MSR converts a notable Philadelphia office building into the Drexel University URBN Center by adding 20,000 square feet and numerous opportunities for creative sparks and connections—all without altering the exterior By Joel Hoekstra
How do you pack 20 pounds of oranges into a 10-pound crate? That was essentially the question Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle (MSR) faced in 2009 when officials at Drexel University in Philadelphia approached them with a plan to create an arts center on campus. Only, in this case, the oranges were 13 different departments, ranging from animation to product design to music-industry management. And the crate was an office building designed by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown in 1978 that some have lauded as a postmodern masterpiece.
Venturi and Scott Brown referred to the structure as “a decorated shed”—a form they extolled for its flexibility. Like any other “big box” construction— think Walmart, Best Buy—the four exterior walls were unremarkable (with the exception of a facade sporting a geometric pattern likened to computer punch card). Inside, the ceilings were low and the floors cube-ready: open and endlessly reconfigurable. “It could have been any old generic office building,” says MSR principal Jeffrey Scherer, FAIA. “So the faculty was understandably worried about making a creative space out of this stack of pancake-like floors.”
September/October 2013 Architecture Minnesota 23