The new limestone-clad building sits at the heart of Penn’s campus, mediating two very different conditions: a pedestrian/domestic scale to its south and west, and a busy urban scale and traffic corridor to its north and east. The building’s facets allow it to modulate its scale in a seamless way, deferring to the original house, on one hand, but providing a strong edge to the busy street, on the other. The design incorporates a significant portion of the existing house, which the architects meticulously preserved, per historic documentation.

It now serves as a 50-person conference room and a student lounge. A vast atrium, the World Forum, provides abundantly daylit flexible space for up to 150 seats. By suspending structure from above, the design allows interior spaces, including the soaring World Forum, to be column free. Because of the inter-disciplinary nature of the building’s program, the architects included a vast network of sightlines between interior spaces and between inside and outside. On track for LEED Silver certification, the project incorporates many sustainable design features, including abundant natural light, stormwater capture, and energy -efficient fixtures.

A landscape design helps shape usable outdoor space, becoming a more fluid node for the pedestrian experience.