March 18, 2024

New Research Director Appointed

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.

March 13, 2024

Tour + Toast at Ortlieb's

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.

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January 03, 2024

2023 Awards Round-Up

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.

The East End Transformation replaced a vehicle-centric site, long dominated by roadways and surface parking lots, with new campus landscape and buildings, establishing a welcoming pedestrian-focused entrance to the historic Danforth Campus of Washington University in St. Louis. © Washington University in St. Louis
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December 22, 2023

Happy 2024 from KieranTimberlake

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. 

October 12, 2023

Introducing KieranTimberlake Music League

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.

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October 06, 2023

KieranTimberlake Presents Generally Electric

Lubbux light by Benjamin Gillepsie/OVUUD

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.

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September 05, 2023

2023 Firm Advancements

Left to right: David Trapp, Christy Choi, Kendra Heimes, Shelley McDavid, and Alex Olevitch.

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

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August 30, 2023

New Park at Penn's Landing Breaks Ground

View of the Park at Penn's Landing at dusk with the pavilion and café at its center. © Hargreaves Jones and KieranTimberlake

The new Park at Penn's Landing 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.

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July 12, 2023

KieranTimberlake Awarded Design of New U.S. Diplomatic Missions in Brussels

The new U.S. Embassy site will be in Etterbeek, Brussels. © Patrick Morgan

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.

June 30, 2023

KieranTimberlake at the UIA World Congress of Architects

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.

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