Educational Collaboration for the Philadelphia Police Headquarters

Written by the Georgia Tech and UPenn studios - See end for details

Through a series of fortunate circumstances a unique collaboration has developed between the University of Pennsylvania’s Historic Preservation Graduate Program and Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Architecture around the future of the Philadelphia Police Headquarters affectionately and not so affectionately known as the “Roundhouse”. Designed in 1962 by Geddes, Brecher, Qualls and Cunningham with structural engineer August Komendant, a cross-discipline collaboration has united the UPenn historic preservation graduate studio with a 3^rd and 4^th year architecture design studio in an effort to contribute to the conversation in Philadelphia about the future of this important building.

Photo: UPenn and Georgia Tech students site visit, Credit: Suzanna Barucco

The structure for collaboration was developed by Jack Pyburn, FAIA who is the 2013 Harrison Design Associates Visiting Scholar in Historic Preservation in the Georgia Tech School of Architecture; Randall Mason, Associate Professor and Chair of the Historic Preservation Program in the University of Pennsylvania School of Design; and Suzanna Barucco, Lecturer and Studio Director for the UPenn Roundhouse preservation studio. Commencing in the fall 2012 semester, the UPenn preservation studio provided the historic context research as well as a preservation plan for the building and the Georgia Tech architectural design studio used that valuable background information to consider design opportunities for an expansion of the building and the reuse potential of the Roundhouse interior. While both studios will produce their own unique and original outcomes, combined the programs allow for an enriching collaboration with real world experiences. The following are a series of descriptions from the two teams on the history of the iconic Roundhouse and their observations on the partnership.

Brief History of the Roundhouse
Designed to be a symbol of progressive community based policing, the Philadelphia leadership in the late 1950’s wanted the building to promote a positive public image of the police department after years of corruption and cronyism associated with the department’s location in City Hall. The Roundhouse’s dramatic curvilinear skin was fabricated using the newly imported Dutch Schokbeton system of architectural precast concrete combined with Komendant’s structural daring produced a unique design allowed only by the state of the art construction technology. Uncertainty of the building’s future was revealed in 2008 when the City announced plans to move the Police Headquarters to a presently vacant but much larger historic building in West Philadelphia, noting that the move would consolidate police functions and allow the redevelopment of the Roundhouse site to offset the cost of the new home. An additional threat is the public’s perception that the building is in poor physical condition, which stems primarily from the occupants’ publicly expressed dissatisfaction with current building conditions.

Photo (right): The Roundhouse today. Credit: Allee Berger

A UPenn Perspective of the Roundhouse Collaboration (by Allee Berger and Kimber VanSant)
In October 2012, the UPenn historic preservation studio team learned that Jack Pyburn would be teaching a historic preservation focused architectural design studio focusing on reuse options for the Roundhouse. Recognizing that our research and preservation plan would inform and be utilized by students at Georgia Tech, and that those projects could in-turn be used to make the case for the building’s reuse, we were enthusiastic to be involved in a real-world preservation scenario that would continue well past the completion of the course.

The UPenn Roundhouse team’s desire for our group to reach beyond the class to help save the building from demolition guided our individual project selections, which included writing the local nomination to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places (Allee Berger), creating a conservation plan for the exterior (Christine Beckman), developing design solutions for the interior (Chelsea Troppauer), as well as the exterior (Karina Bishop), and the development of an advocacy campaign to save the building (Kimber VanSant). Through both our collaborative and individual efforts, the UPenn studio devised a preservation plan for the building using planning methodologies and presented our findings and final recommendations in December 2012. Following the conclusion of the course, Berger and VanSant have continued to work towards the preservation and reuse of the building through the “Save the Roundhouse” advocacy campaign, with the primary goal of educating the public about the architectural and social value of the building. Through traditional and social media, as well as future lectures, panels, and a design charrette showcasing design interventions and proposals for its reuse, we hope to influence the near and far on the building’s significance and reuse opportunities.

Collaboration with Georgia Tech Studio

What collaboration Between Architectural and Preservation Education Can Mean

The Georgia Tech Roundhouse Studio is organized to introduce preservation to undergraduate students, most of which have had little or no formal academic exposure to historic preservation as they rapidly approach graduation. The Roundhouse project as an architectural study seeks to provide an experience of designing in a historic context. It started with research to gain a deep understanding of the resource on which to identify and document physical and cultural features that are essential qualities of its character and value. It was in this area that the UPenn collaboration was of exceptional value to the Tech students. The personal and academic values of the UPenn students was as valuable to the Tech students as was the deep research they produced, if not more. The Georgia Tech Roundhouse studio has involved the production of a Revit 3D model of the roundhouse, an exercise that required complete understanding the building, and the construction of a physical model, a valuable resource when designing an expansion of the building and considering the reuse potential of the Roundhouse interior. The studio will consider two use alternatives for the site half of which is parking lot, the addition of high density housing with the historic structure converted to an amenity/community center and a corporate/general office use with the Roundhouse housing support functions such as food service, common meeting rooms, product display, etc. The final designs will require attention to the design of the addition, the reuse of the Roundhouse, the development of a connection between the two and consideration of site design features.

Visiting Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, and the Police Headquarters itself gave me an entirely different outlook on the project.  Being able to hear the passion in the Penn students’ voices about this historical building made the efforts of our studio much more tangible and significant.  The Penn Students were both logically and emotionally charged and helped us realize the impact of this building in Philadelphia’s Architectural history.  The most beneficial part of the trip was going to the Philadelphia Police Headquarters.  Photos and text are no comparison to seeing the building in person and I was able to appreciate the Roundhouse from a different perspective, which I hope to convey throughout the semester.  The Roundhouse is truly inspiring and I was able to see past the faults that most spectators hold against it and see its potential to be an auspicious landmark. 

Trey McMillon: Having not had exposure to historic preservation during my undergraduate education thus far, I was extremely interested in the University of Pennsylvania student’s perspective of the Roundhouse as a functional monument to the past rather than simply a building that will either be torn down or renovated to some degree. The UPenn insight helped me think about how through my design intervention I can pay homage to the building; improving upon it with an addition, but without overshadowing the original building. Geddes, Brecher, Qualls, and Cunningham did something remarkable with this design on a multitude of levels – form, structure, circulation, mechanical functionality, light, and many more. Before visiting the building and our collaboration with the UPenn studio, it was hard to realize all these intricacies through images and drawings.