Illustrative Plan, Master Plan for the Central Delaware

The American Institute of Architects announced this week that the Master Plan for the Central Delaware has received national acclaim with a 2012 Institute Honor Award for Regional & Urban Design. This master plan transforms six miles of the Delaware River waterfront in Center City Philadelphia, based on the Civic Vision which was prepared through an extensive public engagement planning process. The goal of the plan is to provide a practical implementation strategy for the phasing and funding of public realm enhancements to the waterfront, including the locations of parks, a variety of waterfront trails, and connections to existing upland neighborhoods. Specific zoning recommendations to shape private development as well as design guidelines for the public spaces are integral components of this project.

Congratulations to the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation and the consulting team: Cooper Robertson & Partners (Team Leader and Urban Designer), KieranTimberlake (Architecture and Sustainability), OLIN (Landscape Architect),  HR&A (Economics), Parsons Brinckerhoff (Transportation), Hurley Franks & Associates (Outreach), Urban Affairs Coalition (Wealth-Building), Toni L. Griffin (Waterfront Policy Advisor), KBE (Activation Programming), KS Engineers (Civil Engineer), CH Planning (Planning), BlankRome (Land Use Counsel), Kelly/Maiello (Supporting Architect), Emily Cooperman, Ph.D. (Historic Resources), Katherine Woodhouse-Beyer Ph.D. (Archeological Resources), Davis Langdon (Cost Estimator), Brooklyn Digital Foundry (Renderer).

Our new book KieranTimberlake: Inquiry has been selected as one of Phil Patton’s favorite books of 2011! Patton writes about design and cars for The New York Times. View the list here, and take a look inside the book here.

photos © Peter Aaron/OTTO

Center City Building, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
with Gantt Huberman Architects
Charlotte, North Carolina

photos © Tim Griffith

Charles David Keeling Apartments, University of California at San Diego
San Diego, California

photos © Michael Moran/OTTO

Brockman Hall for Physics, Rice University
Houston, Texas

photos © Richard Barnes/OTTO (top) and © Peter Aaron/OTTO (bottom)

Morse and Ezra Stiles Colleges, Yale University
New Haven, CT

photos © Michael Moran/OTTO

Quaker Meeting House, Sidwell Friends School
Washington, DC

renderings © Brooklyn Digital Foundry

Master Plan for the Central Delaware, Delaware River Waterfront Corporation
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Divine Detail: Meeting House, Sidwell Friends School, photo © Michael Moran

Jury comment: "The jury was captivated by the many and varied ways light was introduced into the space, and the gentleness and warmth it imparts to the emotional magic within."

Silver Medal, Unbuilt: Dilworth Plaza, rendering © KieranTimberlake

Jury comment: "An intelligent strategy that uses an economy of means and a confident integration of art to create a strong public space and foreground to an historic building. The simplicity and power of the laminated glass pavilions link old and new in time relating the monumental form of City Hall to contemporary life as they also provide a welcoming transition and light to the movement systems below. A beautifully rendered and well-executed solution rich in thought, purpose and optimism."

Honor Award, Brockman Hall for Physics, Rice University, photo © Peter Aaron

Jury comment: "A richly layered response to context and program, the project achieves a marvelous balance; connecting with the typology of the historic campus, while expressing the materiality of a complex program. A creative site strategy adds new space, while not compromising the courtyard, below the narrow, raised north bar, which appears to hover above its site, tethered to the south bar. The subtle round concrete columns appear to be site features, rather than building, as the project pushes material expression and reference to program to a level of delight without seeming overwrought."

Honor Award, Meeting House, Sidwell Friends School, photo © Michael Moran

Jury comment: "An artful balance of elegant geometry with nuanced richness of expression, the project creates a sublime community space that respects traditions while creating place and surprise through the magic of daylight and the direct expression of structure and shelter.  A brilliant solution to the necessity of siting the Meeting House within an existing gymnasium, the architects buried the Meeting House within thick walls and layered planes, creating an immersive experience of natural light and silence. The jury found the meeting room’s simplicity, economy of means and quiet beauty truly inspirational."

Gold Medal, Morse and Ezra Stiles College, Yale University, photo © Peter Aaron

Jury comment: "This project rises to the great challenge of expanding an icon of modern architecture. The creation of a whole new world of subterranean experience of bold, robust new places and forms allows the new architecture to coexist in harmony with the well-known Saarinen canvas. The clever re-planning of residential floors responds to contemporary needs as the existing colleges are highlighted and enhanced by the lyrical additions. Dark and formerly maligned spaces are transformed into environments infused with natural light, that continually exchange interior with exterior, building with landscape. It is a tough task to add to the work of a master but here the solution is achieved with clarity, dexterity and delight."

Cover image: Atwater Commons, Middlebury College, photo by Barry Halkin

KieranTimberlake is happy to announce the release of a new monograph, KieranTimberlake: Inquiry, written by Stephen Kieran, James Timberlake, and Karl Wallick, and published by Rizzoli. The book is a reflection on the last decade of inquisitive approaches to our clients’ needs, as well as the needs of the environment, and how that has broadened our vision of the relationship between process, craft, and form. This volume offers a glimpse into how the environment, energy, the economics of construction, and processes of collaboration inform KieranTimberlake’s practice.

The sample spreads below demonstrate the organization of the book. Projects are shown in fragments, organized around ten gerunds: bending, coupling, filtering, inserting, offsetting, outlining, overlapping, puncturing, reflecting, tuning. At once noun and verb, they describe creative acts of making on multiple levels. The fragmentation of projects reinforces that the work of KieranTimberlake extends across sites, histories, and cultures as interrelated systems that have individual characteristics articulated within the whole.

Pages 14-15, Yale University School of Art Gallery

Pages 68-69, Sidwell Friends Middle School

Pages 146-147, Railing details at several projects

Page 247, Noyes Community Recreation Center, Cornell University

Page 248, 1315 Hill Street Apartments, Ann Arbor, Michigan

This volume features nineteen projects:

1315 Hill Street, Ann Arbor, MI
420N20 Street, Philadelphia, PA
Atwater Commons, Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT
Cellophane House™, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Durham Academy Lower School, Durham, NC
Embassy of the United States of America, London, United Kingdom
LivingHomes KTLH 1.5, Newport Beach, CA
Loblolly House, Taylors Island, MD
Special NO 9 House, Make it Right, New Orleans, LA
Melvin J. and Claire Levine Hall, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Theatre Company, Suzanne Roberts Theatre, Philadelphia, PA
Sidwell Friends Middle School, Washington, DC
SmartWrap™
Wellesley College, Houghton Chapel and Multifaith Center, Wellesley, MA
West Campus Residential Initiative, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Yale University Residential College Renovations, New Haven, CT
Yale University Sculpture Building, New Haven, CT

Order a copy from Amazon