If you thought Penn's School of Engineering campus was simply a disjointed set of old brick and limestone buildings, you should try peeking your head behind Bennett Hall once in a while.
There, connecting the Moore and Towne buildings, lies Penn's architectural wonder Levine Hall, the home of the Computer and Information Science Department.
On Wednesday afternoon, Richard Maimon, an associate architect for the Philadelphia architectural firm KieranTimberlake Associates -- the company that designed Levine Hall -- and Fernando Pereira, chairman of the Department of Computer and Information Science, gave a tour of the new building.
Anyone who has seen Levine Hall will instantaneously notice its breathtaking series of glass panels.
Maimon explained that these panels are part of what is known as "active wall technology."
Built by the Italian firm Permasteelisa and exported to the University, these wall panels consist of two layers of glass, sandwiching a four-inch air cavity to allow for better insulation and to increase energy efficiency.
The 40,000-square-foot building also boasts comfortably sized and loft-like conference rooms, as well as electronically operated blinds.
"The University wanted an award-winning building," Maimon said when asked why Levine Hall was designed so differently from the other Engineering buildings.
Levine Hall, which was dedicated in April of last year, has won four American Institute of Architects awards.
Following the tour, KieranTimberlake's Chris MacNeal led a lecture at the Institute of Contemporary Art -- located at 36th and Sansom streets -- dealing with the development and theory behind the architectural firm's latest SmartWrap technology.
MacNeal was accompanied by Dave Cadogan, who works for the engineering firm ILC Dover, which helped manufacture SmartWrap.
Unlike the glass facade that lines Levine Hall, SmartWrap is a new type of wall that is about as slim as a computer screen. Its thin nature requires fewer materials.
The small film is easier to customize and construct as compared to the firm's other exterior walls.
According to Cadogan, SmartWrap "looked so interesting and so innovative ... involving a vast number of new technologies."
SmartWrap was installed in the lobby of the ICA this past January and will remain there for public display until April 4.
ICA Director Claudia Gould learned of SmartWrap after seeing it on display at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City.
Additionally, the idea behind SmartWrap sprung forth from a graduate seminar on architecture at the University, which was led by KieranTimberlake's partners in 2000.
The tour was a part of the ICA "Whenever Wednesday" series.
