Archinect - News

Take a look inside Allied Works' Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State ahead of June opening

2024-04-11T12:15:00-04:00

Allied Works’ collaboration with Reed Hilderbrand for the new Palmer Museum of Art at Pennsylvania State University is closing in on its June 1st opening. The firm has shared new photos previewing its work ahead of the inauguration, which will culminate a two-year construction period for a cost of $85 million.

The 73,000-square-foot building is defined by interlocking sandstone-clad pavilions contained within double-height volumes. These allow for unique spatial variations in each of the 20 new galleries, highlighting the diversity of its collection to visitors.

Image: Jeremy Bittermann/JSBA

An overhead skybridge — the new Dr. Keiko Miwa Ross Gateway — links both wings while establishing panoramic vistas of the university's Arboretum and H.O. Smith Botanic Garden outside. —

Image: Jeremy Bittermann/JSBA

Small exterior courtyards are created by the design, which is similar in concept to Allied Works' 2008 Dutchess County Guest House in upstate New York and the firm's shortlisted compet...

Allied Works' Palmer Museum of Art is set for a 2024 opening at Penn State

2023-12-14T14:21:00-05:00

The Allied Works-designed Palmer Museum of Art expansion project at Pennsylvania State University has shared new photos of its construction progress to go along with an announced opening date of June 1 next year.

Reed Hilderbrand is coordinating with the firm to deliver the landscaped portion of the LEED Silver-certified design. The project doubles the museum’s existing footprint by adding a new 73,000-square-foot building with 20 new galleries, a café, education, research, and events spaces situated amongst the 370-acre university Arboretum and serviced by a sculpture path and outdoor terraces.

Dale Chihuly’s site-specific sculptural commission, “Lupine Blue Persian Wall,” will be debuted as an anchor that welcomes visitors to the main access point and is framed by the museum’s feature staircase.

Photo by Jeremy Bittermann/JSBA, courtesy of Allied Works.

Locally quarried sandstone cladding produces a naturalistic effect on the exterior of each of the building’s interlocking pavilio...

Populous to design Beaver Stadium renovation for Penn State

2023-10-18T17:09:00-04:00

Populous has been named as the lead architect for a major renovation of the historic Beaver Stadium on the flagship campus of The Pennsylvania State University.

Barton Malow, AECOM Hunt, and Alexander Building Construction will join the project as construction managers, expanding on over 20 years of collaboration with Populous. The scope of the renovation entails winterizing the entire stadium for year-round use as an entertainment venue or the potential host of a college football playoff game. The western side of the stadium will also be reconstructed to include new executive suites and loge seating areas. Other renovations will be enacted in order to keep up with code upgrades and accessibility concerns. The reported cost of the project is $700 million.

The school emphasized its funding would be provided for entirely by the Athletics department, circumventing the need for tuition hikes. Construction is expected to begin in January of 2025 and conclude in time for the start of the ...

Chingwen Cheng named new director of Penn State’s Stuckeman School

2023-06-23T13:00:00-04:00

Chingwen Cheng has been appointed as the new director of the Stuckeman School at Penn State’s College of Arts and Architecture. Cheng is currently the program head and associate professor of landscape architecture, urban design, and environmental design at Arizona State University’s Design School.

Announcing the news, Penn State described Cheng as “a climate justice design educator and advocate for climate actions through co-designing nature-based solutions with communities.” Among Cheng’s engagement with sustainable design is her founding and directing of Hydro-GI Lab, which focuses on the evaluation of both the design process and outcomes of nature-based solutions for climate justice design.

“Climate change impacts and systemic injustice are persistent challenges that many communities around the world are facing,” Cheng said in a statement. “Design practices and scholarship must address these challenges as we hold the power to shape the built environment. After nearly three decade...

Penn State’s Stuckeman School names Frank Jacobus head of the Department of Architecture

2023-06-12T12:07:00-04:00

The Stuckeman School at Penn State University has announced that award-winning architect Frank Jacobus will take over as the next head of the Department of Architecture starting on July 1st.

Jacobus is known for his work through the 11-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina-based practice SILO and comes to the position with more than 16 years of academic experience, including a recent stint as the department head at the University of Arkansas’ Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design.

B. Stephen Carpenter II, the Dean of the College of Arts and Architecture, said: “Frank Jacobus’ broad experience as an award-winning architect, academic administrator, and committed educator positions him to effectively lead the Department of Architecture with an eye toward the future and how we can continually improve the experience for students. His commitment to openness and innovation will benefit students and faculty alike.”

Previously on Archinect: Penn State seeks an Architecture Department Head...

Penn State seeks an Architecture Department Head to advance equity and environmental missions

2022-10-26T11:46:00-04:00

Following last week’s look at an opening for Dean of Architecture at the Cooper Union, we are continuing an academic theme within our Job Highlights series this week to explore an open role on Archinect Jobs for Architecture Department Head at Penn State.

According to the listing, the role would support the department’s mission of providing “an educational environment that encourages the cross-fertilization of knowledge from all of the arts and sciences, where students and teachers are motivated to participate in the most urgent contemporary social, cultural, and environmental issues.”

To qualify for the role, candidates must possess a range of teaching experience as well as “experience and knowledge of issues relevant to higher education, and collaborative multi-disciplinary experience.” PhD holders are “strongly encouraged” to apply for the role, which requires a minimum degree in architecture or a related discipline.

Archinect Feature: Equity in Architectural Academia: A Conver...

Allied Works shares a fly-through of their Palmer Museum of Art design for Penn State University

2022-10-10T15:46:00-04:00

Allied Works has shared a new fly-through animation of their Palmer Museum of Art project on the campus of Penn State University. The 71,254-square-foot museum offers a significant upgrade to the university’s previous 50-year-old facility.

The animation showcases the site’s enhanced connection to the Penn State Arboretum and the museum's expanded double-height gallery spaces that allow for twice the amount of its collection to be exhibited versus the original building.

Image courtesy MIR

Image courtesy D-Render

The sandstone-clad design incorporates two interlocking pavilions that are linked together by a glass curtain skybridge, with a series of skylights operated by a multi-layer daylight control system. Additional portals serve as curated "lenses" through which the landscaped connection provided by Reed Hilderbrand can be assessed by the museum's 70,000 anticipated yearly visitors.

Previously on Archinect: Allied Works reveals plans for its expansion of the new Palmer Museum at P...

Penn State Architectural Engineering professor recognized by UN for work in sustainable buildings

2021-11-08T14:07:00-05:00

A professor of architectural engineering at Penn State by the name of James Freihaut has been recognized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Committee on Sustainable Energy for his work in improving sustainability and safety in buildings. During the committee’s 30th Jubilee session on September 22, Freihaut was honored for his contributions over the past 30 years.

Freihaut’s research focuses on building mechanical systems, with specific interests in indoor air quality and building science, combined heat and power systems, distributed energy systems, enclosed space air quality issues, and system constraints on air treatment/filtration solutions.

The UNECE Committee on Sustainable Energy’s work is designed to improve access to affordable and clean energy and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the carbon footprint of the energy sector. The focus is on energy efficiency, cleaner electricity production from fossil fuels, renewable energy, natural gas, and ...

Allied Works reveals plans for its expansion of the new Palmer Museum at Penn State

2021-07-31T21:22:00-04:00

Final plans for the new LEED-certified museum expansion at Penn State have been unveiled this week after years of anticipation for a project with an ultimate price tag of $85 million.

The project, announced by the school’s board of trustees in 2019, will significantly improve physical spaces for the nearly 50-year-old Palmer Museum of Art, which has been plagued by water damage and an antiquated heating and air system for a number of years.

Palmer Museum Rendering, View from Overlook Pavilion Arboretum. Rendering by MIR

Allied Works will partner with designers from Reed Hilderbrand to create a site-specific expansion on the university’s campus that responds to the local environment in Happy Valley via enhancements to an existing arboretum and a duo of walkway-linked pavilion-style buildings made of stone from local quarries.

The new buildings will allow the museum’s collection to be exhibited in more natural surroundings to the over 10,000 student visitors it hosts every year.

The...

Arts educator B. Stephen Carpenter II is named dean of Penn State's College of Arts and Architecture

2019-12-10T13:10:00-05:00

Professor of art education and African American studies and interim director of Penn State's School of Visual Arts B. Stephen Carpenter II has been named as the new dean for the university's College of Arts and Architecture.

The announcement follows the retirement of former dean Barbara O. Korner, who led the school from 2007 until June 30, 2019.

Carpenter earned a fine arts degree in visual arts from Slippery Rock University in 1987, a master of education from Penn State in 1989, and a doctoral degree in art education, also from Penn State, in 1996. In two decades since, he has held tenure-track faculty positions in art and art education at Texas A&M University, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Old Dominion University, among many other academic and professional accomplishments and endeavors, Penn State News reports.

The College of Arts and Architecture Carpenter will now lead is home to 1,225 undergraduate and 265 graduate students, and features academic programs in architec...

Studying a Brazilian favela via VR

2018-01-18T16:00:00-05:00

[...] Penn State landscape architecture professor Timothy Baird and architecture professor José Duarte taught a new studio that engaged students in the study of one Brazilian favela via virtual reality (VR) technology. The studio, which paired architecture students with landscape architecture students, posited VR as a proxy for expensive site visits. “Developing countries can’t always afford consultants because of the distance and difficulty to travel,” says Baird [...]

"Duarte, who has studied informal settlements across the globe, believes in their power to model emergent patterns of more sustainable resource consumption in the developing world, and in the ability for contemporary technology to decode how they work," the Landscape Architecture Magazine writes and quotes Duarte saying: "They are not a problem. They are a solution with many problems."

Penn State's College of Arts and Architecture launches digital photo archive

2017-07-31T13:49:00-04:00

After three years of planning and design, the College of Arts and Architecture has launched a public, searchable photo archive of images from within the college. The online photo archive, Arts and Architecture Resource Collaborative (AARC), is the product of a partnership among the College of Arts and Architecture Alumni and Communications Office, the Visual Resources Centre (VRC), and Arts and Architecture Information Technology (AAIT).

"AARC features images provided by multiple photographers with search criteria customized for the college, including department names, keywords, proper names and dates. Through a series of focus groups with key users and uploaders, the AARC team built a robust metadata structure, providing easy access and user-friendly instructions for searching and uploading images."

Penn State announces new endowment for student study abroad

2016-06-02T15:37:00-04:00

In the early 1960s, [Penn State's] international studies were confined mainly to books and photos — until George Ehringer and his classmates organized a semester in London, the department’s first official study abroad trip. Ehringer, who earned his bachelor of science in architecture from Penn State in 1964, recently made a $25,000 gift to create the George D. Ehringer, Class of 1964, Award for Study Abroad in the Department Architecture...

According to this warmhearted account, from unwittingly meeting Buckminster Fuller ("He was never introduced. It was only later we learned it was Buckminster Fuller!”) to developing relationships that lasted for decades, studying abroad in London ultimately benefitted the 1964 Penn State architecture students in ways they could not have anticipated. Anyone who wants to donate to the newly created endowment can do so either via snail mail (Penn State to the A&A Development office, 107 Borland Building, University Park, PA 16802) or online.

For more on the benefits of travel in architectural education: