Façade work is nearly complete at the Pavilion, a medical building at 300 South 33rd Street in University City. With 1.5 million square feet of interior space, the Pavilion is one of the largest structures in West Philadelphia. The structure rises 343 feet and 17 stories as one of the tallest buildings of Penn Medicine, which is the project developer. The building was designed by the renown architects Foster + Partners, which has done several notable buildings around the world, such as the Gherkin in London, the Hearst Tower in New York City, and the Comcast Technology Center in Philadelphia. The structure replaces an older Penn Medicine building, a high-rise called Penn Tower.
CHOP Hub for Clinical Collaboration and Pavilion. Photo by Thomas Koloski
In the last updates, it was stated that the exterior had been completed, despite the fact that smaller parts of the building had not yet been clad at the time. But construction has greatly slowed down in 2020 due to the hospital taking in patients while the work continues. It was also reported in the previous update that the interior work was well underway and nearing completion, as construction lighting was still spotted inside of the structure.
Pavilion from South Street Bridge. Photo by Thomas Koloski
But, the most recent looks at the building show that the facade is extremely close to being enclosed. The entrance on the southeast side of the building has an extra floor on top than what was shown in renderings, and that was one of the most recent sections of the building to be zipped up with metal and glass. However, the medical bay still has some work to go as the exterior is not done at the section, as it will presumably be the last part of the building to be clad due to the activity of patients inside.
The Pavilion is scheduled for completion in 2021.
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The massing is neat as is the detailing on the panels, but something about the design is very 80s/90s to me and makes me think this is not going to age well.
To the other commenter – I think it’s the brown color. The design is great, I think someone dropped the ball picking the metal cladding. Look at the renders, it was not intended to be so brown.
Yuck. What an eyesore. Who on earth would think “high-tech billion-dollar medical facility… let’s make it dark brown”?