The renovation prioritizes enhancements to public space and accessibility throughout the museum. With updated circulation and expanded gathering zones – lobbies and terraces – the design supports ICA’s foundational engagement among visitors, artists, and staff, while functionally optimizing the flow of artwork and the operations between front and back of houses. A new south-facing entrance reflects the geometric language of the original building and improves both visibility and access into the ICA from campus. The volumetric galleries remain flexible for contemporary artistic practice with new, accessible connections among exhibition, education, and public areas across the museum’s two floors of program. Adaptations to structural details, materials, and formal elements amplify the specific expression of the original building with revised multi-functional spaces, including an enlarged auditorium on the ground floor and a shaded terrace extending from the second-floor lobby

The reimagining of the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania (ICA) reinforces the institution’s roles as a center for artistic experimentation and a place of exchange for the Penn community and the surrounding neighborhood of West Philadelphia.

Johnston Marklee

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ICA Philadelphia

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Client

University of Pennsylvania

Location

Philadelphia, PA, US

Years

2025

Floor Area

27,500 SF

Partners

Sharon Johnston, Mark Lee

Project Team

Nicholas Hofstede (Project Manager), Brooke Hair (Project Lead), Miaojie Ted Zhang, Nelson Byun, Siyu Zhu, Kaitlin Tse, Harper Bo

Structural Engineer: Keast & Hood; MEP/FP Engineer: Vanderweil Engineers; Lighting Design: Buro Happold; Code / ADA / Life Safety: Jensen Hughes; Cost Estimator: Directional Logic; Renderings: Ethan De Clerk