June 2011
Construction Begins on High Bay BLAST Laboratory
Permits are in place and construction will soon begin on the University of Pennsylvania’s High Bay B.L.A.S.T. Laboratory. Designed by Buell Kratzer Powell Architects, the lab will house research, fabrication, and display space for the Balloon-borne Large Aperture Sub-millimeter Telescope, the most highly-sensitive telescope to be carried by balloon. Keast & Hood Co. has provided structural engineering for the 1,200 square foot facility. Highlights include an architecturally-exposed steel-frame, crane beam that spans from the interior of the lab to the exterior, and sliding glass barn doors that allow the telescope to move easily from indoors to out. The lab’s virtual cube shape complements the brutalist modern architecture of the David Rittenhouse Laboratory Building of which the new lab will be a part. Construction is expected to take six months with completion targeted for winter 2011. Image courtesy Buell Kratzer Powell