A two-block-long chiller plant is a not self-evident way to say, "Welcome to the University of Pennsylvania!" But in the hands of architects Leers Weinzapfel, the plant has become an elegant urban gateway for an increasingly busy side of the campus. The university recognized that a new chiller facility could more reliably and economically serve its growing medical and reseacrh complex, but also saw that the best site for it was too prominent for such a large, utilitarian structure to be built undisguised. The architect won a competition for the structure, sponsored by Penn, with the deceptively simple strategy of wrapping the plant in an oblong scrim of perforated, corrugated metal panels. A running track encircling the enclosure and baseball field to one side restored athletic fields displaced by the plant.
By day, depending on the angle of the sun, the plant appears in ghostlike profile behind the screen ant its web of supporting steel-or it can disappear, except for its rooftop chillers, behind won looks like a shadow-dappled solid wall. At night, fixtures ringing the top of the enclosure project a halo of light, under which structure's brightly colored pipes and thanks are visible.
While the University appreciates this aesthetic chameleon of a gateway, it also enjoy the plant's 40 percent lower energy usage and the ease with which its current 20,000-ton cooling capacity can be more than doubled.
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