An interior renovation and underground addition to Houston Hall were completed in the last phase of the Perelman Quadrangle project.
Houston Hall was constructed in 1894 as the first student union building on an American college campus. Two flanking additions were completed in the late 1930s and the building underwent many other modifications.
The renovation project restored the historic character of the original building while upgrading communication, HVAC, and electrical systems to modern standards. A third floor mechanical room was enlarged while another was created through construction of a new roof dormer. An additional elevator was incorporated, fire stairs upgraded, and a new curved wooden stair rebuilt in its original location. A reinforced concrete addition to Houston Hall was built beneath a new, landscaped plaza - Wynn Commons. It houses mechanical and electrical rooms, lavatories, storage, access to a new loading dock at the rear of Irvine Auditorium, and a new kitchen serving a cafeteria-style restaurant on the renovated ground floor of Houston Hall.
An interior renovation and underground addition to Houston Hall were completed in the last phase of the Perelman Quadrangle project.
Houston Hall was constructed in 1894 as the first student union building on an American college campus. Two flanking additions were completed in the late 1930s and the building underwent many other modifications.
The renovation project restored the historic character of the original building while upgrading communication, HVAC, and electrical systems to modern standards. A third floor mechanical room was enlarged while another was created through construction of a new roof dormer. An additional elevator was incorporated, fire stairs upgraded, and a new curved wooden stair rebuilt in its original location. A reinforced concrete addition to Houston Hall was built beneath a new, landscaped plaza - Wynn Commons. It houses mechanical and electrical rooms, lavatories, storage, access to a new loading dock at the rear of Irvine Auditorium, and a new kitchen serving a cafeteria-style restaurant on the renovated ground floor of Houston Hall.
CLIENT: Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Inc. (now VSBA, LLC)
LOCATION: Philadelphia, PA
TYPE: Academic, Historic, Landscape, SERVICES: Addition, Renovation, Structural Intervention, MATERIALS: Concrete, Heavy Timber, Masonry, Steel, SUSTAINABILITY: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Completed project photography © Julie Marquart
