Project Info
University of Pennsylvania, Gutmann College House
211 S 40th St, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Sustainable New Development or Renovation
Institutional / University College House
Project Team
Architect/Designer: Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
Contractor: INTECH Construction
Engineer: Vanderweil
Owner: University of Pennsylvania
Project Description
Gutmann College House is designed to promote the whole student, with dynamic living-learning spaces that encourage exploration and help students find their place and embrace campus and city life.
Comprised of a residential tower and two five-story wings, the 250,000 GSF project provides housing for 450 students. The design responds to university goals of creating a highly sustainable purpose-built college house that embraces community at different scales, and integrates a varied program of landscapes, collaborative spaces, facilities, and amenities to help students find their place and embrace life on campus and within the city.
Extensive student and public meetings informed the design of this vibrant new addition to Penn housing that brings layers of community together at an important campus gateway. Gutmann College House provides a range of indoor and outdoor environments that form a gradient of private, semi-private, and public spaces to promote community and well-being. The design team prioritized carefully sized and located public and campus outdoor space and pathways to weave the new building into the campus and the surrounding community. Building configuration was influenced by the need to form friendly pocket gardens to enliven the streetscape, embrace secure, leafy collegiate courtyards, create public passages over and through the building, and feature welcoming outdoor spaces for public events.
The project’s east and west residential wings are organized around a secure courtyard and sweeping public lawn, designed as a social space for students and the broader community. With gently sloping pathways and new trees (the site includes 100 newly planted trees), the lawn provides a welcoming space ideal for varied events. The site was previously used by the community for concerts, and the improved green continues this tradition, with flexibility to accommodate gatherings of up to 1,000 people. Despite the project’s scale, the team restored nearly 60% of the previously disturbed site with native vegetation. The lawn engages directly with the Locust Walk, a pedestrian thoroughfare linking campus and city.
Gutmann College House’s holistic approach to occupant well-being provides students with choice and inclusivity, as well as innovative approaches to healthy interaction and community building. Quaker Kitchen, a new take on college house dining, and a glass-enclosed dining porch, nurture community and promote healthy eating habits. The kitchen serves as a teaching environment, where chef-led sessions provide hands-on learning and meal prep that can be implemented independently in student kitchens upstairs.
Among the project’s most visible sustainable strategies is its approach to stormwater management. Stormwater strategies manage runoff for 98% of rainfall onsite through green roofs, raingardens with engineered soils, a subsurface detention basin, permeable pavements for most hardscape, and native plants. Repurposed, salvaged curbs form visible stormwater outfalls into raingardens to demonstrate environmental responsibility. Beautiful and visible green roofs reduce the heat island effect, insulate the building, conserve energy, and capture, store, and condition stormwater for a healthier local ecology. Overflow is piped to rain gardens and a subsurface stone bed between the building and the service drive. 77% of roof runoff is managed on the roof itself, with only 23% piped to raingardens.