Skirkanich Hall, home to Penn’s Bioengineering Department, recently received the 2010 Institute Honor Award for Architecture given by the American Institute of Architects.
The AIA is widely considered “the professional organization for architecture in this country,” Facilities and Real Estate Services Vice President Anne Papageorge said.
Designed in 2006 by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architecture, Skirkanich Hall also received the 2008 New York Chapter Design Award. According to Papageorge, earning this national honor is just as exciting.
“[The award] validates Penn’s goals of design quality,” she said. “Getting external recognition for those goals is a great thing.”
According to a University press release, AIA jurors praised Skirkanich Hall’s “thoughtful use of materials, genius in vertical circulation, solid programmatic resolution” and called it “both delicate and dramatic, all in all a beautiful project.”
Skirkanich Hall’s complexity is striking, School of Engineering and Applied Science Dean Eduardo Glandt said.
Not only is it a highly advanced bioengineering facility, he said, but it is also “like a beautifully solved 3-D puzzle” in its design.
Principal Planner in the Office of the University Architect Mark Kocent agreed, saying the building’s layout connects two other SEAS buildings.
“People will see this award and think, ‘that’s one more reason to come to Penn,’” he added.
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