Pennypack Environmental Center
To advance environmental education, Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park Commission committed to substantial improvements of its many visitor centers. The first of these was additions and renovations to the Pennypack Environmental Center, a 1960’s era brutalist structure by a student of Louis Kahn’s, set in a densely wooded landscape overlooking a creek and adjacent to a historic farm complex.
The building is a teaching tool. Passive sustainable elements such as solar shading, rainwater harvesting, and a wildflower/septic system meadow are made apparent. An expanded entry porch incorporates an accessible ramp, deadfall lumber from the site, and a kitchen serving window for use during the annual maple sugaring event.