Stuart Weitzman Hall

An incubator for more a beautiful, equitable, and sustainable future, opening Fall 2025
Illuminated 3-story Italianate brick building with modern addition behind
Weitzman Hall combines the renovation of an 1892 Cope & Stewardson structure with a discrete four-story addition. (Rendering courtesy KieranTimberlake)
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Illuminated 3-story Italianate brick building with modern addition behind
Four story brick and metal tower block
Lofted studio
Gallery overlooking Smith Walk
Weitzman Hall combines the renovation of an 1892 Cope & Stewardson structure with a discrete four-story addition. (Rendering courtesy KieranTimberlake)
A 3,000-foot studio loft brings together architecture, landscape architecture, and city planning students. (Rendering courtesy KieranTimberlake)
A gallery on the first floor increases opportunities for students to exhibit their work and interact with visitors from West Philadelphia and beyond. (Rendering courtesy KieranTimberlake)

“Here, students and faculty from across the Weitzman School will work to confront the most pressing challenges in the built world and culture at large,” says Dean and Paley Professor Fritz Steiner.

Under one roof, artists will push the boundaries of creative expression, designers and planners devise solutions to neighborhood challenges, policy experts develop the means to accelerate the clean energy transition, and community members take part in year-round exhibitions and lectures.

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Design & Sustainability

As headquarters for the Department of Fine Arts, Weitzman Hall features:

  • Purpose-built art and design studios
  • Individual MFA student studios
  • Fully-equipped maker space
  • Terry Adkins Sculpture Studio

As an interdisciplinary hub, the building's program also includes:

  • Light-filled classrooms and meeting rooms
  • Research facilities for the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy and University Art Collection
  • The Gordon Gallery and other dedicated exhibition spaces for year-round programming
  • The Linhart Family Patio for temporary, outdoor exhibitions

Conceived as a model of architectural renewal, the future Weitzman Hall retains the existing building’s envelope and architecturally significant elements, with a completely reimagined interior, to reduce embodied carbon as well as future carbon emissions.

“Preservation is the original form of sustainability,” says Frank Matero, Gonick Family Professor and chair of historic preservation at Weitzman.

Weitzman Hall is targeting LEED Platinum Certification.

Team

The design team consists of graduates and faculty of the school who are at the forefront of their profession.

Architect: KieranTimberlake
Stephen Kieran (MArch’76) and James Timberlake (MArch’77), founding principals

Preservation Consultants: Preservation Design Partnership
Dominique Hawkins (C'92, MArch'92, MSHP'92), principal

Landscape Architect: PORT Urbanism
Christopher Marcinkoski, principal and associate professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture

Cross-Disciplinary Connections

Weitzman Hall brings together students and faculty from across the School and the University.

A History of Opportunity and Exploration

From its origins, the building at 205 South 34 Street has been a beacon of opportunity. It began its life as the Foulke and Long Institute, a prototype orphanage for girls that provided not only shelter but education, which opened in 1893, just three years after Penn’s architecture program was formally established. The three-story, Italianate palazzo-like building was designed by renowned Philadelphia firm Cope & Stewardson, which also designed Penn’s iconic Quad.

Penn acquired the property in 1899, and for nearly five decades it housed a lab for the Department of Physics. In 1939, it became the site of one of the largest electrostatic generators for atomic research in the United States, until the building was re-purposed as a School of Nursing facility in 1955.

The building was named the Morgan Building for Randall Morgan, an 1873 alum and Penn trustee, in the mid-1950s. From the 1970s, the building housed artist studios for MFA students, classrooms, offices, and a printmaking studio for the Department of Fine Arts. In 2022, it was renamed for Stuart Weitzman (Wharton Class of 1963) in recognition of his extraordinary support for Penn and the Weitzman School.

Weitzman Hall Livestream

Follow the building's progress with a live feed from the construction site
(Click on Play button at top right)

Fast Facts
  • 40,000 square feet
  • 2,700 square feet of dedicated exhibition space
  • Construction Began: March 2024
  • Expected Completion: September 2025
  • LEED Gold Certification (Expected)
Section showing crit spaces, gallery, studios throughout building