Facades+ is returning to Philadelphia this month
On March 8th, Facades+ returns to Philadelphia. It’s the second event of the Facades+ 2022 conference series, now in its 10th anniversary year, and follows a successful kickoff conference in Atlanta. Facades will visit San Francisco, New York City, and Toronto, among a total of 12 cities in 2022.
The morning program will feature three panels, showcasing newly completed and upcoming projects from architects, engineers, and fabricators of stunning projects in Philadelphia and other parts of the Mid-Atlantic. With Mark Sanderson of Philadelphia-based DIGSAU as the conference co-chair, this conference pairs national leaders in building envelope design with local design professionals and industry leaders.
The first discussion looks at new faces of higher education facades, with presentations from GWWO Architects, Teeple Architects, Stantec, and Snøhetta. Calvin & Tina Tyler Hall—Morgan State University’s new student services center—will be presented by Eric Feiss from GWWO and Tomer Diamant from Teeple. Their discussion will look at the design challenge of shaping a new facade for Morgan State’s historic campus and working with precast stone veneer to meet both design and cost considerations. Nathan McRae from Snøhetta will co-present Temple University’s Charles Library alongside Kristin Schiffert from Stantec. The decision to build with handset stone, and considerations of the library’s height relative to the existing neighborhood, will be the focus.
The second panel will dive into the ever-important facades of healthcare facilities as Philadelphia and its suburbs become home to exciting new facilities for Penn Medicine. Derek Tasch, Health System Architect at Penn Medicine will set up the discussion for the two of Penn’s most exciting new facilities, The Pavilion and Penn Radnor. Chris West, from Foster + Partners, Sara Gally, from HDR, and Ed Hanzel, from LF Driscoll, will detail the process behind designing for a particularly complex building at a large scale and the integrated project delivery process that went into The Pavilion. Eric Swanson from Ballinger will present Penn Radnor with a presentation that covers both performance aspects of the facade and the particularities of designing a facade that ensures patient comfort and easy navigability for infrequent visitors.
The morning’s final panel will look at facades that integrate traditional building techniques into contemporary designs, featuring Moto Designshop’s Arrupe Hall and DIGSAU’s Clay Studio in a discussion moderated by Rashida Ng, Associate Professor at the Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania. Eric Oskey and Molly Baum of Moto will present on designing for a high degree of precision for an inherently imperfect practice of construction, while Bunny Tucker and Jesse Mainwaring from DIGSAU will discuss precast aspects of the Clay Studio’s facade and their collaboration with masons and terra-cotta manufacturers.
Participants will select one of three workshop tracks in the afternoon, from offsite prefabrication to upgrading and preserving existing building stock.
Learn more about Facades+ Philadelphia here, and get your tickets today!
