Tangen Hall - UPenn

The newly constructed Tangen Hall houses the Penn Wharton Entrepreneurship and Wharton Small Business Development staff. Supporting student entrepreneurship and innovation, it includes incubator spaces for student-led ventures such as Makerspace, Test Kitchen and Integrated Product Design space in partnership with the School of Engineering and Applied Science and Penn Design.

 

Located on the northeast corner of 40th and Sansom streets in Philadelphia, the building’s design is sensitive to both its urban and campus environment. This 7-story building is the first UPenn space to be dedicated for cross-campus student entrepreneurship and innovation. 

While the façade is primarily curtain wall, the entire east side features precast vertical wall panels. A formliner with a vertical rib was used to create patterns and a shadow effect. “The use of the formliner was not repetitive to achieve a custom appearance,” describes Richard Updegraff, Senior Project Manager, Architectural Precast Innovations.

 

That formliner fin pattern is ½” deep to the valley with a 1/2” face. The fluted formliner is 1-inch on center but staggered across the elevation. “We had to shift the liner portion in the casting bed to create that effect as you look up the building,” explains Updegraff.