To accommodate the programming, an open architectural framework will support provocative combinations and fluid adjacencies of function. The ground floor will accommodate harbor programs like a bike repair studio nested next to a neighborhood café. Simultaneously, young artists can stage multimedia installations in the ground floor gallery while a chess class may be underway nearby. On the second floor a highly visible community education space is adjacent to a state of the art gallery for museum shows. Administrative offices with co-working space for local start-ups are accessed through an artist curated library, which is open to the public. 

To support such a porous programmatic platform, the architecture of the building is distilled to a primitive structure of stacked ‘tables.’ Elemental in parts and basic in spatial order, more like a scaffold than a traditional building structure, the open plan supports a sustainable programmatic mission that is intended to evolve over time with changing artists’ practices and community needs. The column-free top floor galleries are defined by a rooftop truss structure punctuated by skylights that together with the steel façade enclose the stacked tables within. On the exterior, table-like platforms support community programs housed in prototypical, lightweight shed structures that will house activities such as a camera obscura on the education terrace, along with an artist’s green house. On the third floor terrace, a recording studio will host local artists and can broadcast music for large scale parties and events in the plaza. These platforms are specifically designed to support diverse programs and re-envision the museum as a porous space, woven into the social fabric of the city.

Philadelphia Contemporary (PC) offers a new model for a contemporary art space that is accessible and engaging to surrounding neighborhoods, the city, and national and international cultural communities and calls for new modes of engagement from social gatherings to experimental projects with young artists, to world-class exhibitions. Sited in West Philadelphia at a threshold between Drexel University and the neighborhoods of Mantua and Powelton Village, the site is part of a master plan redevelopment that prioritizes buildings for the arts and education within a new open space park plan.

Johnston Marklee

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Philadelphia Contemporary

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Client

Philadelphia Contemporary

Location

Philadelphia, PA, US

Years

2018-2019

Site Area

29,909 SF

Floor Area

54,706 GSF

Partners

Sharon Johnston, Mark Lee

Project Team

Lindsay Erickson (Project Manager), Seunghyun Kang (Project Lead), Ryan Hernandez, Miaojie Ted Zhang, Beijia Gu, Hélène De Mello, Toshiki Niimi, Andri Luescher, Anton Schneider

Executive Architect

MGA Partners: Katie Broh (Partner), Joseph Hoepp (Project Lead)

Structural Engineer: LERA Consulting, Civil Engineer: Meliora, Landscape Architect: Andropogon, MEP: Vanderweil Associates, Climate Engineer: Transsolar, Lighting: Tillotson, Environmental Graphics: MG&Co, Cost Estimating: Directional Logic, Visualizations: 1825