Stuart Weitzman Hall

XX How can an addition to an historic structure
make its own mark while being respectful of…

XX What is worth saving in a former home for orphans, engineers, and nurses? What must be added to unite today’s designers and artists?

The University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design is home to the second-oldest architecture program in the United States and continues to uniquely shape pedagogy by bringing together arts and design disciplines. Yet over the years, the School grew to rely on a patchwork of decentralized spaces spread across campus.

The renovation of and addition to Stuart Weitzman Hall is the first major capital project for the School in nearly 60 years, sited on one of the last remaining parcels within Penn’s historic campus core. The new and renovated building, formerly known as Morgan Hall, brings the Weitzman School of Design’s Department of Fine Arts back together under one roof in the historic center of campus, enabling the interdisciplinary study that distinguishes the School from other U.S. graduate institutions.

The renovation modernizes, weatherizes, and rehabilitates Cope and Stewardson’s 1892 monochromatic red brick and terracotta building with repointed custom-cast brick and new windows and doors, while the four-story steel framed addition reveals and repurposes the existing masonry walls on its eastern face.

The 21,380 square foot addition more than doubles the building’s footprint with a collocation of arts and design programs, and completes Stuart Weitzman Hall’s 360-degree relationship with 34th Street to the west and two highly traveled pedestrian paths to the south and east. Complementing the porch and balcony of the existing west-facing facade, a new covered plaza with steps that double as seating spills down to the southern pedestrian path, creating a functional, green-terraced gateway that leads into the heart of campus. An extruded, glass-encased staircase to the north alights into an intimate open-air courtyard. Together, these access points beckon students and faculty from multiple directions of approach.

A new four-story recessed connector—or “gasket”—fusing renovation and addition encourages cross-pollinization between students and faculty, with collaborative review spaces woven around and within this circulation. Extroverted in form, the addition’s large windows showcase the creativity and collaboration that defines the School. Handmade Danish brick and prominent cornices with rusticated corbels supporting the accentuated soffit evoke the existing architectural language of the campus and neighboring buildings.

A new gallery and flexible installation spaces anchor and open up the first level of the building, displaying projects created in basement-level maker spaces for woodworking and welding. Upper levels host a mix of light-filled individual and group studios, offices, and spaces for reviews, meetings, and research, all designed with flexibility to meet current and future uses. The width of the individual studio defined the proportions of the windowed facade, granting each equal access to daylight. Clear floor spans provide built-in adaptability to turn individual spaces into communal space or add more compartmentalization, grooved ceilings allow light fixtures to move and student work to be hung, and a system of moveable walls, curtains, and folding wall panels that hinge across gallery windows create variable configurations of both light and space. The existing building’s attic floor was removed to unveil dramatic wooden trusses, which are cradled with new steel structure to create a lofted double-height design studio with a floating all-glass review space that overlooks it.

The embedded benefits of building reuse enable Stuart Weitzman Hall to use 36% less energy than a typical building of comparable use. Salvaged existing building materials and avoided greenhouse gas emissions resulted in cumulative reductions realized over time. The decision not to insulate the existing exposed masonry structure emerged after careful building envelope studies to understand and isolate strategies with maximum impact on material lifespan, energy use, and whole-life carbon. Paired with new systems such as optimized glazing that maximizes natural light, green roof, occupancy sensors and controlled outlets, and low energy fixtures, the project exceeded University of Pennsylvania’s sustainability goals. Weitzman Hall is the first renovation and addition project on University of Pennsylvania’s campus to receive LEED Platinum certification.