Penn buildings achieve LEED certifications, showcasing commitment to sustainability
Three recent building projects at the University of Pennsylvania have earned LEED Platinum, Gold, and Silver certifications, underscoring Penn’s ongoing commitment to sustainable design and construction.
3 min. read
The Vagelos Institute for Energy Science and Technology earned a LEED Platinum certificate.
“These LEED certifications reflect Penn’s commitment to sustainable building design,” says Mark Kocent, University architect. “Each project is designed with energy efficiency, ecological integration, and occupant wellness at its core, a reflection of Penn’s In Principle and Practice directive to lead on the great challenges of our time, including climate.”
With LEED Platinum certification, Vagelos Laboratory for Energy Science and Technology (VLEST) represents the highest standard in sustainable building design. Penn’s hub for emerging energy research VLEST is a collaboration between the School of Arts & Sciences (SAS) and the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) and also houses the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research (VIPER). Designed by Behnisch Architekten, the building’s distinctive high-performance façade utilizes solar geometric sunshades to reduce energy usage and maximize natural daylight. The shades are a key feature of this campus gateway building at 32nd and Walnut streets.
The Ott Center (left) and Amy Gutmann Hall were awarded LEED silver and LEED gold certification, respectively.
(Images: Eric Sucar)
Penn Engineering’s Amy Gutmann Hall serves as a hub for cross-disciplinary collaborations that harness research and data across Penn’s 12 Schools. Designed by executive architects Lake|Flato, with KSS Architects serving as associates, Amy Gutmann Hall at 34th and Chestnut streets is one of the East Coast’s largest mass timber structures, utilizing a material that is significantly more sustainable compared to concrete or steel. The project’s other sustainable features including a 12,000 square-foot green roof, high-performance building envelope, windows, and skylights, as well as energy-efficient systems and low-flow plumbing, cut energy use by nearly 20% and water usage by 33%.
The state-of-the-art Ott Center for Track and Field indoor track completed last fall received high points for construction and demolition waste management, as well as heat island and light pollution reduction. During the construction process, 64 trees were also planted on the site, in alignment with Penn’s Ecological Landscape Stewardship Plan and supporting the City of Philadelphia’s tree canopy goals.
Penn engineers and collaborators have developed a transparent, micro-engineered device that houses a living, vascularized model of human lung cancer—a “tumor on a chip”—and show that the diabetes drug vildagliptin helps more CAR T cells break through the tumor’s defenses and attack it effectively.
Tumor-on-a-chip offers insight into cancer-fighting cells in immunotherapy
Penn engineers and collaborators have built a living tumor on a chip to expose how cancers block immune attacks, and how one existing drug could make immunotherapy like CAR T more effective against solid tumors.
Professor of city and regional planning Erick Guerra recently published a book exploring the economic and societal impacts of American highways. He explains some of the pitfalls associated with an ever-expansive highway system, arguing that spending more on highways might not be the solution to the country’s transportation issues.
Penn urban planner Erick Guerra’s new book, “Overbuilt,” argues that additional spending on building more highways might not be the solution to the country’s transportation issues. In a Q&A, Guerra shares his insights.
Xin Sun prepares samples collected from the Eastern Tropical North Pacific aboard a research vessel. By adding stable isotope tracers to these vials, Sun and her team can track how different microbial groups convert nitrogen compounds into nitrous oxide, revealing how subtle shifts in oxygen and organic matter change the ocean’s chemistry.
Can tiny ocean organisms offer the key to better climate modeling?
In the shadowy layers of the Pacific, microbes decide how much nitrous oxide—a potent greenhouse gas—rises skyward. New research from Penn’s Xin Sun offers an improved understanding of microbial ecology and geochemistry—key to forecasting global emissions in response to natural and man-made climate change.
Two X-ray plates from Arthur Goodspeed, believed to have created the world’s first X-ray image, were donated by his family to Penn’s University Archives.
