By Joseph Dennis Kelly II
Upon hiring Philadelphia's KieranTimberlake Associates in 1999 to design a new home for the University of Pennsylvania's engineering school, officials at the urban Ivy Leaguer handed the architects several problems to solve. The simplest involved creating a building that physically connected two outdated structures: one built in the mid-1900s, the other in the late 1960s. In doing so, the new building would establish a singular engineering complex. The other challenges, however, were more daunting: Penn wanted a structure that would dynamically invigorate a previously tired and misused area of campus while also sensitively complementing the university's historic built environment. And the School of Engineering and Applied Science needed a new home that would aptly symbolize the high-tech activities performed by its faculty and students while providing much needed common areas where faculty and students could meet.
