University of Pennsylvania, School of Veterinary Medicine, Vernon and Shirley Hill Pavilion

Defining a formal entrance to Woodland Walk, the spine of Penn’s urban campus, this new veterinary medicine building integrates teaching and research activities to promote collaboration and student interaction.

Due it its pivotal highly visible location, the Hill Pavilion represents not only the School of Veterinary Medicine, but the University at large. Transparent materials and incorporation of outdoor spaces for community use have ensured that the structure serves the needs of both the smaller and larger communities.

Todd Schliemann, Design Partner

Employing a novel approach to laboratory planning, traditional partitions between workstations are eliminated, maximizing daylight to the labs and increasing visibility among the community of students and researchers.

Reinforcing the connection between research and instruction, the library and a variety of spaces for interaction allow students and faculty to gather, socialize, study and collaborate. The ground floor is organized as an open lobby and lounge, connecting the major lecture halls and seminar rooms.

The lounge opens to a landscaped terrace and plaza that initiate the series of green spaces that form Woodland Walk.

The Hill Pavilion participates in the campus’s rich tradition of Collegiate Gothic architecture, with its bold expression of its pre-cast structural frame and reflective, iron-spot brick in-fill panels. A continuous clerestory window above patterned glass reestablishes the traditional academic scale within the much larger unit of the laboratory floor, aligning the scale of the building with adjacent academic buildings.

Details

  • Year 2006
  • Location Philadelphia, PA
  • Size 123,974 GSF
  • Program Lecture Halls, Library, Two Lab Floors, Research Support

Team

  • Ennead Design TeamTodd Schliemann, Duncan Hazard, Don Weinreich, David Tepper, Felicia Berger, Chris Koon, Kevin Rice, David Wallance
  • Architect-of-Record Ballinger
  • PhotographyJeff Goldberg/Esto, Aislinn Weidele/Ennead Architects, Tom Crane