Amy Gutmann Hall, New Data Science & AI Building

the opportunity

Lake Flato and KSS Architects partnered to design a new Data Science & AI building for Penn Engineering. Amy Gutmann Hall, named in honor of Penn’s longest-serving President, is the home of Data Science academic and research programs and centralizes resources that will advance the work of scholars across a wide variety of fields making the tools and concepts of data analysis more accessible to the university community.

our approach

Aspirations established during the integrated design workshop focus on creating an environment that connects occupants, who work in a digital world, back to the natural environment. The building maximizes daylight and views, integrates ecological environments into interior spaces, and incorporates sensory stimuli that encourage collaborative social behavior and comfort. To that end, Amy Gutmann Hall is the first mass timber project for Penn, and the first six-story mass timber building in Philadelphia. The system both reduces the building’s carbon footprint by 52% relative to concrete and 41% relative to steel and creates a warm, tactile and welcoming environment.

Program

Active learning classrooms, collaboration spaces, research centers, laboratories

Partners

Lake Flato, Architect of Record and Design Architect

KSS Architects, Associate Architect

Buro Happold, Structural, MEP/FP

RWDI USA, Envelope

Matsys, Facade & Frit

Pennoni, Civil

Ground Control, Landscape Design

Research Facilities Design (RFD), Lab Design

Cloud Gehshan Design, Signage

Metropolitan Acoustics, Acoustics

DCI Engineers, Owner Structural Review

Nordic Structures, Mass Timber Design Assist

Gilbane, Contractor