Louis Kahn’s iconic concrete research complex for the University of Pennsylvania was engineered by Keast & Hood in association with Dr. August Komendant.

The Richards Medical Research Laboratories was North America’s first major multi-story building to utilize pre-cast, pre-stressed concrete. Built in 1962, the 107,000-sf, seven story building is organized around three 45-foot square towers - each tower an assembly of post-tensioned, pre-cast concrete elements. The connecting cores and service tower utilize conventional cast-in-place concrete. In the towers, the building’s mechanical services run through openings in the webs of the pre-cast members. The bottom of the pre-cast concrete forms the ceiling grid, leaving the services accessible, yet visually separated from the interior spaces.

Louis Kahn’s iconic concrete research complex for the University of Pennsylvania was engineered by Keast & Hood in association with Dr. August Komendant.

The Richards Medical Research Laboratories was North America’s first major multi-story building to utilize pre-cast, pre-stressed concrete. Built in 1962, the 107,000-sf, seven story building is organized around three 45-foot square towers - each tower an assembly of post-tensioned, pre-cast concrete elements. The connecting cores and service tower utilize conventional cast-in-place concrete. In the towers, the building’s mechanical services run through openings in the webs of the pre-cast members. The bottom of the pre-cast concrete forms the ceiling grid, leaving the services accessible, yet visually separated from the interior spaces.

CLIENT: Louis I. Kahn
LOCATION: Philadelphia, PA

TYPE: Academic, Laboratory, SERVICES: New Construction, MATERIALS: Concrete, SUSTAINABILITY: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .