Speculative Collections

Speculative Collections is an exhibition of work by first-year graduate architecture students installed in the Penn Museum's Stoner Courtyard. It is part of an ongoing collaboration between the Weitzman School and Penn Museum.

From the organizers:

The semester-long collaboration between the Penn Museum and the Weitzman School of Design Architecture Department  included multiple phases of research culminating in a speculative design proposal by first semester graduate architecture students for an Archive and Research Extension to the Penn Museum. 

The Penn Museum is one of the world’s great archeology and anthropology research museums, and the largest university museum in the United States. The museum original masterplan was much more extensive and only a portion of it was originally built including the Harrison Rotunda featuring load bearing masonry vaults by the Gustavino engineering firm. Since then the museum has been expanded with numerous additions. The archives house over a million artifacts with only 3% of the collection on display.

The 42,000 sf extension is located in the Stoner Courtyard on South Street directly adjacent from the Stadium. The street facing courtyard site presents a unique opportunity to provide a public face to the typically withdrawn nature of the museum archive. The addition connects directly at the basement level with the existing archive and research classrooms, while the public courtyard is redesigned maintaining public access to the museum. The charge of the project was to design a new public gateway or threshold to the museum while making present the private and secure research and archival nature of the new facility through a pubic architectural interface.

The exhibition includes projects by:

Student: Madison Tousaw
Andrew Saunders, Critic & Coordinator
Paul McCoy T.A.

Student: Danny Ortega
Maya Alam, Critic
Megan York T.A.

Student: Lisa Kay Knust
Daniel Markiewicz, Critic
Madison Green T.A.

Student: Liam Lasting
Eduardo Rega, Critic
Marta Llor T.A.

Student: Shan Li
Danielle Willems, Critic
Merrick Castillo T.A.

Student: Yasmine McBride
Emmett Zeifman, Critic
Peik Shelton T.A.

Weitzman School Leadership

Frederick Steiner, Ph.D.
Weitzman Dean and Paley Professor

Winka Dubbledam
Miller Professor and Chair of Architecture

Andrew Saunders
Associate Professor and 501 Studio Coordinator

Nate Hume with Olivia Vien
Visual Studies Coordinator

Penn Museum Leadership

Julian Siggers, Ph.D.
Williams Director

Stephen J. Tinney, Ph.D.
Deputy Director
Head of Collections

Melissa P. Smith, CFA
Chief Operating Officer

Amanda Mitchell-Boyask
Executive Director of Development

Dan Rahimi
Executive Director of Galleries

Anne Tiballi, Ph.D.
Director of Academic Engagement

Stephanie Mach, Elizabeth Caroscio, Madison Auten
Collections Coordinators

Kate Quinn
Director of Exhibitions and Special Programs

Ellen M. Owens
Merle-Smith Director of Learning and Public Programs