PHILADELPHIA | Penn Medicine South Tower | 302 FT | 19 FLOORS

[GarCastle]

I keep hoping it will come together as they add the final pieces to the puzzles which was originally planned to have 4 phases, but I have to agree, it remains hideous after each phase. The Phase 1 atrium is decent enough but the horseshoe of phase 1 is just crap cladding. Perhaps the awful phase 1 color was to match Penn Tower (which is getting torn down next year anyway so that was weird planning). Then the research tower got built as phase 2 and is bright white and in no way resembles phase 1.

Now with the setback of the upper "Medical School" floors, I doubt the upper floors will even match their own lower floors and will likely in no way match the bright white of the research tower or the dull mud of the horseshoe.

With CHOP's building next to it being like a playful box of Crayola's, it's going to really be a sore thumb. I guess I'll see.

Cheers,
G.

[summersm343]

[summersm343]

Renderings of what this will look like topped out at 11 floors:



And then another 7 floors will be added for a total of 18 at 295 feet.











All thanks to GarCastle
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...208566&page=60

[SJPhillyBoy]

This might be the strangest, non-cohesive building ever built in the history of human kind.

[Philly Fan]

From the Vinoly Architects web site, for what it's worth:

As the hospital expands, the master plan specifies that future construction be similarly arranged around the perimeter of the building, in order to preserve the prominence of the central atrium and to maintain the pedestrian scale of the streetscape.

http://www.rvapc.com/works/697-unive...anced-medicine

I guess that means there may be some method to the madness, although yet to be revealed.

[Pennsgrant]

Originally Posted by SJPhillyBoy

This might be the strangest, non-cohesive building ever built in the history of human kind.

This extension is too disgusting at look at. Philly has its fair share of architectural rejects but this monstrosity takes thecake. Stunned that this is allowed to become reality.

[christof]

Originally Posted by Pennsgrant

This extension is too disgusting at look at. Philly has its fair share of architectural rejects but this monstrosity takes thecake. Stunned that this is allowed to become reality.

Awfully cranky these days, Pennsgrant? Hating on 3601 Market a few weeks ago. Now on the HUP expansion.

[Plokoon11]

This building is just chaotic like it doesn't know what it wants to be. Or a mission to fit as many architecture styles into the complex as possible.

[skyscraper]

Originally Posted by SJPhillyBoy

This might be the strangest, non-cohesive building ever built in the history of human kind.

are you familiar with the work of Frank Gehry?

[shadowbat2]

Starting to add the "greenhouse" now

[SJPhillyBoy]

Remind me not to send my kid to Penn Architecture school if they allowed this to be built.

[wally]

Originally Posted by SJPhillyBoy

Remind me not to send my kid to Penn Architecture school if they allowed this to be built.

While it would be nice for the university to run all major construction projects by PennDesign, there is a pretty big firewall between the university's academic and business operations, in this regard. My fellow classmates and I (at PennDesign), had nice long discussions about this Frankenstein's monster of a building. Don't blame us...

[GarCastle]

Maybe the health system is so accustomed to tacking on a building where it can into an antique structure that they did not realize they don't have to build a frankenstein hospital - since they were starting from scratch. LOL

Cheers,
G.

[shadowbat2]

Doesn't look like much besides some interior work on the bottom floors....

[summersm343]

[SJBadger]

Your late night photo tour of our many active construction projects blew me away. That was a lot of work and a very nice job. The new photos of Evo were amazing.

[summersm343]

Originally Posted by SJBadger

Your late night photo tour of our many active construction projects blew me away. That was a lot of work and a very nice job. The new photos of Evo were amazing.

Thanks!

[Pennsgrant]

From the outside-looking in Penn and Chop are building one enormous aesthetically unappealing campus.

That medical district is an urban nightmare.Suburban Gangsta style in the Houston or Conshohocken mode. They keep building these 200 ft high, 300 ft wide aircraft hangers. As a collective group they act as a wall to the city. I'm bitter about Penn grabbing the old Post Office lot where I wanted the Phillies Ball Park, but I'll tell you what Penn's outdoor intramural facilities are probably 100 x better than anything they would have built architecturally.

[Philly Fan]

Originally Posted by Pennsgrant

From the outside-looking in Penn and Chop are building one enormous aesthetically unappealing campus.

That medical district is an urban nightmare.Suburban Gangsta style in the Houston or Conshohocken mode. They keep building these 200 ft high, 300 ft wide aircraft hangers. As a collective group they act as a wall to the city. I'm bitter about Penn grabbing the old Post Office lot where I wanted the Phillies Ball Park, but I'll tell you what Penn's outdoor intramural facilities are probably 100 x better than anything they would have built architecturally.

I think your running critique of this is a bit misguided. The architecture and appearance of the Penn/CHOP medical district is pretty typical of world-class medical clinical/research complexes. Just check out photos of medical clinical/research complexes of similar world renown like Massachusetts General Hospital (Harvard Med's main clinical/research affiliate), Johns Hopkins Medical Center, Duke Medical Center, the Mayo Clinic, the Texas Medical Center, UCSF Medical Center, etc. SPOILER ALERT: You aren't going to see a lot of soaring skyscrapers with breathtaking architecture. It's simply a matter of function over form. And while there's certainly room for some interesting and striking architecture (CHOP's new Buerger Center being a case in point), you aren't going to see these facilities transformed into central-business-district-style skyscraper cores. That's just not the nature of the beast.

So while I certainly understand criticism of the designs of some of the individual buildings and additions being constructed by Penn Medicine and/or CHOP, I think that condemnation of the configuration of that entire complex is, as I said, misguided, and misplaced.

Unless, of course, you don't think that there should be a world-class medical clinical/research complex, or a world-renowned Ivy League university for that matter (since you've expressed displeasure with the location of Penn Park), so close to Center City. But I suspect that you'd get A LOT of pushback to that position.

[Pennsgrant]

Originally Posted by Philly Fan

I think your running critique of this is a bit misguided. The architecture and appearance of the Penn/CHOP medical district is pretty typical of world-class medical clinical/research complexes.

Next time you drive up the Schuylkill Exp. from South Philly notice the wall of 4 or 5 buildings laid in an E-W direction. Identical structures,identical widths, identical heights that come across as a 1/4 mile visual barrier to the city.

Now with this PCAM extension they are starting to do the same thing in a N-S direction. Im not even going to get into the anti urban nature of the medical campus. I'm not buying your Houston or Dallas argument- this isn't Houston/Dallas.

Back to original point. Strictly from a birds eye view there is some horrific planning going on over there.