will “define architecture in 2017.” Writer Anna Kats praises the embassy's unique and transparent polymer-clad cube exterior that “rejects the fortress-like designs of so many other American embassies,” noting that this design results in a building that “interacts with and is semipermeable to the densely populated surrounding neighborhood while maintaining the necessary standards of high security.” 
 
To read the full article, click here. 

Did you know that the average low-income American can only afford to spend $5.20 on food per day? This past year, KieranTimberlake partnered with local hunger relief organization Philabundance to develop an app, called CAN-opy, that generated awareness and donations through a game that challenges users to create a balanced meal with just $5.20. In total we've raised over $10,000, but we want you to help us raise even more. Starting today, if you play our game and donate, KieranTimberlake will match your gift, up to $25,000.  
 
Let's make 2017 the Year to Give!  
 
Click here to play the game. 
 
Click here to donate directly to Philabundance.

As part of KieranTimberlake's commitment to dedicate 1% of its time to community service and engagement, the Community Involvement group collaborates with nonprofit organizations on pro-bono projects of various scales. In this Report from the Studio, Community Involvement members Fátima Olivieri and Efrie Friedlander discuss their work on Mars City.

As part of KieranTimberlake's commitment to dedicate 1% of its time to community service and engagement, the Community Involvement group collaborates with nonprofit organizations on pro-bono projects of various scales. In this Report from the Studio, Community Involvement member Theresa Starrs discusses the group's involvement with Spark.

This past December, a new documentary examining the work of late architectural legend Eero Saarinen aired in the American Masters series on PBS. KieranTimberlake was proud to sponsor the production of this exciting film. Eero Saarinen: The Architect Who Saw the Future examines some of Saarinen's most iconic work, including the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the TWA Terminal in New York City, and the David S. Ingalls Rink in New Haven. Having completed the renovation and expansion of Morse and Ezra Stiles Colleges which were among Saarinen's last works, KieranTimberlake is doubly inspired by this film.  
 
To watch the trailer or the entire feature film, click here.

A story about KieranTimberlake's design for a new multi-use building for New York University recently appeared in the Wall Street Journal's real estate section. In the piece, “NYU Expansion Aims to Make School More Inclusive,” reporter Josh Barbanel describes the design for 181 Mercer, a new 735,000-square-foot building that was unveiled to the University community on December 8, 2016. He outlines the history of the site and how the building meets NYU's mission, highlighting the ways in which the building ties itself to the surrounding community. In addition to a glass facade that visually links the building and neighborhood, 181 Mercer's footprint was shifted in order to create a landscaped pedestrian walkway through the block, bringing connectivity and life to a previously dark and gloomy landscape.  
 
To read the full article, click here.

This fall, KieranTimberlake was honored with several awards from both the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania chapters of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). KieranTimberlake's work for the Congregation Rodeph Shalom synagogue received a Gold Medal at the local chapter's annual Design Awards Gala, earning praise from the jury for its masterful symmetry between the historic original building and its modern, glass addition. The AIA Philadelphia also recognized the Consortium for Building Energy Innovation and the firm's studio at 841 N. American Street with Merit Awards. Both of these projects, along with Dilworth Park were additionally honored with Citations of Merit by the AIA Pennsylvania.  
 
To read more about the AIA Philadelphia's Design Awards Gala, or to see more photos, click here.  

Ground broke last month on the Northern Liberties Neighbors Association's new Community Center Pavilion. The new pavilion was funded thanks to a grant from the Penn Treaty Special Services District and was designed by KieranTimberlake's Community Involvement group as part of the firm's commitment to dedicate 1% of its time to community service and engagement. 
 
The Northern Liberties Community Center Pavilion will replace an existing gravel yard that currently hosts multiple programs including a children's summer art camp, the NLNA Annual Plant Sale, and other overflow Community Center events. Created in partnership with landscape architect Studio Bryan Hanes and structural engineer Larsen & Landis, the new pavilion will continue to accommodate these programs, but new landscaping and a new mirrored roof will transform the space into a more flexible, open, and public greenspace that will better serve the neighborhood's needs.  
 
To learn more about the NLNA Community Center Pavilion project, click here.

Last month, the Philadelphia chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) honored KieranTimberlake Associate Joanne Aitken, FAIA, with the John Frederick Harbeson Award. The award, presented annually at the AIA Philadelphia Design Awards celebration, recognizes longtime members of the architectural community and their significant lifetime contributions to AIA Philadelphia, the architectural community as a whole, and the greater Philadelphia community. 
 
Over the course of her career, Aitken has been involved in numerous initiatives that have contributed to the Philadelphia's architectural landscape. During her time as president of the AIA Philadelphia, she helped plan the 2000 AIA National Convention, part of which included establishing the first Charter High School for Architecture and Design. As a founding member and Chair of the Steering Committee of the Design Advocacy Group of Philadelphia, Aitken has also encouraged a discourse on planning and high quality design in the Philadelphia region. In West Philadelphia, Aitken initiated the Calvary Methodist Church's conversion into the Calvary Center for Culture and Community and helped establish the West Philadelphia Streetcar Suburb National Register Historic District. 
 
To read more about the Harbeson Award, or for a full list of past recipients, click here.  

As part of KieranTimberlake's commitment to dedicate 1% of its time to community service and engagement, the Community Involvement group collaborates with nonprofit organizations on pro-bono projects of various scales. Community Involvement members Fatima Olivieri, Megan Suau, and Laura Willwerth discuss their most recent pro-bono project created in partnership with Philabundance.

The Boston Society of Architects recently honored Harvard University River Houses Stone Hall, McKinlock Hall, and Dunster House with the William D. Smith Memorial Award. These residence halls, the first three of Harvard's House Renewal program, were recognized for their successful integration of accessibility and historical preservation.

Architect magazine recently announced that Tally®, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) application developed by KT Innovations, has won a 2016 R+D Award. The Autodesk® Revit® plugin is one of only five recipients of this year's award, which is given annually to specific projects that bring together innovative research and technology in the field of architecture.  
 
The software, created in partnership with Autodesk and thinkstep, garnered praise from the jury because of its ability to conduct LCA throughout the design process. Unlike the traditional method of performing a life-cycle assessment after a building is constructed, Tally provides on demand feedback about a material's environmental impact, allowing architects to make decisions that reduce a building's carbon footprint in the same time frame, pace, and modeling environment in which designs are generated.

Imagine you are able to gain quick insights about the environmental impact of building materials. How might it guide your design decisions? With Tally®, a Revit® plugin developed by KieranTimberlake's affiliate KT Innovations, designers can interact with and summarize life cycle data based on the materials in a Revit model, making rapid assessments not only possible, but a new best practice.

In his article "The Dhaka Studio," Pennsylvania Gazette writer Trey Popp explores the history of the Dhaka Design-Research Laboratory led by KieranTimberlake partners Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design. 
 
Having taught at several universities, Kieran and Timberlake shared the observation that typical architectural studios focused too much on design outcomes and not enough on developing research skills and critical reflection on research findings. Rather than assign an isolated design problem and give students a few weeks to solve it, the two architects wanted to engage their students in deeper and more complex ways. This desire led them to abandon the traditional structure of a design studio in 2008 in order to place students' emphasis on research-based design in one of the most unique, dense, and challenging urban environments: Dhaka, Bangladesh. As Popp explains, Kieran and Timberlake "would challenge their students to do research – to focus intensely on an unfamiliar place, with unfamiliar possibilities and constraints, and figure out what the real challenges were."

Pound Ridge House, a private residence located north of New York City in Westchester County, New York, was recently featured in the Spring 2016 edition of Dwell magazine. The article, written by Aileen Kwun, draws attention to the care KieranTimberlake took in ensuring that the residence's signature reflective exterior would not pose a threat to local birds.  
 
During the design process, the team sought to create a home with an exterior that blended in with the wooded site and an interior that brought the beauty of the natural landscape indoors. Designers knew they could create this desired effect with a glass facade, but also understood that the home's reflective surface could pose a threat to birds that frequent the wooded site. The question then became how to harness the beauty and function of a glass exterior without impacting birds and wildlife. 
 
In earlier studies completed in partnership with the manager of the American Bird Conservancy's Bird Collisions Campaign, KieranTimberlake learned that bird strikes happen most frequently with large, continuous reflective surfaces. By using smaller panels with different levels of reflectivity, bird strikes could be reduced significantly. Using this information, designers created a facade composed of multiple rectangular tiles made of glass, brushed stainless steel, polished stainless steel, and tin zinc-coated copper. The different sizes and reflectivity of these panels not only greatly reduce bird strikes. As Kwun writes, "the benefits are also aesthetic: With its unique facade, the home is both attuned to the landscape and private, filled with 'curated views.'" 

Pointelist™, KieranTimberlake's wireless sensor network, was recently featured in Architect magazine. The article, written by Wanda Lau, is part of a series following up on past winners of the magazine's R+D Awards, which recognize research, materials, and technologies that have advanced the field of architecture.

The AIA Convention comes to Philadelphia on May 19. Not sure what to do in your downtime? Click the link below to check out our guide to food, neighborhoods, and nightlife in the City of Brotherly Love.

Partner James Timberlake was honored as a distinguished alumnus this past week at his alma mater, the University of Detroit Mercy. Timberlake was the recipient of the Spirit of UDM: Alumni Achievement Award, an honor given by the university to recognize outstanding graduates who have excelled in their chosen field and have demonstrated leadership both in their careers as well as in their greater community.  
 
During a celebration weekend honoring award recipients, Timberlake credited the university with his early professional development. "These folks, and the university at large, helped to transform me and guide me to a dream that I've had since I was five," Timberlake said in his acceptance speech, "and that was to become an architect." 
 
To hear the rest of his remarks, click here.  

KieranTimberlake is pleased to announce the opening of KieranTimberlake: Drawn + Quartered, an exhibit of drawings, scale models, and mock-up experiments that survey the role of research and prototyping in our design process.

KieranTimberlake participated in this year's AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) Hackathon hosted at the Consortium for Building Energy Innovation (CBEI), a building designed by the firm in 2014. The event was attended by teams of students and professionals alike with the goal of connecting designers, developers, architects, and engineers with new technologies for the built environment.

When working in a new climate, researchers and designers at KieranTimberlake go to great lengths to investigate the design challenges inherent to the environment. During an early design meeting for the North Campus Housing project at the University of Washington, KieranTimberlake's team observed a campus landscape brimming with moss, algae, and lichen. These types of biological growth (“bio-growth”) are ubiquitous in the Pacific Northwest, clinging to windowsills, carpeting sidewalks, and decorating buildings. Located in a temperate rainforest climate zone with plentiful rain and cloud cover, the University of Washington's campus presented a unique set of challenges for the design team.

Partner Stephen Kieran was a guest earlier this month on the Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC, New York City's NPR station. Focusing on his work with fellow partner James Timberlake on the Dhaka Design-Research Laboratory, Kieran discussed the challenges facing the city of Dhaka, Bangladesh, as well as the book inspired by their research, Alluvium: Dhaka, Bangladesh, in the Crossroads of Water. 
 
Home to a population three times as dense as Manhattan and built on a constantly changing floodplain, Dhaka is one of the most extreme cities on earth. Kieran and Timberlake have been working with the University of Pennsylvania School of Design for nearly a decade in a research design studio that studies the relationship between the people of Dhaka and the various waterways that connect the city. Their research has culminated in their book Alluvium.  
 
When asked about the book's title, Kieran stated that "we in the U.S. really think of land and water as very separate things. [Bangladeshis] as people don't have a sense of the otherness or separateness between land and water. They think of the two as one in the same. Hence the term "alluvium," which is land suspended in water." 
 
To listen to the full interview, click here. 

Associate Professor Naomi Frangos from the New York Institute of Technology's School of Architecture and Design recently invited Partner Stephen Kieran to speak about KieranTimberlake's ethic of improvement and the ways in which it leads to invention and innovation. Kieran discussed the tactics used to give rise to empathetic planning and design, citing examples from the firm's practice as well as from his work with fellow partner James Timberlake on the Dhaka Design-Research Laboratory. 
 
The Dhaka Design-Research Laboratory is a cross-disciplinary design studio held at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Design. Through intensive research and annual visits, the studio seeks new ways to stimulate relevant design interventions, and to model a research-based approach for urban planning in both the developing and the developed worlds.

The much-anticipated renovations at Philadelphia's LOVE Park officially began last month with a groundbreaking ceremony. Attended by Mayor Jim Kenney along with other city officials, the ceremony marks the start of the year-long upgrading process that will temporarily close the park. During construction, however, the beloved LOVE statue by Robert Indiana will still be available for residents and visitors to enjoy at Dilworth Park, another KieranTimberlake project that was completed this past summer.  
 
Once completed, the redesigned LOVE Park will be include a new fountain, a café, and additional green space. The existing and iconic features of the park, such as the "Flying Saucer" Welcome Center, will receive energy-efficient updates while becoming ADA accessible.  

Read more about the LOVE Park renovations

• LOVE Park Redesign Kicks Off with Groundbreaking
• “A Bold New Vision for LOVE Park” by Inga Saffron, Philadelphia Inquirer
• “Designers Show Saucer Some Love” by Ashley Hahn, PlanPhilly
• “The Saucer and the Fountain(s) Will Live On at the New Love Park” by James Jennings, Philadelphia Magazine

When we moved into our new studio last year, we loved that it gave us more room to create. Whether it's full-sized building mockups or a high-stakes maple syrup cook-off, 2015 has been a year of making for all of us at KieranTimberlake. We asked our colleagues to reflect on their most notable creative acts of the past year, and here's what they told us. How will you make the best of 2016?

KieranTimberlake kicked off the year by providing kits containing the latest generation of its sensor platform to user groups in Philadelphia and Copenhagen. Since receiving Architect Magazine's R+D Award in 2013, the network has been refined and is heading toward commercial roll-out in 2016.  
 
Each kit contains the gear to self-install a high-density sensor network and track temperature and relative humidity measurements in real-time via a custom web interface. The kits have myriad applications across many scales from walls to whole buildings to landscapes, and more.  
 
Testers at Drexel University's Dragon Hacks 2016 experimented with the network, building special purpose web applications that leverage real-time sensor data using its API.  
 
In a workshop led by Billie Faircloth and Ryan Welch at the Centre for Information Technology and Architecture (CITA), students were challenged to use sensors to measure the changes in temperature within a series of volumes designed to demonstrate types of thermal responsiveness in the outdoor climate of Copenhagen. 
 
KieranTimberlake currently uses the sensors to monitor climate conditions in its Philadelphia studio. Using data captured by the system in conjunction with passive heating and cooling strategies and comfort surveys, the firm has developed a highly nuanced understanding of the factors influencing its internal microclimates.  
 
Look for more on the sensor network developed by KieranTimberlake's affiliate, KT Innovations, in the coming year.

Metropolis magazine selected KieranTimberlake as one of architecture and design's "Game Changers" for 2016. In the January issue, Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Inga Saffron describes the firm's commitment not only to environmentally-friendly construction, but also to research-driven approaches to design that take into account how sustainable buildings will be used. At the cornerstone of this approach is the firm's use of its own office space as a kind of living laboratory. 
 
As an example, Saffron cites the firm's radical decision to forgo air conditioning in its office and engage its staff in an experiment to achieve comfort through strategies like natural ventilation. Within the studio, technologies such as a Wireless Sensor Network and a night air flushing system are developed, tested, and refined to provide feedback for the experiment and keep the building comfortable during the muggy Philadelphia summers. By acting as a guinea pig, the firm hopes to reduce its own energy use and develop innovative approaches to someday bring to clients.  
 
Ultimately, KieranTimberlake wants to see a culture of building in which architects are invested as much in the long-term performance of a structure as its initial design and construction. In the words of Kieran, "a doctor doesn't just operate on a patient and say, 'Good luck.' Our bodies get checkups. So should our buildings." 

Game Changers 2016: KieranTimberlake
by Inga Saffron

It's a late November day in Philadelphia, with temperatures in the high 40s, and I'm sitting with architects Stephen Kieran and Billie Faircloth at a conference table in KieranTimberlake's soaring new offices in a former bottling plant. Faircloth wears a black trench coat pulled tight, her collar raised like a funnel to the edge of her short red bob. She's freezing. Kieran wears a light pullover. He's comfortable. I have on a loosely crocheted wool sweater. I'm a bit warm, but it's probably because I just biked over to see them.  
 
It seems appropriate to start with the temperature and our various states of personal comfort, because the architects at KieranTimberlake are obsessed with the weather and the way it affects our design choices. On the roof of their building, a Weather Underground-registered weather station keeps a running tab on external conditions, while, on the floors below, some 400 sensors embedded amid the rows of desks collect data on the office microclimates. The details are routed to Faircloth's research group, which churns out charts, graphs, and other visualizations. Every Friday, the firm sends e-mail blasts to its 100 employees, advising them on clothing options for the next week. As summer set in last year, the staff was polled three times a day: Are you comfortable? Where are you seated? What are you wearing?

 
Continue reading

In an op-ed published in Fast Company magazine's Co.Design blog, titled “Should We Save Mid-Century Modern Icons That Hurt The Environment?” partner James Timberlake outlines an ethical approach to the energy efficiency problems that plague mid-century modern architecture. 
 
Nearly thirty million commercial buildings were constructed after World War II in the period often referred to as the golden era of building, long before our modern understanding of carbon emissions and the human impact on global warming. Buildings are responsible for at least 30% of greenhouse gases. What happens when some of those structures are beloved architectural icons, designed by architects like Mies van der Rohe, Eero Saarinen, and I.M. Pei? 
 
Timberlake says that creative and unconventional thinking is needed to preserve important works of mid-century architecture while bringing them to energy code compliance or better. A few solutions include rethinking curtain walls, using life-cycle inventory data sets to analyze the environmental impact of building materials, and reusing existing facades while finding additional ways to improve efficiency. "The current tools at our disposal allow us a better way forward," Timberlake writes, concluding that "the impact of historical architecture infrastructure on the energy crisis is an ethical problem that we can no longer afford to ignore." 

Should We Save Mid-Century Modern Icons That Hurt The Environment?
by James Timberlake

Last week at the climate talks in Paris, world leaders committed a full day to discussing public policies and financial solutions to reduce carbon emissions within the building sector. It's widely documented that buildings are the culprit for at least 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile in the building sector, there's an ongoing discussion about what to do with inefficient buildings from past eras. Debate around historic value versus economics inevitably leads to the big question: Are these buildings worth retrofitting, or do we tear them down and start over?

 
Continue reading

Architect magazine, the official journal of the AIA, described KieranTimberlake's pioneering practices in a recent article entitled "The Life Cycle of Practice". The article, written by Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson, highlighted firms that continue to push the boundaries of the role of the architect in the modern building and design process.  
 
Past eras have seen architects slowly phased out of much of the building process as specialized work contracted out to third parties has become the norm. In recent years, however, select firms have been bucking this trend as they seek to be more involved in everything from site input to material selection to the types of technologies integrated into a project. Dickinson praised KieranTimberlake's role in this movement by highlighting the firm's emphasis on inquisitiveness and research. At the firm, the article states, "the scope of the architect is elastic and expansive, [beginning] with questioning and researching the very way buildings are conceived, designed, constructed, and delivered, and [continuing] through to material and product development and the ongoing study of management of buildings and places." 
 
One of the ways in which Dickinson sees KieranTimberlake's commitment to questioning manifest itself is in the development of new technologies. Calling invention "the most compelling area of expansion for architects", she references Tally®, KieranTImberlake's custom Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool for designers, as well as the firm's wireless sensor network. Both of these technologies grew from the architects' frustration with the limits of existing products, and have become a part of the firm's affiliate business, KT Innovations, which focuses on architecture-specific software and product development. "Inventions such as these open new and appealing business possibilities for firms," Dickinson says. "As a whole, those expanding the life cycle of architecture are exploring every aspect of the profession for possibility, while expanding into new realms." 
 
The learn more, read the complete article here.

Last month, The Architect's Newspaper blog highlighted KieranTimberlake's work on The Consortium for Building Energy Innovation (CBEI). The two-part project located in Philadelphia's Navy Yard consists of both the retrofit of an existing mid-century building and the new construction of a classroom and laboratory facility, with the goal of creating a welcoming, versatile, and above all, energy-efficient space.

At the 2015 Greenbuild Conference in Washington DC, KieranTimberlake researcher Roderick Bates presented regarding the evolution of Tally®, the firm's custom Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool for designers. Speaking to a room of sustainable building practitioners and advocates, Bates explained how this tool has the unique capacity to allow designers to quickly assess the environmental implications of different materials used in their projects. As an example, his presentation articulated KieranTimberlake's experience using Tally in the selection of materials for Brown University's new School of Engineering building.

One of KieranTimberlake's Community Involvement initiatives was featured in the most recent issue of Context, the AIA Philadelphia chapter's quarterly journal. The article focused specifically on KieranTimberlake's pro bono involvement in the Community Design Collaborative's pursuit to repurpose Philadelphia's vacant school buildings in weaker real estate markets. 
 
The project, known as Reactivating Public Schools, revolved around a design charrette held at the 2014 Design on the Delaware Conference. In this charrette, a team consisting of volunteer design professionals, neighborhood residents, private developers, and nonprofit organizations all collaborated to design both short- and long-term renovations for two different vacant school buildings (the M. Hall Stanton School and the Old Frances Willard School).  
 
A team of more than twenty KieranTimberlake volunteers then assembled the concepts discussed during the conference in order to create a report that was published in Grid magazine in August 2015. The report outlines several different temporary and permanent design options, with each concept taking into account both the needs of the community and the desire for neighborhood revitalization. Additionally, the report highlights the potential of these vacant schools to private and nonprofit developers alike.  
 
To learn more about KieranTimberlake's involvement in the project, click here.  

KieranTimberlake's design for the soon-to-be-renovated LOVE Park was recently featured on Uwishunu, a popular website that creates buzz about Philadelphia's cultural attractions.  
 
LOVE Park's new design, conceived in partnership with Hargreaves Associates, strikes a balance between preserving the beloved features of the park, such as the famous LOVE Statue by Robert Indiana, and improving on the park's current amenities by adding more green space, a new fountain, and a reorganized layout. The current Welcome Center, referred to affectionately as "The Flying Saucer" by local residents, is also slated for renovation. The mid-century modern building, originally constructed in the 1950s, will keep its iconic shape while receiving some energy-efficient upgrades in the form of frameless glass windows, a green roof, and new lighting technology.  
 
The LOVE Park renovation comes on the heels of the completion of KieranTimberlake's Dilworth Park project, and the design has been heralded by Uwishunu for its use of greenery in the space, as well as its commitment to preserving the well-known aspects of the park. "While we'll miss the park while it's closed for renovation," the blog stated, "we're pretty sure the wait will be worth it."  

Read more about the LOVE Park renovations

• “A Bold New Vision for LOVE Park” by Inga Saffron, Philadelphia Inquirer
• “Designers Show Saucer Some Love” by Ashley Hahn, PlanPhilly
• “The Saucer and the Fountain(s) Will Live On at the New Love Park” by James Jennings, Philadelphia Magazine

The Pennsylvania chapter of The American Institute of Architects (AIA) honored KieranTimberlake last month at the 2015 Annual Architectural Excellence Design and Special Awards. Held at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, the awards ceremony recognized over 35 Pennsylvania firms and individuals who were selected from a pool of nearly 150 applicants.  
 
Joining a list of honorees that included Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter (Government Award winner) and the iconic Vanna Venturi House (50 Year/Timeless Award winner), KieranTimberlake was the recipient of the Firm Award. The award is given annually to the firm that consistently encourages collaboration while contributing innovative designs to the field of architecture. Selected to receive the award by a jury panel from AIA New York City chaired by renowned architect Thomas Phifer, FAIA, KieranTimberlake was heralded by the AIA as a "leader in practice-based architectural research and sustainable environments".  
 
A complete list of award winners and award descriptions can be found on the AIA Pennsylvania website.  

Ground broke on Brown University's new School of Engineering research facility last month. The new four story building will create 20 new cutting-edge laboratory modules, including two specialized nanoscale and biomedical engineering laboratories, and will add 80,000 square feet of space. The addition comes at a good time for the School of Engineering, which expects to see its number of undergraduate students double between 2007 and 2017. The new facility will be able to house 15 faculty members, approximately 20 research associates, 80 graduate students, and a large number of undergraduate students.

KieranTimberlake was recently featured on an episode of the KCRW radio show, Design and Architecture. The segment, entitled “Is Mars Habitable?” focuses on Mars City, an immersive, interactive, and educational 3D simulation of a human colony on Mars. The pro bono project is intended for students ranging from high school physics scholars to architecture undergraduates, and has recently generated some buzz following the success of Matt Damon's new film The Martian. 

Last month marked the annual conference for the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA). This year's conference, which was held at the University of Cincinnati School of Architecture and Interior Design, saw KieranTimberlake honored with the Digital Practice Award of Excellence. The award is given to the firm that best elevates the field of architecture through digital design and media.  
 
Brad Bell, an Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Arlington's College of Architecture Planning and Public Affairs, presented the award to KieranTimberlake partners Billie Faircloth and Matthew Krissel. "What I believe is unique in KieranTimberlake's design process is how they continually foster productive dialogue," he said in his introductory remarks. "By establishing a culture of questioning within the full design process, innovation has emerged as a dominate outcome of their work."

KieranTimberlake is excited to announce that Dilworth Park has received the Gold Medal at the 2015 Design Awards Gala, hosted by the Philadelphia chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). The Gold Medal is awarded to the single built work that exemplifies the highest design quality. This award is the second that the AIA has conferred onto Dilworth Park, which previously received the Silver Medal (awarded to the most exemplary unbuilt project) at the 2011 AIA Design Awards Gala.  

Jury Comments

The redesign created a more dignified civic plaza with a calm structure so as to not interfere with Philadelphia's grand and exuberant city hall. In addition to improving access both to the subways and across the park, the design includes a raised lawn, a fountain with an integrated art installation and a cafe with both indoor and outdoor seating. The jury recognizes it as “a truly civic project that is inclusive and allows for many types of people to coexist happily”.

Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) is an evolving discourse that offers an alternative to the traditional design-bid-build model of creating a new building from design through construction. With the traditional sequential model, an architect designs the building, then construction contractors bid on the job, and finally the building is constructed. Design and construction teams generally remain distinct and distant from one another. By contrast, IPD methodology utilizes a parallel process, which dictates that the entire project team—from owner to architect to construction manager, consultants, and subcontractors—come together at the start of the design process and develop the project jointly through continuous collaboration. Contractually, all participants are bound together as equals, and behavioral principles require mutual respect and trust, willingness to collaborate, and open communication.  
 
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) says that “IPD motivates collaboration throughout the design and construction process, tying stakeholder success to project success.” In other words, each stakeholder is more deeply embedded in all aspects of the process, and his or her input and collaboration is likewise integral to the project's success.

The Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce has selected KieranTimberlake as a recipient of its 2016 Excellence Awards honoring small businesses. This award recognizes small businesses for their vital role in the economic development of the Greater Philadelphia region.  
 
Winners are nominated by their regional business peers based on their demonstrated commitment to the advancement of the business community as well as their civic involvement and responsiveness, corporate responsibility, employee recognition, and concerns regarding service issues. 
 
KieranTimberlake received the 2016 award for Professional Services Excellence in recognition of its commitment to delivering the highest quality architectural services. Area firms including Hopeworks 'N Camden, the Brownstein Group, University City Science Center, and BuLogics, Inc. took home awards in other categories. 
 
GPCC President and CEO Rob Wonderling said, “Each of this year's recipients models how organizations can make a difference, contribute to the region's economy and be outstanding leaders in their respective fields. The Chamber is proud to honor their hard work, innovation and creativity through the Excellence Awards.” 

KieranTimberlake partner Matthew Krissel presented on the topic of digital design culture at KA Connect 2015, a knowledge management conference for the AEC industry.  
 
He talked about how KieranTimberlake created a platform to facilitate knowledge sharing and innovation—with a focus on the firm's members, and their relationships to one another, rather than solely the tools they would use. By developing a formalized network of exploratory behavior in the office, team members could experiment with and even implement new technologies in a matter of months. Watch as he describes the facets of this platform at KA Connect.

Following on the recent announcement of five new partners, ten staff members have been named associates of the firm. As KieranTimberlake has continued to grow and take on new projects both nationally and internationally, additional leadership opportunities have emerged. These individuals have helped shape the development of the practice over the past decade. They have been recognized for their extensive design and research experience, their leadership qualities, their commitment to excellence in their work, and their service to the firm.  
 
Founding partner James Timberlake remarked, “Stephen Kieran and I join our new partners in welcoming the new associates to the management group of the firm. They all have been creative and active participants in advancing the firm agenda and culture. We look forward to their contributions as the firm continues to design, innovate, and invent new worlds.” 
 
KieranTimberlake's leadership now includes seven partners and 19 associates in an office of nearly one hundred professionals.

KieranTimberlake is proud to announce the publication of Plastics Now by firm partner Billie Faircloth. The book is available for purchase from Routledge (June 11, 2015) and Amazon (July 5, 2015). 

Plastics Now: On Architecture's Relationship to a Continuously Emerging Material

Billie Faircloth 
Published by Taylor & Francis Group, Routledge 
 
Plastics Now addresses one primary question: why do we build with plastics the way that we do? For decades, plastics have been described over and over again as “the future”—yet we still do not know precisely what to do with them. Billie Faircloth argues that this inertia is due to plastics' indecipherability, which has prevented them from becoming fully known. The author tracks the process by which plastics became defined as a class of building materials. Drawing on new, original data from the industry press, beautifully drawn original timelines, hundreds of historical and contemporary images, advertisements dating to the 1950s, and technical data, this unconventional book explores the emergence of plastics as a building material and presents new findings.

Architects and researchers from KieranTimberlake are speaking across the country at a range of venues on themes related to research-driven practice and environmental responsibility in architecture.  
 
On June 25, Billie Faircloth will deliver a keynote address at the Building Technology Educators' Society 2015 International Conference in Salt Lake City. On July 14, Stephanie Carlisle and Steven Baumgartner of BuroHappold will present Strengthening Sustainability Action Plans: Expanding the Scope of Carbon Assessments to an international audience at SCUP-50 in Chicago. 
 
Earlier this year, Stephen Kieran spoke with Harvard GSD students on the strategies, tools, and tactics for integrated practice. David Riz took part in a plenary session at the BEST4 Conference with Steve Kemp, Manager of Sustainable Building at MMM Group Limited, and John Straube, Building Scientist at the University of Waterloo.  
 
Matthew Krissel discussed high-performance envelopes before a sold-out crowd at the Facades+ workshop in April. At the 2015 AIA Convention in Atlanta in May, Efrie Friedlander and Jason Smith revealed how our Revit plug-in called Tally® can make Life Cycle Assessment one of many influencing factors in developing a sustainable building design.  
 
View all upcoming appearances

Inspired by our book on Loblolly House, clients in California asked us to design an off-site fabricated home uniquely tuned to their steeply sloped site in the mountains of Mendocino County. The clients, a physician and a Silicon Valley electrical engineer turned artist, envisioned the home as a weekend getaway from San Francisco. It includes a 2,600 square-foot house and two free-standing studio structures of 300 square feet each.

Architect, professor and writer Witold Rybczynski describes the new KieranTimberlake studio as a "model of 21st century office space" in an article in Architect magazine. Rybczynski visited the office in April and interviewed founding partner Stephen Kieran and researcher Roderick Bates.  
 
Rybczynski says the new office is not a showpiece but a hands-on workplace—whose glassed-in fabrication shop is the first view that greets visitors entering the building. The article draws on studies of workplace psychology and human comfort, mentioning the natural light and fresh air that are key features of this renovated industrial building, as well as the flexibility for employees to make choices about their workspace by moving desks and reconfiguring spaces.  
 
The new studio's sustainability attributes include a cooling strategy that foregoes air conditioning in favor of opening windows in the monitor, using exhaust fans, supplying night-cooled air via the floor plenum, and dehumidifying the air. Rybczynski describes this as a "daring experiment" during a Philadelphia summer—one that involves 400 temperature and humidity sensors embedded in the building and regular surveys of KieranTimberlake's 100-person staff regarding their comfort levels.

A recent public meeting on the new design for LOVE Park included the announcement by Philadelphia's Parks & Recreation department, Hargreaves Associates, and KieranTimberlake that the renovated park will retain the iconic Welcome Center beloved by many Philadelphians.  
 
The round, mid-century modern building was designed in the late 1950s and was a symbol of optimism in post-war Philadelphia as many American urban centers went into a long period of decline. Its continuing popularity among the public was revealed during Penn Praxis-led civic engagement efforts that preceded design work for LOVE Park.

Architectural Record recently featured Pound Ridge House on its list of Record Houses for 2015. The list includes eight residential projects that "push the limits of spatial concepts and materiality or refine the existing vocabulary in imaginative ways"—including examples from Los Angeles, Tokyo, Marbella, and elsewhere. 
 
Pound Ridge House is a 5,000 square-foot single-family home located on a wooded, boulder-strewn site in the town of Pound Ridge, New York. The home exists in unique harmony with its natural surroundings, its exterior walls creating a visual display that varies with time of day, season, and quality of light. As the author writes, "The cladding performs almost as camouflage, especially at the corners, where the use of the mirrorlike stainless-steel panels makes the building's edges practically disappear." 
 
On the Rocks: A house wrapped in a sophisticated skin makes the most of a site with challenging topography. 
By Joann Gonchar, AIA 

In spite of high-profile projects like the U.S. embassy now under construction in London, Philadelphia-based architecture firm KieranTimberlake still sometimes accepts commissions for challenging single-family houses. “They are an opportunity to try out things that would be tougher on a larger project,” says design partner Stephen Kieran.

 
Continue reading

Susan Richardson of NewsWorks/WHYY recently visited KieranTimberlake's new workspace inside the former bottling plant of the Henry F. Ortlieb brewery in the Northern Liberties neighborhood of Philadelphia. In her blog titled Human at Work, she discusses the ways in which the renovated plant adapts to the needs of workers, rather than asking workers to adapt to it.  
 
Calling the open-plan studio a "cathedral-like space," Richardson says that her favorite part is the abundant natural light spilling in at the top and the edges. She quotes founding partner Stephen Kieran as saying, "Time happens in this space...The sun moves through the space and arcs through it, beginning with the east side with a beam that moves across the floor. It's truly a spiritual experience—that abundance of natural light—that's so absent from corporate office spaces." 
 
The blog includes a video (after the jump) that offers a look inside the workspace and commentary from employees.

Last winter, KieranTimberlake team members installed 150 temperature sensors at Richardson Memorial Hall, Tulane University's School of Architecture. Over the summer, the sensor platform was reactivated and augmented with the addition of relative humidity sensors. We initiated the summer monitoring to answer two primary questions: How comfortable is a historic building on Tulane's campus in the thick of the summer cooling season? And, can monitoring be used to reveal deficiencies in the existing envelope and HVAC system?  
 
The summer monitoring results were quite striking when contrasted to the winter results. During the winter, significant temperature stratification and asymmetries in mean radiant temperature (MRT) were found within the building, while in the summer, data pointed to conditions that were both comfortable and consistent.

Architect magazine recently featured KieranTimberlake in an article about the fusion of design and research at select top firms—including the embedding of new specialized roles like computational designers and materials and sustainability experts among designers. KieranTimberlake, Perkins+Will, and The Living are three firms profiled for integrating research into design processes and services. The author spoke with Billie Faircloth about KieranTimberlake's research ethic, which she says is "intrinsic to what we do."

Three Top Firms That are Pursuing Design Research

Perkins+Will, The Living, and KieranTimberlake are among a new class of architectural practices investing in research. 
By Daniel Davis  
 
In architecture, it can be difficult to determine where research ends and practice begins. In sectors such as medicine and aerospace, research is distinct from the rest of the business. But architectural research tends to mix with practice. Some argue that design and research are intertwined—that architects are conducting research as their design process leads them to better understand the site and other peculiarities of the project. In this guise, all design is a form of research. 
 
While design may be considered as a form of research, not all research is a form of design. Ajla Aksamija, leader of Perkins+Will's Tech Lab and co-organizer for this year's Architectural Research Centers Consortium, says that differentiating between actual research and mere marketing is essential. Firms may claim to do research as part of their design initiatives, but historically, few firms have actually invested in research. 
 
Continue reading

The Quaker Meeting House and Arts Center at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC, has been rated LEED® Platinum—the highest level of environmental certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.  
 
The building represents a maximum reuse of existing resources, transforming a large former gymnasium built in the 1950s into a space of filtered light and silent contemplation. As a retrofit, it does not add additional embodied energy nor create a greater footprint that would impact stormwater flows. The project also makes use of reclaimed materials wherever possible. To eliminate the need for harvesting standing timber, the oak flooring and paneling of the meeting room were made from reclaimed wood sourced from barns in West Virginia and Maryland. New pervious paving in the front courtyard makes use of concrete removed during the renovation to create a porous infill that minimizes stormwater runoff, which causes flooding, erosion, and pollution of local waterways.

Our Philadelphia-based firm of nearly 100 professionals is growing. We are currently seeking qualified candidates for a diversity of roles, including Architect, Digital Resources Librarian, Environmental Researcher, and Building Performance Specialist. Please see our Employment page for more information about these positions and details on submitting your application.  
 
As a firm, we strive to create an atmosphere of highly imaginative problem solving and idea generation within a collaborative, open office environment in the Northern Liberties neighborhood of Philadelphia. Learn more about KieranTimberlake.

By Lea Oxenhandler 
 
In 2013, Philadelphia's School Reform Commission announced the closure of 23 public schools. As part of an initiative to offer community-focused pro bono architectural services, KieranTimberlake worked with the Community Design Collaborative, a local nonprofit, to address the pressing issue of these newly vacant school buildings in the City of Philadelphia. In an intensive full-day design charrette during the November Design on the Delaware conference, the KieranTimberlake team worked with community members, private and nonprofit developers, city agencies, and local designers to propose both short- and long-term solutions for two of Philadelphia's closed schools. 
 
The overarching purpose of the charrette was to answer the question: How can we create feasible, community-oriented reuse proposals to encourage the redevelopment of buildings that currently have no interested buyers?  

We are delighted to announce that the Brockman Hall for Physics at Rice University has won an Institute Honor Award for 2015 from the American Institute of Architects. The award is the design profession's highest recognition of excellence, and this year, 23 recipients were selected from a pool of 500 submissions from across the globe. 

Project Description from Architect Magazine

According to [James] Timberlake, Brockman Hall represents “one of the more perfect examples” of his firm's holistic strategy of design. KieranTimberlake “seemed to find inspiration in the overwhelming technical constraints and resonance in the building's important research mission,” Rice's [Barbara] Bryson says, noting that other firms might have been daunted by the building's litany of programmatic demands. “The result is a building that works brilliantly while providing an … elegant home for some of the best physicists in the world.” 
 
See the full description.

Jury Comments

This project is a total knockout in every way—from the incredible planning to the spectacular detailing—yet it is extremely simple and very flexible. 
 
Gorgeous ceilings—pipe, conduits, everything is so neatly coordinated! Even the mechanical room is beautiful! The palette of neutral colors is very warm and beautiful. 
 
This is a very tight building in the way it fits the site, but it's very comfortable on all sides. The photos do not do it justice.

KieranTimberlake is proud to announce two new book publications to be released in spring 2015. 

Alluvium: Dhaka, Bangladesh, in the Crossroads of Water

Extracts from Seven Years of the Dhaka Design-Research Lab at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design 
Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake 
Published by ORO Editions 
 
Imagine the most extreme urban environment on earth—a place three times as dense as Manhattan, enveloped in a constant flow of water, beset by a relentless stream of rural migrants, plagued by annual monsoons, and threatened by climate change. Since 2007, architects Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake have directed a design-research laboratory on Dhaka, capital city of Bangladesh, for graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design. What began as a desire to help a city in need became an immersion in investigating its ebbs and flows, mapping its urban systems, and charting its development via annual visits. The result of this extended study is Alluvium: Dhaka, Bangladesh, in the Crossroads of Water, a cross-genre book that incorporates first-person narrative, documentary photography, and research-based infographics and maps to encourage new readings and perspectives.

In 2014, KieranTimberlake team members worked together with Total Learning Research Institute President Kerry Joels and participants from Gilbane Building Company and Travis Alderson Associates to create a building information model (BIM) of a virtual base on the planet Mars.  
 
The team recently received a National Institute of Building Sciences Member Award for its support of the STEM Initiative for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. The awards ceremony will take place during the Building Innovation 2015 conference in Washington, DC, this week.  
 
The BIM model is a key aspect of the Mars City Operations Challenge, which teaches high school and community college students to act as facility managers responsible for maintaining the virtual base. The Challenge will launch at schools nationwide in fall of 2015.  

We moved!

Our new studio is an imaginative reuse of the historic Ortlieb's Brewery bottling plant in the Northern Liberties neighborhood of Philadelphia. 
 
Please note our new address. 
841 North American Street  
Philadelphia, PA 19123 
(215) 922-6600 

Happy new year.

KieranTimberlake and Davis Brody Bond have been selected to design a new facility that combines classrooms, performing arts spaces, athletics, and housing for New York University. The site for the new building sits along Mercer Street between Houston and Bleecker in Greenwich Village. It will replace the existing Coles Sports Center.  
 
James Timberlake said, “We are committed to an open and inclusive process with NYU, Davis Brody Bond, and our talented consultant team to realize an extraordinary outcome for an engaging mixed use building that contributes mightily to the neighborhood.” 
 
Read the NYU press release

The Consortium for Building Energy Innovation (CBEI)—formerly the Energy Efficient Buildings Hub—at the Philadelphia Navy Yard is a research initiative funded by the Department of Energy and led by Penn State University that seeks to reduce the energy usage of commercial buildings 20% by 2020.  
 
At the retrofit project at Building 661, known as the Center for Building Energy Science and Engineering, work is almost complete on the comprehensive transformation of the former Navy recreational building (unoccupied since the late 1990s) into a facility that will welcome the public and educate visitors about energy-efficient building practices. Staff and researchers have begun moving into the workroom and offices. The ICon visualization lab—dedicated to facilitating the use of virtual reality techniques in design, construction, and other disciplines—has been installed, and the telepresence room recently held its inaugural Building Steering Committee session. During the renovation process, the exterior envelope of the building was completely refurbished, and large expanses of new glazing were introduced in concert with a pair of new and retrofitted skylights to suffuse the workroom interior with natural daylight, reducing lighting usage and energy loads. Per the CBEI mission, all building systems are completely visible, including the main mechanical room, passive and active chilled beams, a low velocity underfloor system, and a split system in offices. Installation of landscape, punch listing, and commissioning should be complete by the end of the year.

Two KieranTimberlake projects—a renovated Harvard House, Quincy's Stone Hall, and a new single-family residence, Pound Ridge House—were recognized by AIA Philadelphia this fall with a Merit Award (Built-Preservation Category) and an Honor Award (Built Category), respectively. Pound Ridge House also received an Honor Award from AIA Pennsylvania, which held a design awards celebration at the renowned Barnes Foundation on November 12 in Philadelphia. 

On the heels of the opening of Dilworth Park at Philadelphia's City Hall comes the announcement that KieranTimberlake will also participate in the redesign of nearby Love Park (officially named JFK Plaza), home of Robert Indiana's famous LOVE statue. Together with Hargreaves Associates and Pentagram, KieranTimberlake will work to re-envision this significant public space, incorporating sustainable systems, stormwater management, and high-performance building materials. The new park will retain the beloved statue as well as a water feature, landscape connecting to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and diagonal pathways across the square.  
 
Learn more about this project at "Build New LOVE Upon Old Strengths." 
 

An important part of the new Dilworth Park adjacent to Philadelphia's City Hall—a 6,900 square-foot lawn—opens today on the southern end of the park. Dedicated as the Albert M. Greenfield Lawn, the green space will host a variety of public events, including open-air concerts, markets, and movies. It will be open daily as a recreation and relaxation space for people to linger with a view of the surrounding activity at the heart of Center City.

For the last three summers, members of our research group have been conducting ecological research and monitoring of plant communities on seven KieranTimberlake buildings at Cornell University, Middlebury College, University of California San Diego, and Yale University. The research has allowed us to revisit projects up to a decade old, meet with numerous building and landscape managers, consult with green roof experts from across the country, and learn a great deal about how the design and detailing of green roofs on our projects have fared over time.  
 
Additionally, the study has yielded some interest in the research community for its use of novel field methods and its graphic representation, which has allowed for spatially explicit data collection and mapping. The study of community dynamics is rooted in the ability to discern, test, and communicate the relationship between landscape patterns and ecology function or performance. As designers, our ability to diagram and draw relationships analytically has allowed us to explore green roof systems in new and revealing ways. 
 

The Architect's Newspaper last week announced that Tulane University has released plans for the KieranTimberlake-designed addition and renovation of its historic Richardson Memorial Hall, home to the School of Architecture. Currently in the design development phase, the project adds more than 30,000 square feet, which includes studios, pin-up spaces, fabrication and media facilities, a gallery, and a cafe. The project aims to achieve LEED Platinum and the goals of Architecture 2030. 
 
Richard Maimon, the principal in charge of the project, commented, "Our goal is to align Richardson Memorial Hall with Tulane's agenda for 21st century architectural education—collaborative, community-focused, and informed by technology. The 1908 masonry building will be complemented by a transparent, high-performance, flexible addition that promotes connectivity across studio work, fabrication and community outreach, while serving as a teaching tool itself."  
 
Renovation work on the historic building includes monitoring of temperature and humidity via a wireless sensor network.

In 2010, a property in Pound Ridge, New York, presented a unique building site—with steep, uneven terrain defined by forest, exposed rock, and a ridge rising more than a hundred feet from the nearest road. As we began design on a home for this site, our design goals included allowing the geologic history to inform the house's conceptual design, anchoring the house to the site, and seeking out interior and exterior materials that would have contextual relevance in this rich setting. A research query was undertaken to allow us to better understand the geologic context and history. 

SITE GEOLOGY

The town of Pound Ridge is representative of a unique and complex regional geologic history that extends back to some of the earliest rock formations on the East Coast (approximately 1 billion years ago) up to the most recent glacial event (approximately 15,000 years ago). Pound Ridge is one of the northernmost areas of the Manhattan Prong, the primary bedrock formation of Manhattan Island. As such, it contains the same granite gneiss formations that can be found in Manhattan's Central Park and throughout the larger Highlands Province region that covers parts of New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

The historic building that will soon house KieranTimberlake's new architecture studio was once part of a complex of properties belonging to Ortlieb's Brewing Company in the Northern Liberties neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Researchers Roderick Bates and Ryan Welch are heading to Greenbuild this month to take part in several events tied to the Tally application for Revit, including a special USGBC Master Series session, “Transforming Markets through Data Collaboration.” This two-hour session will celebrate innovative tools and information technologies that can accelerate market transformation and achieve impact at scale. It will feature commentary from a panel of leading data experts and a set of ten “lightning demos” featuring transformative new tools and services—including the Tally app. 
 
This “datapalooza” is the second of two events on data that USGBC has convened as part of its LEED, Materials, and Health Initiative. It builds on the Building Materials Data Jam held in Chicago in June in conjunction with the 2014 AIA National Convention. The Data Jam brought together representatives from 40 organizations specializing in data, tools, and services related to human health and environmental attributes of materials. The group discussed data-related challenges facing the building industry and identified opportunities to drive large-scale data transformation.  
 
Now, USGBC's "Transforming Markets through Data Collaboration" session at Greenbuild will follow up on the success of the June Data Jam and celebrate the latest developments in tools and services. The industry leaders featured at this event are driving positive change in the green building industry and realizing the vision of accessible, actionable building materials data.

KieranTimberlake has a busy season of lectures and other appearances on the East Coast and overseas this fall. Matt Krissel kicked off the month of September in London as a speaker at the Big Cities, Big Ideas conference presented by the AIA Committee on Design, followed by a panel discussion by David Riz at a workshop on the Future of Design and Construction Management, and a keynote by Billie Faircloth at the Wood Urbanism conference at Harvard Graduate School of Design. 
 
Topics for upcoming talks run the gamut from live demonstrations of our Tally LCA application, to an education session and tour of Dilworth Park, to a "power talk" by James Timberlake at AJ Footprint Live, a conference focusing on sustainability in cities. 
 
Highlights include: 

• Oct 11 - Richard Maimon, Saratoga Design Conference, AIA New York State, Keynote Address: Research Culture, Saratoga, NY
• Oct 14 - Billie Faircloth, Reinvention 2015, Presented by Architect and Residential Architect, Washington, DC
• Oct 23 - Roderick Bates and Jonathan Rowe, Greenbuild 2014, Autodesk Education Session, New Orleans, LA
• Nov 13 - Marilia Rodrigues and Christopher Boskey, Design on the Delaware, Education Session: Re-visioning Infrastructure in Center City, Philadelphia, PA
• Nov 20 - James Timberlake, Architects' Journal Footprint Live, Power Talk: refabricating Architecture, London, UK

Click here for the full list of upcoming talks.

The renewed Stone Hall, a student residence that forms part of Harvard University's Quincy House, recently received a LEED Platinum rating, the highest level of sustainable building certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. As the first in a series of House renewal projects at Harvard, Stone Hall sets an important benchmark for the 2.5 million square feet of renovations that will follow. In addition to meeting ambitious sustainability goals, the renewal preserves Stone Hall's historic architectural character and the "House culture" of the 80 year-old residence.

At Harvard University, McKinlock Hall (part of Leverett House) reopened to the student community in August following significant renovations. The Harvard Crimson reports that the 165-bed residence hall, the second Harvard House to be renovated under the House renewal program, has been drawing praise from students for its modernized bedrooms and social spaces, including the lower-level spaces dubbed "the Rabbit Hole" (the house mascot is the rabbit). 
 
The renewal pilot project, Stone Hall (Quincy House), was completed in 2013.  
 
Read "McKinlock Renovations Draw Praise from Leverett Community" and "McKinlock Hall, Rejuvenated."

Dilworth Park had its ceremonial opening last week, with a ribbon cutting by Mayor Michael Nutter, who called the renovation “one of the most exciting things to happen in Philadelphia in the past 50 years.” Now, two-thirds of the site adjacent to Philadelphia's City Hall is complete, and the remaining elements will be completed in about six weeks. KieranTimberlake worked on the project in partnership with Urban Engineers and Olin.

Urban Engineers recently released a video of the new Dilworth Park featuring interviews with Philadelphians who expressed their reactions to the new public space, which had its opening on September 4. Urban Engineers worked in partnership with the design team from KieranTimberlake and landscape architects from Olin.

For the past eight years, KieranTimberlake architect James Huemoeller has spent part of each year supporting the archaeological excavations for the Contrada Agnese Project (CAP), directed by Alex Walthall (University of Texas), at the ancient site of Morgantina in central Sicily. James' work developing and implementing data recording and management methods for the excavation continues a tradition started by the Renaissance architect Raphael, who advocated for the systematic recording of ancient ruins to preserve knowledge for future generations in a letter to Pope Leo X.

A team from KieranTimberlake, along with partners Gilbane Building Company and Travis Alderson Associates, recently completed a Building Information Model (BIM) of a virtual base on the planet Mars. The model will be an integral part of the Mars City Facility Operations (Ops) Challenge: a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) program designed to engage high school and community college students with building sciences and spark their interest in careers in the field. Participating students will act as facility managers responsible for maintaining the base and will develop their teamwork skills as they handle building systems issues that arise.

Renovation work at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in the heart of Philadelphia's cultural district is nearing completion, and Volver restaurant, operated by chef Jose Garces, has recently opened. KieranTimberlake is responsible for designing the new space, with Marguerite Rodgers leading interior design for the restaurant.  
 
The new Volver restaurant is located at the site of the former gift shop. Entered directly from the street or from within the Kimmel Center, the dining room and bar face Spruce Street, with fully glass walls extending into the sidewalk to engage the streetscape and enliven the presence of the building. With interiors by the designers for nationally-acclaimed restaurants Fork, Lacroix, Striped Bass, and XIX, it is an inviting, urbane space that incorporates bespoke furnishings, cabinetry, and artwork by local craftspeople to create the intricately detailed atmosphere that Marguerite Rodgers is known for.

It was announced today that KieranTimberlake has been selected to design a new building for the expanding School of Engineering at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The building will include cutting-edge laboratory facilities as well as spaces for cross-disciplinary collaboration. 
 
Read more about this project on the Brown University website.

As we celebrate our 30th year in practice, we revisit some of our past works to see how they have matured and uncover what we can learn from them today. 
 
By Fátima Olivieri 
Completed in 2003 as part of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, the Melvin J. and Claire Levine Hall is a 48,000 square-foot addition that adjoins two historic structures, the Graduate Research Wing of the Moore School and the Towne Building. This new structure was built as a home for the Department of Computer and Information Science, providing much-needed faculty offices, labs, classrooms, and student amenities such as the Wu and Chen Auditorium, Weiss Tech House, and a café.  
 
With Levine Hall, the university wanted to amplify the work of the School of Engineering and demonstrate its pioneering spirit through architecture. KieranTimberlake proposed a narrow, 6-story, bridge-like addition that would connect the existing buildings and minimize the footprint at street level. Expansive glass curtainwalls were used as the primary facades to make the activities inside the building visible to all and to maximize light and view on a dense urban site.

A mock-up of the marquee we designed for the Suzanne Roberts Theatre in Philadelphia is on display at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. The exhibit, called Elements of Architecture, includes the fundamentals of buildings anywhere on earth: floor, wall, ceiling, door, etc. Within the room dedicated to "Facades" are twelve assemblages, including the theater marquee, that have been developed over the course of the past century—from all-glass to curtainwall to green facades.  
 
Zahner, an American engineering design consultancy and fabrication shop, constructed both the mock-up and the actual marquee in its Kansas City factory. Made of interference-coated stainless steel, the curvilinear marquee appears to change colors from different angles and in different lighting conditions. Its dynamic, billowing shape further exaggerates its material ambiguity.

Topping off the structural steel at Congregation Rodeph Shalom was celebrated last week with a ceremonial signing of the highest steel beam by members of the clergy and administration, congregants, and representatives from the construction manager and the KieranTimberlake design team. The beam was hoisted into place by Intech Construction the following morning. In the coming weeks, concrete slabs will be poured for the first and second floors, and infill between the existing building and the new addition will continue.

In a recent profile in the RIBA Journal (Royal Institute of British Architects), James Timberlake reframes the discussion of the new London embassy in the British press. Timberlake discusses how the highly performative design sets a new paradigm for American embassies, integrating a host of environmentally responsible features and creating welcoming public spaces.  

Defender of the faith

by Jan-Carlos Kucharek 

In 2017 London's new $1bn US embassy complex will open. James Timberlake, of its architect Kieran Timberlake, feels a realistic appraisal of the design will vanquish its critics. 
 
Kieran Timberlake partner James Timberlake, though silver-haired, remains a strapping fellow. Especially when his face is six inches from yours and he's hauling you up off your toes by your lapels. Maybe it's something I said. ‘It's not a moat,' he intones slowly, smiling, before resting me back down on my heels and smoothing my collar down, ‘It's a pond.' True, maybe the word ‘moat', suggesting at least defensiveness, is too loaded a meaning; but we are looking over the hole in the ground that'll be the new American Embassy in London, and what's the meaning of ‘pond' anyway? Something in your garden? A component of a SuDS strategy? The Atlantic? It turns out it's actually all three to Timberlake, hence his robust distinction.

 
"Defender of the Faith" is no longer available online. It can be found in the May 2014 issue of RIBA Journal, available by subscription.

A recently completed housing infill project adds four new residence halls to the Northwest Campus at University of California, Los Angeles. Conceived in partnership with Los Angeles-based Pfeiffer Partners Architects, the design brings additional density and population to an already dense area of campus with the conviction that a concentrated living-learning environment is a positive force in fostering collaboration and interaction among students.

By Lea Oxenhandler 
Created by the nonprofit Total Learning Research Institute (TLRI), Mars City is a program that uses a virtual base on the planet Mars as a means to engage high school students in novel science and engineering challenges and get them excited about careers in space and building sciences. Via a BIM model of the Mars City Virtual Base, which was designed by TLRI President Dr. Kerry Joels (a former Smithsonian and NASA scientist and educator), students learn the nuts and bolts of facilities management through simulations.  
 
As part of this program, a team from KieranTimberlake is working with TLRI to build a detailed, realistic Revit model of the virtual Mars outpost that will help take simulations to the next level. The model includes small, private areas like sleeping pods and larger communal spaces dedicated to Mission Control, dining, recreation, and workshops—as well as a garage for the storage and deployment of Mars Rovers. Essential to the simulation is a robust COBie (Construction Operations Building Information Exchange) database built in conjunction with the model. Pulling from information embedded within the model, the database allows realistic simulations of pre-programmed facilities management scenarios. Our Revit model combined with the COBie data is translated to the user interface through a web-based maintenance management platform called WebTMA.

Annual technology award highlights "best of breed" case studies

KT Innovations, an affiliate of KieranTimberlake, today announced that its newly-released Tally™ application for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has received a Building Information Modeling (BIM) Award from the American Institute of Architects. The award, given by the Technology in Architectural Practice (TAP) Knowledge Community of the AIA, highlights best practices in Building Information Modeling, a technology that uses 3D models to design, inform, and communicate about building projects. Now in its tenth year, the program shows the evolution of BIM from a specialized tool to a staple of architectural design that continues to break new ground.

Noted for Process and Technology Innovation Integrating with BIM

This is the first year the BIM Award has included software, making Tally, a joint software development project from KT Innovations, PE INTERNATIONAL, and Autodesk®, the inaugural recipient in the Process and Technology Innovation Integrating with BIM category. The jurors commended Tally as “one of the first applications that truly uses BIM as a life cycle process. It understands the issues we are trying to model in a certain level of detail.”

The Consortium for Building Energy Innovation (CBEI)—formerly the Energy Efficient Buildings Hub—at Philadelphia's Navy Yard is a research initiative funded by the Department of Energy and led by Penn State University that seeks to reduce the energy usage of commercial buildings 20% by 2020. We are currently undertaking the retrofitting of a 1940s recreational facility for CBEI's headquarters, along with the construction of a new classroom building across the street. Both projects aim to be completed by mid-summer of 2014. 
 
Over the past month, structural steel was erected for the classroom building, known as the Center for Building Energy Education and Innovation, revealing the form the eventual building will take. In keeping with the industrial character of the Navy Yard, the structural steel is left exposed in many of the building's public spaces, making the erection of the steel a critical milestone for the project. Now that the steel is in place, a second floor concrete slab can be poured and work on the exterior façade can begin. 

An important aspect of environmental sustainability is the careful management of construction waste through recycling or landfill diversion. Normally, the contractor specifies a waste management company responsible for dumpsters on site, transportation, sorting, processing, landfill diversion, and accounting. In order to ensure that design and construction methods efficiently integrate with the processing of construction waste, KieranTimberlake recently made a visit to a local waste recycling and recovery facility. 
 
Richard S. Burns & Company Inc. is a family-owned business that has been in operation for over 40 years. The company pioneered landfill diversion techniques long before the practice was commonplace because of its ability to monetize the recycling streams. It operates a 10-acre facility in North Philadelphia and employs many individuals in the surrounding community.  
 
Our visit helped us understand what happens once waste leaves the construction site and allowed us to see first-hand how it is repurposed into a variety of recycling streams, often achieving a landfill diversion rate of 99%.

New application helps achieve LEED® v4 Materials and Resources credit, MRc1

KieranTimberlake, in conjunction with PE INTERNATIONAL and Autodesk® Sustainability Solutions announce the commercial availability of Tally™, a software application for Revit® that calculates the environmental impact of building materials. It is the only application to be fully integrated into Revit, providing architects, engineers, and building professionals with insight into how materials-related decisions made during design influence a building's overall ecological footprint. Backed by the rigor and credibility of GaBi data from PE INTERNATIONAL, the application enables Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) on demand, documenting information across eight life cycle impact categories that align with LEED® v4 and other rating systems. 
 
The commercial release follows a three-month public beta, in which nearly 500 users tested Tally and provided feedback on a broad range of design scenarios. The application is already garnering an enthusiastic response for its simplicity and ease of use.

On December 8, Philadelphia's Congregation Rodeph Shalom broke ground on a significant new addition and renovation to its historic home. Founded in 1795, Rodeph Shalom is the oldest Ashkenazic congregation in the Western Hemisphere. Its current synagogue building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and, while it is an outstanding example of Byzantine revival architecture, the congregation's rapid growth created the need for more space, enhanced connectivity, and increased accessibility throughout the building. Through a series of renovations, as well as the addition of a four-story expansion, Rodeph Shalom will become a welcoming house of prayer, study, and social action that is both respectful of the existing building's storied history and flexible enough to accommodate the congregation's continued growth and development.

When evaluating glass, the human eye cannot always be trusted. Our perception of transparency is influenced as much by the context under which materials are viewed as by their intrinsic optical qualities. When we study a glass sample under interior lighting conditions where light levels on either side of the glass are nearly equal, we may get the false impression that the sample will appear equally transparent when applied to a building facade. In fact, the ratio of reflected daylight to transmitted interior light can make even the most transparent glass appear mirror-like when it is viewed from the exterior.  

Last week, while the city slept, the first above-ground structure emerged at Dilworth Plaza with the installation of steel columns and edge beams that will form the new cafe and stair headhouse on the northern end of the plaza. Until now, work has been concentrated below ground in the new transit concourse and on the plaza level, largely out of view of passersby. But on Wednesday evening, January 29, after most of the traffic had dissipated at Philadelphia's City Hall, a 300-ton crane and several trucks bearing shop-fabricated steel pieces arrived to begin the installation.

Modern buildings are often clad in multi-layer insulated glass units (IGU) to enhance views and daylight. Since glass facades are often the most prominent part of a building, the optical qualities of the glass and its coatings impart a defining aesthetic. Most glass aesthetics are largely defined by the low-emissivity (or low-e) coatings that are applied to the glass. These coatings prevent solar radiation from passing through the front of the glass and radiant heat from escaping the building by reflecting it on the back side of the glass. Low-e coatings often give glass facades an undesirable mirror-like appearance; however, they are necessary since glass is a poor insulator. Therefore, the need for thermal performance and the desire for a non-reflective aesthetic are in direct conflict with one another.

Toronto's The Globe and Mail interviewed Partner Stephen Kieran recently about KieranTimberlake's quest to transform architecture via off-site fabrication. He and Partner James Timberlake envision factory-building complex, custom modules, then shipping them to site for assembly—similar to the process used to manufacture a car. Two prototypes—Loblolly House and Cellophane House—have already been successfully constructed, and an environmentally friendly concept house for India is currently in development.  
 
Kieran compared the process to the evolution of the early automobile: “Henry Ford transformed the economics of a whole industry...With a $400 car, you were into a whole new model to change the world. But it took him a lot of prototypes. The Model T is called that because it's the 19th letter in the alphabet, and he had 18 failures.” This evening, January 27, Kieran will deliver the keynote lecture for the ar.chi.tect* symposium (titled "Redefining the Profession") at Toronto's Ryerson University. He will also participate in the symposium tomorrow, January 28, at the Design Exchange in Toronto.

For a renovation project at Tulane University's School of Architecture, KieranTimberlake recently installed temperature sensors at more than 150 points within the building. This monitoring exercise will allow us to gain a nuanced understanding of the building's thermal performance within the predominantly hot, humid climate of New Orleans. Measurements will be used to analyze how temperatures vary within the building, which will inform the design of new passive and active heating and cooling systems. The goal is to the generate a design that responds to the unique thermal context of the building, creating the most comfortable environment possible while using the least amount of energy.  
 
The design team devised a package of temperature monitoring equipment for deployment at several locations on the third and fourth floors of Richardson Memorial Hall, home to the architecture school. The third and fourth floors contain studio spaces in the north and south wings of the building. On the fourth floor, the ceilings are double-height, with a pitched roof rising more than 30 feet. Nearly all of the windows in the building are uninsulated. The sensor deployment is focused on creating rich data sets for ambient temperature distribution as well as thermal stratification (change in temperature from one zone to another) within the building. This is coupled with envelope monitoring on both the interior and exterior walls.

We are pleased to announce that the Quaker Meeting House and Arts Center at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC, has won an Institute Honor Award for 2014 from the American Institute of Architects. The 26 winning projects were selected from more than 500 submissions. 

Project description from the AIA press release

With a minimum of means, this project transforms a non-descript 1950s gymnasium into a Quaker Meeting House and Arts Center serving the entire middle and upper school community at Sidwell Friends School. The building program includes a worship space, visual art and music rooms, and exhibition areas. The essence of Quaker Meeting, and thus the Meeting House itself, is silence and light. Architecturally this is achieved by filtering light and sound through architecture, landscape, structure, and systems arranged in successive concentric layers around a central source of illumination, both literal and spiritual.

Jury comments

A beautiful project that is very well detailed and imagined. A remarkable transformation. 
 
The obsolete building is thankfully lost in the new one; the new one is open, bright, and engaging. 
 
The exterior is masterfully handled with subtle gestures that give it interest and shape. The architect manages to create a landmark building on the site while simultaneously transforming the interior spaces into an effective worship space. 
 
Fascinating use of light and molding of space. Beautiful reinterpretation with a sensitive vernacular touch. 
 
Great sustainability strategies and results.

Tally™ Empowers Architects to Leverage Life Cycle Data at the Speed of Design

Tally™, a new Revit application for calculating the environmental impact of building materials during the design process, is available free through Autodesk Labs and the Tally website. The free trial version expires on March 1, 2014.

Stone Hall is the first of Harvard's venerable Houses to undergo renovation as part of the House Renewal program. Recently, correspondent Colin Manning reported in the Harvard Gazette that students living at Stone Hall since work was completed last summer have "explored and utilized the new academic, social, and study spaces in creative ways." His article includes a video released by the university that describes the importance of reinvigorating Harvard Houses and provides a glimpse inside the pilot project. 
 
Watch the video

In a recent issue of the Journal of Architectural Education, Research Director Billie Faircloth asks a simple question: How is knowledge of the environment acquired?  

Excerpt from "Pardon Me, May I Borrow Your Umbrella?"

Journal of Architectural Education, Volume 67, Issue 2, 2013 

The fully considered response to "How is knowledge of the environment acquired?" is not one solely based on synthesis of data collected by a device—a weather station, temperature sensor, or suite of sensors. Nor is it one solely based on a methodology which compresses many years of weather data into one "typical" annual data set. The answer to this question requires us to engage the pursuit of a more thorough epistemic interrogation as it may be hypothesized that for some of us numerical values collected from the environment—irradiance, sky cover, temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, wind speed and wind direction—are a proxy for our lived-out bodily experiences of the environment. We hypothesize that the more we get to know the metrics of a particular micro or macro climate, the more we may advantageously inhabit it with our bodies and buildings. And this is precisely the hypothesis that should leave us wondering, "What if?"

 
Want to keep reading? A free download is available to the first 50 readers.

Many Philadelphians remember reform-minded mayor Richardson Dilworth, the namesake of Dilworth Plaza to the west of City Hall. But the layers of history that underlie this site begin much farther back, with the planning of the city by William Penn in 1683. Since then, it has been a public space under continual transformation—as a public park, a race course, a military campground, the locale of the nation's first urban water works, and starting in the late nineteenth century, the site of City Hall.  
 
William Penn's Plan for Philadelphia (1683) included a centrally located square, called Centre Square, for public buildings. The plan was crafted with surveyor Thomas Holme and used to advertise the city to prospective immigrants in Europe.

Environmental researchers Stephanie Carlisle and Max Piana recently presented green roof research findings at the 11th annual Cities Alive Conference in San Francisco, attended by international green roof professionals, designers, and researchers. The theme of this year's conference was resilience, with presentations and research exploring the many ways in which green roofs and walls contribute to social, environmental, and economic resiliency within our cities. The role of green roofs in urban water management and the potential for agriculturally-based green roofs were topics of particular interest.  

Growing Resilience: Long Term Plant Dynamics and Green Roof Performance

Focusing on studies of two mature green roofs, one intensive and the other extensive, Stephanie and Max discussed changes in green roof vegetation, challenging the audience to consider the long-term dynamics and transformations of these living systems. Questions under consideration included:  

• How does green roof vegetation change over time?
• How does vegetation performance relate to building and site context?
• How do the growth trajectories of an extensive and intensive green roof compare?

The new US embassy in London broke ground today in a ceremony that included Ambassador Matthew Barzun, Director of Overseas Building Operations Lydia Muniz, and Leader of Wandsworth Council Ravi Govindia. The embassy, which will stand on a 4.9-acre site in the Nine Elms neighborhood on the South Bank of the Thames, is expected to be completed in 2017. Its design reflects values of transparency, openness, and equality as well as leading-edge measures of environmental responsibility, including an energy-gathering envelope and on-site water management system.

Tally™ empowers architects to conduct Life Cycle Assessments directly in a Revit Model. 

Philadelphia, PA -- KieranTimberlake announced today the release of Tally™, a new software application that allows designers to measure the environmental impact of building materials directly in a Revit model. The application provides Life Cycle Assessment on demand, backed by the rigor and credibility of GaBi data from PE INTERNATIONAL, a global leader in life cycle information and sustainability consulting. Autodesk, the maker of Revit modeling software, supported development and testing for the application.

In the early morning hours of July 11, a major concrete pour raised progress on the Dilworth Plaza renovation to a new level—quite literally. Previously, work on the plaza at Philadelphia's City Hall had been restricted to the transit concourse below ground. Now, with the addition of a roof over the north concourse, the floor of the plaza has been formed, and work can continue on the two levels simultaneously.

Harvard University's residential housing system includes twelve residential houses, each endowed with its own character and culture that provide undergraduate students with a smaller community within the university as a whole. Following their freshman year in one of the dormitories in Harvard Yard, students transfer to a residential house, where they remain for the rest of their college careers. As part of a larger House Renewal project at Harvard, we recently completed a full renovation of Stone Hall (formerly Old Quincy Hall), a project which improved the living spaces within the building and added social spaces and a smart classroom in the previously underutilized basement.  
 
The building is five stories, each of which includes two historic fireplaces—used for heating in the past but now decorative. Early in the design process, a desire emerged for a graphic treatment representing the history of the house to be placed above the mantles of these eight fireplaces. Through a brainstorming process involving members of both Harvard University and KieranTimberlake, we developed the idea to create sculptural wall panels using thousands of old room keys used by former residents.

KieranTimberlake researcher Ryan Welch presented a paper on BIM-integrated environmental impact assessment at the 29th annual PLEA (Passive and Low Energy Architecture) Conference in Munich. PLEA 2013 brought together architects, engineers, and academic researchers from over 50 countries to present research around the theme of Energiewende (German for "energy transition"), which considers the shift to a low- or zero-carbon economy. Research topics explored a range of scales, from the human body to the urban environment, and examined sustainability through both cultural and technological lenses.  
 
"Quantifying the Embodied Environmental Impact of Building Materials During Design," coauthored by Roderick Bates, Stephanie Carlisle, Billie Faircloth, and Ryan Welch, examines the potential for architects to consider embodied environmental impacts as an integral part of their design process. The paper lays out a methodology for resolving the discrepancy between the abstract representation of materials in BIM and the higher resolution of materials required for Life Cycle Assessment. When combined with life cycle inventory data, this information allows architects to understand and refine their designs through the lens of environmental impact. 
 
While approaches to reducing operational energy are well established within the discipline of architecture, methods for quantifying embodied environmental impacts of building materials have yet to gain traction within the architectural, engineering, construction community due to the difficulty in quantifying building materials and the high cost and limited availability of pertinent life cycle inventory data. Our presentation served as a prescient counterpoint to the operational energy discourse of the conference—and in his closing remarks, Douglas Mulhall posed the quantification of building materials and their impacts as the paramount challenge for next year's PLEA conference.

The Harvard Gazette reported last week that our renovation of Old Quincy Hall on the campus of Harvard University is a success among students who recently moved in. The first in a series of renewal projects, Old Quincy was used as a test case to gauge future renovations. On September 7, the house was rededicated as Stone Hall.

Updated Quincy a Happy Home 
Colin Manning 
 
Old Quincy has “wow” factor. 
 
That's according to students who were moving into the 80-year-old neo-Georgian on Thursday. After 15 months of construction and renovation, Old Quincy, the first test project in the House Renewal initiative, began welcoming students this week. What they found was a fully transformed building designed to enhance the interactions of the multigenerational community living within it. Based on first impressions, the project was a success. 
 
“I haven't been in a room as nice as this anywhere on campus,” said Fola Sofela '16, as she walked into her six-person suite. 
 
Sofela marveled at the size of her bedroom, and grinned as she examined the suite's common room, furnished with couches, chairs, and tables. One of her roommates, Lauren Greenawalt '16, pointed out some of the room's details, such as built-in desk lights and electrical outlets, and a mirror on the wardrobe door. 
 
“Having the rooms fully furnished is nice. It immediately made me feel at home,” Greenawalt said. “Some people say there isn't enough social space on campus, but I think this building goes a long way in addressing that.” 
 
Modern features were brought into the House to meet the needs of students in the 21st century, but the distinctive character of Old Quincy, based on its unique architectural design, history, and traditions, was maintained. 
 
Continue reading

The full-scale prototype for Loblolly House is a central feature of the Prototyping Architecture exhibition, which runs at Cambridge Galleries Design at Riverside and Waterloo Architecture in Ontario, Canada, October 17 to December 17, 2013.

Organized in conjunction with the ACADIA 2013 Adaptive Architecture conference held October 24-27, 2013, the exhibition includes a post-digital prototype for the Passion Façade of Antoni Gaudí's Sagrada Família Basilica; a laser-sintered additively manufactured violin; lightweight prefabricated fabric formwork for on-site cast concrete; an additive manufactured titanium aircraft component; and a Rolls Royce high pressure turbine blade cast and "grown" as a single nickel alloy crystal.

Work continues apace at Philadelphia's Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, and renovation projects are planned to open to the public late 2013. A new entranceway is among the renovations, as is a new restaurant at street level to be operated by Chef Jose Garces. Both projects were identified in our master plan for the Kimmel Center, which seeks to provide transparency and activity to the building perimeter.

We developed this animation to demonstrate the components that come together and the assembly methodology used to create Ideal Choice Homes. Watch as the pieces fly into place!

The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies announced a selection of 60 new buildings, commercial and institutional developments, and urban planning projects from 20 nations for The International Architecture Awards for 2013. 
 
Charles David Keeling Apartments at UC San Diego, Edgar N. Putman Event Pavilion at James A. Michener Art Museum, and the Center City Building at UNC Charlotte were among the winning projects, and will be part of the 14th International Biennial of Architecture Buenos Aires 2013, September 19-October 15, 2013.

“From an impressive and visionary array of new submissions, the New York Jury selected 60 outstanding projects, each of which positively impacts its larger community—sometimes modestly, but most often massively,” states Christian Narkiewicz-Laine, President, The Chicago Athenaeum. “The finalists span the globe, from South America to Asia, from North America to Europe, and we are particularly happy to share that diversity. All projects exhibit innovation in design, acute sensitivity to the environment, sustainability, adaptability to their surroundings, and provision of enjoyment to their many users. In one way or another, each finalist wowed the jury, which will make selection of the winners a real challenge.”

 
This year's selected buildings were from 20 nations, including: Australia, Burundi, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Japan, Lebanon, Norway, People's Republic of China, The Netherlands, Qatar, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Turkey, Vietnam, and the United States.

Principal David Riz and Senior Researcher Roderick Bates recently traveled to Singapore to share their rich experiences with the integrative design process undertaken for the design of the Energy Efficent Buildings (EEB) Hub in Philadelphia, a project of the Department of Energy.  
 
Integrative process is based on the idea that sustainable design is most easily achieved and sustained through a whole-building design process. This process is a multidisciplinary strategy that effectively integrates all aspects of site development, building design, construction, and operations and maintenance to minimize a building's resource consumption and environmental impact while improving the comfort, health, and productivity of building occupants. This kind of process ideally leads to a building that is economical in terms of lifecycle costs, including operations, maintenance, and repairs, and leads to reduced user turnover by making buildings that are more desirable to users. An inclusive process is key to whole-building design and is most effective when applied at the earliest stages of design. 
 
Drawing on their experiences in the design of EEB Hub, David and Roderick facilitated a design charrette (workshop) to identify feasible, cost-effective sustainable measures for a “high performance, innovative and iconic living lab” housed in the new North Spine Academic Building (NSAB) for Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. They worked in collaboration with the Scientific Planning and Support (SPS) team at the university's Energy Research Institute (ERI@N) to host the one-day charrette in downtown Singapore.

What is Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) and how does it relate to the practice of sustainable design?

We undertook a research query with the goal of using feedback from actual buildings to track design outcomes and define future inputs for design optioning.

Architect Magazine announced today that two of our projects, the Wireless Sensor Network and the Green Roof Vegetation Study, won 2013 R+D Awards. They are featured in the magazine's July issue along with six other winning projects deemed exceptional by jurors Jing Liu, Lawrence Scarpa, FAIA, and Bill Zahner, Hon. AIA. Now in its seventh year, the R+D Awards program celebrates exploration and innovation in architecture.

London's Centre for the Built Environment announced the winners of the New London Awards 2013 at an annual luncheon yesterday at Guildhall. The Embassy of the United States was recognized with a prize in the Office Buildings category. New London Awards recognize the very best in architecture, planning and development in London. New and proposed projects across all sectors of the built environment were eligible and were judged by an eminent international jury. The jury was looking for schemes for both built and unbuilt projects of the highest design quality that demonstrate a positive impact on their surroundings and make a wider contribution to life in the city. A full list of winners is featured on the NLA website.

Philadelphia, PA – Renovation work continues on the Henry F. Ortlieb Company Bottling House at the corner of N. American and Poplar Streets in Philadelphia's Northern Liberties neighborhood. The Philadelphia architecture firm KieranTimberlake will move into the renovated building in early 2014. 
 
Work currently underway includes exterior envelope restoration and roof replacement, with new windows to be installed beginning in September. Brick repair has proven to be more extensive than expected, which has led to the temporary closure of the 800 block of North American between Brown and Poplar Streets. Residents should expect one or two additional street closures in August and September as windows are installed.

The Master Plan for the Central Delaware has received a 2013 Award of Excellence from AIA New York State. The goal of this 30-year plan is to transform this six-mile length of Philadelphia's Central Delaware River Waterfront into an authentic extension of the thriving city and vibrant neighborhoods immediately to its west, breathing life back into a post-industrial waterfront once at the heart of Philadelphia's economy.

Hidden City's Vivienne Tang reviews two in-progress projects at the Energy Efficient Buildings Hub in Philadelphia--both of which will serve as demonstration projects for energy-efficiency strategies in commercial buildings. 
 

Testing And Proving Building Innovation At The Navy Yard 
 
Philadelphians spend 29 percent more on energy costs in commercial buildings than Americans do on average and energy spending is only higher in New York City, Washington, DC, and Boston. The Energy Efficient Buildings Hub–know as the EEB Hub–headquartered at the Navy Yard, wants to change that. 
 
The federally-funded 27-member consortium led by Penn State University was the first Energy Innovation Hub created by the Obama administration. The goal of the project is to develop affordable tools for design, construction, and operation that will significantly reduce energy waste–and therefore costs–in commercial buildings under 250,000 square feet. Now, several years after its launch, the EEB Hub will try to prove its point by creating two demonstration projects–one retrofit and one new construction–on the Navy Yard campus. Both buildings, substantially funded through state grants given to Penn State during the Rendell administration, are expected to be open by spring 2014.

Opened in 2011 and designed by James Corner Field Operations, Race Street Pier is the newest space along the Philadelphia waterfront to open to the public as a component of the Master Plan for the Central Delaware. Now the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that work is underway to bring new life to Pier 53—once Philadelphia's arrival point for new immigrants—with a public park that will be part of the plan to create park land every half-mile along the six-mile stretch of waterfront.

Phila. counterpart to Ellis Island will get recognition 
By Jennifer Lin - The Philadelphia Inquirer Saturday, Jun 1, 2013  
 
To look at Pier 53 today, a thin finger of tree-covered land stretching into the tidal waters of the Delaware River, you would never guess that this was the front door to America for a million immigrants from Europe.

KieranTimberlake Research Group Director Billie Faircloth and Fabrication Studio Manager Peter Curry went to Ahmedabad recently to conduct a site visit and workshop with the goal of building a full bay prototype of the Ideal Choice Homes structural system.

PlanPhilly's Eyes on the Street reported recently on our adaptive reuse project at Ortlieb's Bottling House, the former bottling plant of a brewery that will be home to our new studio in 2014. Writer Ashley Hahn spoke with James Timberlake about plans to make use of natural ventilation and daylighting in the historic 1948 building, and to monitor the work spaces for comfort once we move in.

At Keeling Apartments, a residence hall on the University of California, San Diego campus, the exterior and interior walls, floors and ceilings are exposed concrete, constructed with intense focus on composition, formwork, and craft. The exterior is clad with precast concrete panels hung in front of the structure as rainscreens, supplemented by cement board cladding and window infill at the open bays of the concrete frame. Given their large size, the precast panels must be anchored to the building frame from the interior, before the weatherproofed back-up wall behind is installed.

According to a survey conducted by the Smithsonian Institution, Philadelphia has more public art than any other American city. Dilworth Plaza will be no exception. The transformation of the space adjacent to City Hall includes an installation called Pulse that will trace the paths of the three major transit lines in columns of orange, blue, and green illuminated mist.

A fourth volume of Vision+Voice, compiled by the federal government's Design Excellence Program, features interviews with architects working to fulfill the environmental sustainability mandate for federal building projects.

AIA's Committee on the Environment (COTE) Top Ten Green Projects program “celebrates structures that use a thoroughly integrated approach to architecture, natural systems, and technology to provide architectural solutions which protect and enhance the environment.” Entries are considered for the following factors: design and innovation, integration with the community, land use and effect on site ecology, bioclimatic design, energy and water use, approach to light and air, materials and construction, long-life considerations, and feedback loops.  
 
We were pleased that our Keeling Apartments at the University of California at San Diego was named among the top ten this year.

Philadelphia's Center City District has installed a construction camera atop the Centre Square East office tower at 1500 Market Street to record the construction process at Dilworth Plaza and make it easy for Philadelphians to check its progress in real time.

Our latest experiment with building sensor networks—undertaken as part of the retrofit of Building 661 (The Building Energy Sciences Center) for the Energy Efficient Buildings (EEB) Hub, one of three innovation clusters created by the Department of Energy in 2011—has yielded some interesting results.

Through a week-long "Architecture as Catalyst" workshop at the University of Minnesota, KieranTimberlake researchers Billie Faircloth and Ryan Welch challenged architecture students to recast whole material assemblies as "fast" weather probes. Using low-cost wireless sensor technology developed by our research group, students were able to align their materials and construction know-how with real-time studies of the environment and open a discourse on how real-time environmental feedback can influence design practice.

NPR's Tanya Ballard Brown asks whether U.S. embassies can be safe without being unsightly—addressing one of the many requirements involved in designing the New London Embassy, scheduled to open in the Nine Elms district in 2017.

The new U.S. embassy in London has sparked a wave of urbanization in a gritty industrial zone on the South Bank, the Wall Street Journal reports.

A Diplomatic Breakthrough 
By Ruth Bloomfield 
 
Nine Elms, a neighborhood along the banks of London's River Thames, is an urban wasteland, scarred by railroad tracks and littered with idle factories and vacant parking lots. 
 
It's also an unlikely hot spot in London real estate right now, with some two dozen developers investing well over $15 billion in new hotels, offices, retail space and as many as 16,000 high-end homes.

Our 2012 holiday card featured diagrams of green roofs surveyed in our Green Roof Vegetation Study. Kira Gould offers her perspective on the Metropolis POV Blog.

The first external deployment of our Wireless Sensor Network on an existing project took place in an exposed masonry building in Philadelphia, Ortlieb's Bottling House, which is presently being transformed into a new studio for KieranTimberlake. Given the building's historic significance, one of the critical questions this research sought to address was whether to add perimeter insulation or to retain the exposed terra cotta tile that gives the interior its distinctive character.

The American Institute of Architects has selected Morse and Ezra Stiles Colleges at Yale University to receive a 2013 Institute Honor Award, its highest professional award for architecture, urban design, and interior design. This project was one of 11 awarded for architecture, including the Barnes Foundation and the New York Public Library. From over 700 total submissions, 28 works located throughout the world were selected.

Spencer de Grey, Head of Design at Foster + Partners and Chairman, The Building Centre Trust, and Professor Michael Stacey, Chair in Architecture and Director of Architecture at the University of Nottingham, made opening remarks at the London debut of the Prototyping Architecture exhibition last week.

The KieranTimberlake Research Group undertook a survey of the green roof located atop a new residence hall on the western edge of the University of California, San Diego, campus as part of a larger study of green roofs at six of our university buildings.

Designed in partnership with Gantt Huberman Architects, Center City Building received an Honor Award from AIA North Carolina. The jury called the building “very striking from the exterior,” saying they liked “the boldness of the scheme.” The building represents the university's first urban campus.

Ideal Choice Homes is both a product and a process by which homes may be mass produced through a managed supply chain in India. This project leverages established knowledge of precast concrete to satisfy a market for “pukka” (permanent) construction. Ideal Choice Homes appears solid to sight and touch, similar to other permanent houses in India. But it is a clear departure from traditional Indian construction in that it is engineered for off-site manufacture, delivery, and on-site assembly. 
 
As the concept for Ideal Choice Homes developed, it became clear that housing components needed to be lightweight enough to ensure that they could be lifted by laborers while still meeting the cultural preference for construction that looks and feels solid and achieving performance goals. It was necessary to determine how materials readily available on a manufacturing scale in India could reduce the weight of precast components. Aggregates like expanded clay and perlite are widely available, so we conducted a series of casting studies to evaluate and identify best practices in working with them.

Partners Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake have announced their purchase of the Henry F. Ortlieb Company Bottling House in Philadelphia's dynamic Northern Liberties neighborhood. KieranTimberlake will renovate the Bottling House beginning in 2013, and relocate their current studio in the Art Museum neighborhood to the new space at the corner of North American and Poplar Streets by early 2014. 
 
Built in 1948, the two-story, approximately 60,000-square foot building is part of the campus of buildings developed by the Ortlieb Company beginning in 1869 through the 1940s, during its reign as one of the most important brewers in Philadelphia.

In a ceremony this week, the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects awarded the Edgar N. Putman Event Pavilion its highest honor: a Gold Medal for Design Excellence.

Mark Lamster of Design Observer recommends a visit to the newly opened Putman Pavilion at the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

Thanks to the integrated efforts of Rice University's Facilities, Engineering and Planning Department, the design team, and construction contractor Gilbane Building Company, the Brockman Hall for Physics has been awarded LEED Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.  
 
A Gold rating is an extraordinary achievement for a physics lab because of the energy needed to conduct experiments within a highly controlled environment. The 110,000 gross square-foot building requires sophisticated systems to keep noise, vibration, humidity, and particulates from interfering with experiments. Combined with Houston's high humidity and significant solar radiation, the project faced a daunting path to environmental performance.

The Society for College and University Planning and the AIA Committee on Architecture for Education recognized Brockman Hall for Physics at Rice University with an award in Excellence in Architecture for a New Building.  
 

During our design process for the Energy Efficient Buildings Hub in the Philadelphia Navy Yard, we have been investigating the impact that the nearby wildlife habitat at Heinz Wildlife Refuge might have on facade design, building orientation, and day lighting, as well as the potential for bird strikes.  
 
We found that the refuge is not close enough to the EEB Hub project site to have immediate implications regarding bird strikes and other avian issues, but its ongoing experience with environmental management for the purpose of conservation and habitat/species protection is a useful resource for techniques and design principles. The presence of the refuge proves that it is possible to create high quality habitat for birds and other species of interest in this busy corridor on the Delaware River. It further indicates that landscape design and management is an essential tool for controlling nuisance species such as Canadian Geese and supporting beneficial communities such as migratory songbirds and local threatened species. Furthermore, current landscape design practices in the Navy Yard, such as turf grass and paved parking lots, contribute negatively to human/avian conflict on the site. The EEB Hub's location on a migratory path means that bird strikes are a serious concern, and that measures for controlling them should be considered as part of building design.

The Charles David Keeling Apartments at UC San Diego have been awarded LEED-NC (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for New Construction) Platinum certification from the United States Green Building Council, making the building the first LEED Platinum student housing in the University of California system. It is also the first new building at UC San Diego to receive a Platinum rating—the highest LEED certification level that can be achieved.

In a ceremony yesterday evening at the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, PA, museum officials dedicated the Edgar N. Putman Event Pavilion, an elegant, all-glass structure extending into the north side of the Museum's Patricia D. Pfundt Sculpture Garden.

The Quaker Meeting House at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC is featured in the March/April 2012 issue of GreenSource magazine.

AIA Charlotte Awarded UNC Charlotte's new Center City Building a Merit Award, calling the building a “vibrant addition to Charlotte's central business district [that] establishes a lively urban presence within First Ward.”  
 
Designed in partnership with Gantt Huberman Architects of Charlotte, the project was praised for fostering interdepartmental interaction, engaging the public, and showcasing the university's innovative work.

The American Institute of Architects announced this week that the Master Plan for the Central Delaware has received national acclaim with a 2012 Institute Honor Award for Regional & Urban Design.

This master plan transforms six miles of the Delaware River waterfront in Center City Philadelphia, based on the Civic Vision that was prepared through an extensive public-engagement planning process. The goal of the plan is to provide a practical implementation strategy for the phasing and funding of public-realm enhancements to the waterfront, including the locations of parks, a variety of waterfront trails, and connections to existing upland neighborhoods. Specific zoning recommendations to shape private development as well as design guidelines for the public spaces are integral components of this project.

In order to answer a crucial housing shortage among middle class people in India, we developed Ideal Choice Homes in partnership with the Indian asset management company, Sam Circle Venture, and the Indian development company, Project Well. The project was unveiled at a press conference and workshop on mass housing, sponsored by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in Mumbai and New Delhi in December 2011. 
 
The search for a whole-building solution required research into all aspects of off-site fabrication, supply chain, and drivers of thermal comfort in India. We asked and answered questions about affordable cost, efficient construction, mass-customizable materials, resource conservation, thermal comfort, and owner self-sufficiency. We interrogated target market, Indian housing typologies, familial room-use patterns, development incentives, flood potential, seismic risk, air pollution, water pollution, solid waste infrastructure, labor, traditional material use per state, general material availability, and the Indian Green Building Council Green Homes Rating System.

The November 2011 issue of Architectural Record covers the transformation of Morse and Ezra Stiles Colleges at Yale University. 
 
KieranTimberlake's renovation and expansion retains the medieval-modern spirit of the Eero Saarinen–designed complex at Yale 
By Suzanne Stephens 
 
While regarded as one of Eero Saarinen's most distinctive works during his short career, the Morse and Ezra Stiles Colleges at Yale University (1958–62) in New Haven have long seemed more appealing in photographs than in real life. Part of the reason is the surrounding competition: When you walk past the chunky, textured stone of the Collegiate Gothic residential colleges designed by James Gamble Rogers from 1925 to 1934, it's a little hard to adore the pasty, raw concrete and stone aggregate surfaces of Saarinen's stolid clusters. Even Vincent Scully, master of Morse College from 1969 to 1975, admits, “I liked Rogers's Branford and Berkeley better, but I didn't have a choice. [Yale president] Kingman Brewster assigned me to Morse because of my association with modern architecture.”

KieranTimberlake was deeply honored last Thursday evening to receive a Gold Medal from the AIA Philadelphia for Morse and Ezra Stiles Colleges at Yale University.

KieranTimberlake was deeply honored last Thursday evening to receive five AIA Philadelphia Awards for Design Excellence, including a Silver Medal in the “Unbuilt” category for Dilworth Plaza.

KieranTimberlake was deeply honored last Thursday evening to receive five AIA Philadelphia Awards for Design Excellence. The honors included a Divine Detail and an Honor Award for the Sidwell Friends School Meeting House.  

Jury comments

“The jury was captivated by the many and varied ways light was introduced into the space, and the gentleness and warmth it imparts to the emotional magic within.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer covered the recent installation of enormous glass panels specially fabricated in Germany at the Michener Museum's Putman Pavilion.

Architecture Week published an excerpt from our monograph titled Inquiry, authored by Stephen Kieran, James Timberlake, and Karl Wallick, about the philosophy of continual “tuning,” or making adjustments, in design practice. The practice of monitoring, both pre-project and post-occupancy, emerges from the belief that architecture is in need of constant adjustment and should never become static.

Tuning a Building at KieranTimberlake 
by Stephen Kieran, James Timberlake, and Karl Wallick 
 
At KieranTimberlake, we frequently conduct postoccupancy building monitoring to verify the performance of our buildings. Preproject monitoring services are used to diagnose and treat existing buildings.  
 
A monitoring program preceded renovation work at Yale University's Sage Bowers Hall, a 1920s-era classroom and office building. The study compared existing uninsulated construction with mock-ups that added new insulation and energy-efficient window assemblies.  
 
We sought data to answer the following questions: How much energy is lost through the wall? Is the dew point reached in the modified or unmodified wall assemblies? Does the indoor ambient room temperature exceed thermal comfort levels? How does the modified window compare to the unmodified window in keeping the room comfortable?  
 
Data from this project may inform other renovation projects on the campus. Given current and emerging energy paradigms, it is no longer tenable to compensate for underperforming solid masonry walls and single-glazed windows by overheating.  
 
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The Charlotte Business Journal announced today the opening of UNC Charlotte's Center City Building, which will house the MBA program as well as masters programs in urban design and health administration.  
 
UNC Charlotte Center City complex makes debut 
 
UNC Charlotte opened its new Center City building Monday, with the school describing the move as a historic step in strengthening its ties to Charlotte's business community. 
 
The 11-story, $50.4 million academic building at the corner of Ninth and Brevard streets provides the university with a space that will allow programming “tailored to the nearby business and residential community and the rest of Charlotte,” UNCC says in a written statement.

KieranTimberlake consulted a number of glazing suppliers from around the world during the design of the all-glass Putman Pavilion. Our selection criteria were stringent; the supplier needed to have the expertise to fabricate and deliver what may be the tallest insulated glazing units in North America. We selected the German company Roschmann Group for the project, which included both design scope assistance and procurement services.

A recent publication by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Overseas Building Operations features the London embassy as an exemplar of a new paradigm for embassy design that emphasizes the role of architecture in diplomacy.

James Timberlake is serving as the international member of HOME New Zealand magazine's Home of the Year jury, alongside New Zealand judges Patrick Clifford of Architectus and Jeremy Hansen, Editor of HOME.  
 
In anticipation of his visit to New Zealand, James spoke with Clare McCall of the New Zealand Herald about KieranTimberlake's work with the Make It Right foundation to design housing to rebuild New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward following Hurricane Katrina. 
 
He also spoke about rebuilding in Christchurch after the severe earthquake of February 2011—and the mandate to rebuild for environmental sustainability—via radio broadcast on Afternoons with Jim Mora at Radio New Zealand.  
 
Read more about our work in New Orleans.

What's involved in moving highly sensitive scientific equipment into the new Brockman Hall for Physics? Rice University released a video detailing the complex process of transporting a giant 6,000-pound laser table and situating it in the new underground space.

British publication The Telegraph featured Loblolly House recently, including an interview with Partner Stephen Kieran and his wife Barbara, who are the home's owners.

KieranTimberlake's KTLH 1.5 and Belles Townhomes, created with developer LivingHomes, appeared in a list of 19 Stunning Platinum Projects of 2010 on Jetson Green.

The September 24, 2010 issue of the Yale Herald reflects on the history of Morse College, designed by Eero Saarinen, and what it means to bring the buildings into the present day.

Our plan for the Delaware River waterfront is moving toward the final stages. Inga Saffron of the Philadelphia Inquirer comments on the recommendations, including the proposal to fill Penn's Landing with a mix of housing, cultural uses, and shops.

O, the Oprah Magazine, this month featured Melba Leggett-Barnes, the owner of our Special NO 9 House in New Orleans—part of an effort by Make It Right foundation to rebuild the city sustainably following Hurricane Katrina. Leggett-Barnes says her sustainable home has saved her money due to energy-efficiency features, and she credits the ventilation system with improving her asthma symptoms.

Rebuilding New Orleans—The Green Way 
By Amanda Little 
 
Five years ago, Hurricane Katrina wiped out the life she knew. Now Melba Leggett-Barnes has a place to call her own again—a home that's good for her and the planet. 
 
Melba Leggett-Barnes stands in slippers on the roof of her house in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. It's a blazing August afternoon, yet this mother of five and grandmother of six is gripping an orange mop and wiping down 15 metallic solar panels, each about the size of a picnic table. "I like to make sure all the sun gets through," she says over the clamor of nearby construction work. "Every last drop is money in my pocket."  
 
From her roof, Leggett-Barnes can see dozens of other new homes like hers. With their sharp angles and tropical-fruit hues (mango orange, papaya pink, banana yellow), these houses suggest giant origami sculptures more than traditional New Orleans architecture, known for its deep front porches and curvaceous woodwork. In the blighted Lower Ninth, this vibrant micro-neighborhood seems surreal—an architectural mirage.  
 
On the western border of the two-square-mile area, the levees broke on August 29, 2005, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The floodwaters left some 14,000 residents homeless, including Leggett-Barnes and her husband, Baxter. Yielding to the evacuation order, they had packed a few clothes and documents in their car and inched through traffic to her cousin's house in Baker, Louisiana, 100 miles north. They came home to an empty lot. "Scraps were the only thing left," she recalls. "Pieces of the fence, the porch my daddy built, the wheel of my granddaughter's bike."  
 
Today whole city blocks of the Lower Ninth still stand vacant. The hurricane destroyed more than 4,000 homes in the area; fewer than 200 have been rebuilt. Roughly 75 percent of local families are still displaced, staying in FEMA trailers or with relatives across the southeast and beyond.  
 
But Melba Leggett-Barnes is back. The 53-year-old school cafeteria worker, born and bred in New Orleans, is living on the same plot of land her family has owned for generations: one-tenth of an acre just two blocks east of the collapsed floodwall. And in returning to her neighborhood, Leggett-Barnes has also become part of a radical experiment to prove that a 21st-century house can be at once affordable and sustainable. 
 
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The Design for Reuse Primer, a free e-publication project by Public Architecture, was recently released. In this comprehensive guide to repurposing materials directly from the waste stream, read about the reclaimed lumber and stone used at our LEED Platinum-rated Stewart Middle School at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC, including lessons learned and material sources.

The Smithsonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum announced the winners and finalists of the 2010 National Design Awards, which commend excellence across a variety of disciplines.  
 
The Architecture Design Award recognizes work in commercial, public, or residential architecture. The jury noted the firm's “integration of research with design, guided by a deep environmental ethic.” The award was presented at the White House on July 21, 2010.

The New London Embassy design competition exhibit officially opened today at the headquarters of the American Institute of Architects in Washington, D.C.

The exhibit celebrates the completion of the design competition to select the architect for the New London Embassy for the United States of America. Models and information boards from the final four competing architectural firms—KieranTimberlake, Morphosis Architects, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and Richard Meier & Partners—will be on display, along with the model of the current London Embassy designed by Finnish American architect Eero Saarinen in the late 1950s.

Loblolly House was built in just six weeks in 2006, inaugurating a novel approach to building off site using integrated component assemblies that are factory-built and assembled together on site. We recently constructed a full-scale critical detail of Loblolly House in our Philadelphia shop, and it is currently on display at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's National Design Triennial, Why Design Now? exhibition, on view from May 14-January 9, 2011.

In this video, Partners Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake, along with Project Architect Marilia Rodrigues, the Production Engineer, and others, discuss the ideas and methodologies behind Loblolly House, a sustainable residence fabricated off site yet fully integrated to its setting on the Chesapeake Bay.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and its Committee on the Environment (COTE) have announced that the Special NO 9 House, designed with New Orleans firm John C. Williams Architects as executive architect, has been named a Top Ten Green Project for 2010. The house is one of thirteen single-family homes designed by prominent architectural firms for Make It Right, an organization founded by actor Brad Pitt to provide storm-resistant, affordable, and sustainable housing for the residents of New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward displaced by Hurricane Katrina. The COTE Top Ten Green Projects program, now in its fourteenth year, celebrates projects that are the result of a thoroughly integrated approach to architecture, natural systems, and technology.

On February 23, 2010, KieranTimberlake was selected from four finalists as the architecture firm to design the new U.S. embassy in London. In his remarks at the announcement, OBO Acting Director Adam Namm commented on the embassy's potential to be a “net exporter of energy” owing to the various processes in place to capture energy produced by building systems.

He also mentioned that the London competition was one of only four juried design competitions in history to build new U.S. embassies. More information can be found at the official embassy website.

With the Yale Sculpture Building and School of Art Gallery, the client aspired to LEED Silver performance only. The Platinum award (which is the highest level of LEED certification) in this case arose from the integrated process, not from exceptional expenditure for additive systems. For several months at the outset, the entire design team met with the client weekly. Options were assessed with all team members present as we developed the program, site orientation, massing, landscape, structure and curtainwall. The result is an artful building that thoroughly integrates performance with form and urbanism.

KieranTimberlake has been selected as part of an internationally experienced team (including Cooper Robertson & Partners, master planners; OLIN, landscape architects; and HR&A Advisors) to develop the Master Plan for the Central Delaware Waterfront in Philadelphia.

The transformation of Houghton Chapel and addition of a new Multifaith Center required an intense dialogue with both the past and future at Wellesley College.

Design From Dialogue: Houghton Chapel and Multifaith Center at Wellesley College 
by the Reverend Victor Kazanjian and Stephen Kieran, FAIA 
 
The renovation of Houghton Chapel and Multifaith Center at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, is a project profoundly rooted in dialogue: between architect and client, between historical and contemporary programs and spaces, and among the people of diverse cultures and religions who constitute the campus community. This dialogue moved the project beyond implementing preconceived notions of what a renovated chapel space might look like, and instead impelled us to create spaces within an historic structure that would welcome all and would invite the campus to experience the diversity of the human community. 
 
Prominent on college and university campuses across the country are buildings, often referred to simply as “the chapel,” that once reflected the religious component of the educational missions of these institutions. Originally home to daily gatherings for prayer and ethical instruction, mostly in the Protestant Christian tradition, these chapel buildings have seen diminished use in the past half-century as educational institutions have renounced their religious past and have embraced a secular context for their future. Chapels on many campuses are religious anachronisms and function mostly as additional meeting spaces for community gatherings and lectures, or as historical buildings offering a quaint stop on college tours or a venue for the occasional wedding or memorial service. Since the mid-1990s growing religious diversity on campuses, reflecting the changing demographics of American society and the internationalization of American colleges and universities, has caused a rethinking of the role of religious and spiritual life in higher education and has thus brought new focus on religious and spiritual spaces, leading to the development of multifaith chapels. 
 
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Who says you can't build a house in a day? A time-lapse video from the Orange County Register documents the Newport Beach, CA, installation of the KTLH 1.5 house we designed for LivingHomes.  
 
In a matter of a few hours, four off-site fabricated wood and steel modules comprising the 2,500 square-foot, two-story residence were precision-craned onto the site. The homeowners expect to move into their new house a month after install, meaning the entire process from laying the foundation to final finishes comprises less than four months—a half to a third of the time it takes to build a home with conventional methods. 
 
The home was constructed in a factory in Southern California. Before its permanent installation in Newport Beach, the house was exhibited in 2009 at the International Builders Show in Las Vegas, NV, and the TED Conference in Long Beach, CA. It is poised to become Orange County's first LEED-Platinum Certified Home. 
 
Keep reading: 
Los Angeles Times, Prefab housing goes green in Newport Beach 
CBS2, Newport Beach ‘Green' Home To Be Built In 1 Day

In the spring of 2008, we began design for Brockman Hall for Physics at Rice University in Houston, Texas. This 110,000 square-foot facility will house research, teaching, and office space for the Departments of Physics & Astronomy and Electrical & Computer Engineering. Nestled between existing buildings in the dense Science Quad, the building envelope respects the scale of the historic masonry vocabulary of the campus while extending it into a twenty-first century model for architecture and research at Rice.

In Bosch Rexroth's lean manufacturing podcast, James Timberlake discusses how aluminum structural framing, commonly used in factory applications, was used to build Cellophane House™. 
 

“We aimed to create a mass customizable system of building, not just a one-off. We wanted to show how a lean manufacturing approach could bring optimal benefits to home building,” said Timberlake.

 
“Cellophane House™ Part I and II” is episode 9 in Rexroth's lean manufacturing podcast series, available for listening or free download from the company's website. The podcast series is also available on iTunes and other podcast directories online. 

Cellophane House™ was recently featured on Big Ideas for a Small Planet, Season 3, Episode 5. 
 
An award-winning original documentary series from the Sundance Channel, this episode of the show asks the question, “Can we imagine architecture built on sustainability?”

This episode features interviews with forward-thinking designers, including Michael Manfredi and Marion Weiss of Weiss/Manfredi Architects, Reed Kroloff from the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Rocio Romero, and our own James Timberlake and Stephen Kieran. 
 
Go to iTunes to download the full episode.

ArchDaily sat down with Partner Stephen Kieran and Research Director Billie Faircloth to discuss the history of research and its integral role in our practice, including projects like monitoring at Sage Bowers, the Yale Sculpture Building, and Sidwell Friends School.

AD Interviews: KieranTimberlake 
Interview by Sarah Wesseler, published 18 August, 2009

It was announced last month that the Yale School of Art Gallery and Sidwell Friends Middle School received 2008 Western Red Cedar Architectural Design Awards, presented by The Western Red Cedar Lumber Association and The Cedar Shake and Shingle Bureau.

The April 2009 issue of Builder magazine featured our sustainable modular homes, developed in partnership with LivingHomes, which are fabricated off site and can be assembled on site in just four days.

Survival of the Fittest 
 
Small, green, and factory-built, Builder's 2009 show home anticipates housing's future. 
By: Jenny Sullivan, Nigel F. Maynard 
 
When Charles Darwin developed his theory of evolution, he wasn't thinking about housing, of course. But in this, the year of his 200th birthday, you can't help but imagine that the forces of natural selection are taking their toll on home building. 
 
Few would argue that the industry has reached a point of reckoning. With credit in a virtual lockdown and fossil fuel reserves edging closer to extinction, home builders are adapting to new realities. The pressure is on to provide comfort and luxury in a smaller envelope, to engineer integrated, multifunctional plans and systems, and to build faster, smarter, and more economically. For many, this means rethinking how they've always done things. 
 
Far be it from BUILDER to preach and not practice, so we upended some of our own timeworn habits in preparation for this year's International Builders' Show. Rather than doing stick-built showcase homes on conventional lots—as has been our tradition for nearly a decade—we partnered with modular builder and developer LivingHomes, the groundbreaking architects at KieranTimberlake Associates, and the eco-minded designers at Color Design Art to create an entirely different animal. 
 
The 2,160-square-foot concept house that made its debut on the trade show floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center in January was factory-built to LEED specifications over the course of roughly three months. Shipped as a suite of modules and panels, it arrived on site nearly 95 percent complete and was stitched together in just four days. Simple, flexible, and sustainable, it is a study in how housing may very well evolve in the not so distant future. 
 
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Construction is scheduled to begin this spring for the new 12-story Center City Building for UNC Charlotte. Located at Ninth and Brevard Streets in downtown Charlotte, the new building will house the University's MBA program and other programs including graduate-level classes in the colleges of Engineering, Health and Human Services, Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Arts and Architecture's new master's program in Urban Design.  
 
The new building defines UNC as a vibrant addition to the central business district, providing a unique icon for the university while establishing a lively urban presence in the First Ward. Charlotte-based Gantt Huberman Architects, our close design collaborators on this project, are serving as Architect of Record.

The U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations announced yesterday that KieranTimberlake is among four firms selected to present designs for the new London Embassy Building in the Nine Elms district of London.

State Department Press Release 
 
The U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO) announced that four architectural firms have been selected for the final phase of the design competition for the new United States Embassy in London. 
 
The four firms, KieranTimberlake; Morphosis Architects; PEI Cobb Freed & Partners; and Richard Meier & Partners, Architects presented the best qualifications to design the New London Embassy that will represent the highest international architectural standards. 
 
An OBO panel used a thorough and rigorous evaluation process to initially review 37 submissions in the first round of the design competition. The nine firms selected for the second round provided presentations over two days to a distinguished jury of American and British leaders in the fields of architecture, academics and diplomacy. The jury then selected four firms to move to the final phase of the design competition. 
 
This diverse group of finalists will explore the symbolism of the embassy, its image, and position in the cityscape of London. Their goal is to create a building and site complex that has timeless quality and represents the United States appropriately in the United Kingdom. 
 
In November 2009, the four firms will present their three-dimensional models to the jury. The winning firm's design will be developed for construction of the New Embassy in London on the Nine Elms site.  
 
The New London Embassy will speak to the time-honored relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom as strong and close allies. The building will reflect the values of the American people and reflect the spirit of our times. 
 
For further information, please contact Jonathan Blyth at BlythJJ@State.gov or on (703) 875-4131.  

After its debut at the International Builders Show in Las Vegas last month, the off-site fabricated home we designed for LivingHomes will be on display at the TED Conference in Long Beach. Designed to achieve LEED-Platinum certification, the two-story Kohler LivingHome features furnishings, materials, products and technologies that showcase the best in high design and technology with a low ecological footprint. Following the TED conference, the show home will remain open for public viewing from February 8 to February 21, 2009.

In January, we paid a visit to Melba and Baxter Barnes, the owners of KieranTimberlake's first completed Make It Right home—a safe, sustainable, affordable home designed for the rebuilding of the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.

KieranTimberlake has teamed up with LivingHomes, Profile Structures, and Color Design Art to create a modular show home for Builder magazine. The home will be on display at the 2009 International Builders' Show in Las Vegas, January 20-23. You can take a virtual tour of the project on the Builder website.

Boyce Thompson, Builder magazine's editorial director, writes: 
 

Next week, four semi-trailers will leave a factory in Southern California carrying the modules and panels that make up our show home for this year's International Builders' Show in Las Vegas. The convoy will idle across the street in a parking lot, waiting for the convention floor to open for exhibitors. Then, when the doors roll up at 12:01 a.m. on the morning of the 14th, crews will race the components to the floor and begin a mad, five-day race to ready the home for visitors. 
 
If you are going to the IBS this year, check out the Builder LivingHome. We've been working for more than a year on this super-sustainable ‘mod' home. The experience of navigating the nascent modular industry to line up a builder, an architect, a factory, and suppliers is an interesting story in itself. But it is sure to be eclipsed by the home itself, which speaks volumes about the trends that are likely to preoccupy builders for the next several decades.

 
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Cellophane House™ was designed for ease of assembly, disassembly and re-assembly. With the conclusion of the Home Delivery show at the Museum of Modern Art on October 26, the next phase of our experiment is beginning. Our intention is to disassemble and rebuild the house on a new location, with the aim of helping to offset the millions of tons of construction and demolition debris generated in the United States each year.

It was announced last week that Loblolly House is a winner of the second annual Lifecycle Building Challenge competition, sponsored by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

On October 17, 2008, AIA Philadelphia held its annual Awards for Design Excellence celebration. We were honored to accept four awards that evening, including a Gold Medal for Cellophane House™, our second gold medal in a row from AIA Philadelphia.  
 
The Gold Medal recognizes only one built project of the most exemplary design quality, and is rarely given annually. Our heartfelt thanks go to the clients, design teams and consultants who made this honor possible.

Can we create a material that combines the ideal functions of a building envelope into a single product? We began exploring this question with SmartWrap™, a building envelope that has the potential to generate energy, control climate, and provide lighting and information display on a single printed substrate.

In a review of Cellophane House™ at MoMA, Andrew Blum of Wired says that “prefab's time has finally come.”  
 
Instant Suburb of Prefabs Hits New York 
By Andrew Blum 
 
Tourists press up against the construction fence on the corner of 53rd and Sixth, staring speechless as a giant crane lifts an entire bathroom into the air and deposits it in what will be a master bedroom. Cellophane House™ is five stories tall, with floor-to-ceiling windows, translucent polycarbonate steps embedded with LEDs, and exterior walls made of NextGen SmartWrap™, an experimental plastic laminated with photovoltaic cells. Its aluminum frame was cut from off-the-shelf components in Europe, assembled in New Jersey, then snapped together in 16 days on a vacant lot next to the Museum of Modern Art — joining four other full-size houses onsite through October as part of the exhibit Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling. It looks as if a suburban cul-de-sac took a wrong turn at the Holland Tunnel.

Actor Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation selected KieranTimberlake among thirteen architecture firms to design safe, affordable, and environmentally sensitive housing to rebuild New Orleans' Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Lower Ninth Ward. Construction at Tennessee Street, the site of our first house, began on July 1, 2008; homeowners are scheduled to move in during September. John Williams Architects of New Orleans is the Executive Architect responsible for construction documents and administration.

On September 15, NPR's Morning Edition featured a segment detailing The Museum of Modern Art exhibition Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling. A conversation with Assistant Curator Peter Christensen covers the rich history of prefabrication and the five full-scale prefab homes, including our Cellophane House™, currently on view at the Museum.

Our renovations at Wellesley College's Houghton Chapel and Multifaith Center were completed in the spring of 2008. In this article from Wellesley magazine, alumna Jana Reiss discusses students' dreams for the space, and the hum of activity happening there now. 

How well does a plastic building envelope function in the summer heat of New York City? We attached sensors to the house to collect data on the thermal performance of our SmartWrap™ building skin.

We are thrilled that the Sculpture Building and School of Art Gallery at Yale University have been named among the Committee on the Environment (COTE) Top Ten Sustainable Projects. View the ten measures and supporting metrics used to evaluate the entries here, and a comprehensive list of the building's sustainable features here.

Last Friday, the whole KieranTimberlake team piled into two charter buses from our office in Philadelphia and trekked up the New Jersey Turnpike to visit the Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art. This movie was taken with a handheld camera and shows the interior spaces from the top down. Indeed, the experience of walking through the house is quite different from seeing it on a computer screen.

Completed in 2006, the Yale University Sculpture Building is a 51,000 square-foot studio space for the undergraduate and graduate sculpture programs of the School of Art. The building called for an exceptional quality of light, low energy usage, and operable windows. A climate analysis performed on the site indicated a strong seasonal variation, with significant heating loads during the winter and cooling loads in the summer. This presented the opportunity to advance solar wall technology in partnership with a curtainwall manufacturer.

Peter Curry, manager of our fabrication studio, undertook a study of steel finishes related to our work at the Multifaith Center at Wellesley College.