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October 06, 2008, 01:22 PM ET
Shop Talk: Projects in Philly and San Luis Obispo, Plus a $100,000 Prize
Green projects in Philly: Two big projects are under way at the 34,000-student Community College of Philadelphia. The college has broken ground for a $31-million, 58,000-square-foot, three-story building at its Northeast Regional Center. It’s also planning a $56-million makeover of its main campus downtown. That project will involve renovating several buildings, as well as some new construction. Both projects are designed with sustainability in mind — the new building at the Northeast Regional Center, for instance, will have a green roof, a system that will collect rainwater and reuse it, and a geothermal heating-and-cooling system paid for in part by a $1.6-million federal grant.
The U. of Pennsylvania will renovate and expand its music building. (Ann Beha Architects image)
Penn music project: A University of Pennsylvania building designed in 1890 by Cope & Stewardson is getting not only a renovation but also an addition slightly larger than the original structure. The Italianate 1890 building, constructed as an orphanage but purchased by the university in the early 1900s, will be matched with a 13,700-square-foot contemporary structure by Ann Beha Architects to create a modern home for the university’s music department. The cost of the yearlong project is estimated to be $15.3-million.
Construction at Cal Poly: Two projects have been approved by the trustees of the California Polytechnic Institute at San Luis Obispo. One is a $6.3-million, 25,000-square-foot building that will be the first in the university’s planned high-tech research park, and the other is a $3-million materials-research lab. Omni Design Group has designed both structures.
Decade-long trend: Sophomores, juniors, and seniors are increasingly choosing on-campus housing as colleges improve their residence-hall offerings, the Associated Press reports.
Big prize for a low-cost house : A jury at the University of Kentucky College of Design has awarded the first $100,000 Curry Stone Design Prize to a South African firm, MMA Architects. The prize is intended to honor “breakthrough” work, and the jury chose MMA for designing a $6,900 house that uses a timber frame filled with sandbags and then covered. The design, reminiscent of traditional mud-and-wattle construction, requires little skilled labor and is energy efficient, the jury noted.
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