Construction work is making progress at Amy Gutmann Hall, the latest addition to the UPenn campus at 3317-33 Chestnut Street in University City, West Philadelphia. The building will house 115,954 square feet of space designated for classrooms, student collaborative space, and a data science hub. The building is being built with mass timber construction.
Rendering of 3317-33 Chestnut Street. Credit: Lake Flato Architects.
The new building will feature an attractive and modern exterior following design trends in other new buildings constructed on Penn’s campus. The structure will incorporate the University’s trademark red brick, but a heavier emphasis will be placed on the modern all-glass facade on the upper floors, which will be accentuated by silver vertical columns that juxtapose against the triangles of the pillars found at ground level. The building will offer a fantastic street presence, with plenty of garden space and street trees contributing to the sidewalk environment. For more renderings and design analysis, check out some of YIMBY’s former articles on the project.
In YIMBY’s previous update in April, work was just starting to go vertical and make substantial headway. A tower crane had been constructed on site, and some steel framing surrounded an elevator shaft which was already fairly high off of the ground.
Credit: Colin LeStourgeon.
Credit: Colin LeStourgeon.
Credit: Colin LeStourgeon.
Credit: Colin LeStourgeon.
Since then, framework has transitioned over to mass timber construction, which makes for an entertaining building process to watch. Massive wooden beams now stretch up to the second floor, and it looks like work is readying to go higher soon. Moving forward, expect to see more interior-specific framing come into place as the larger scale framing climbs higher.
The new building is a great addition to the block, which until not long ago, was essentially entirely devoted to parking space. This project which block the massive adjacent parking garage from view at most vantage points along Chestnut Street, which will help improve the corridor. Moving forward, hopefully more of the excessive parking space found throughout the area will be repurposed to more urban-minded uses such as what is in progress here.
YIMBY will continue to monitor progress on the project moving forward.
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UPENN has 100 year old buildings with timber construction covered by stone/brick walls.