Drexel University: Dana and David Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships

  • 02/01/16
Drexel University: Dana and David Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships

PHOTOS © BLT ARCHITECTS

The Dana and David Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships responds to Drexel University’s framework for civic engagement by providing new spaces that support the three dimensions of civic engagement. The current site of the Dornsife Center is home to three existing buildings — an 1867 Italianette mansion, an 1867 carriage works and a 1958 school building — that had sat dormant for a number of years.

The creation of the Center, with architectural and interior design services provided by BLT Architects of Philadelphia, involved the adaptive reuse of the three structures into a new university outpost providing community support services to the surrounding neighborhoods.

After the site and the primary donors for the renovation were identified, a stakeholder planning process was launched as a way to integrate the new Center into the priorities of the surrounding neighborhoods and the Drexel community. They used the Future Search planning framework; a consensus-building process that brings together participants from a range of perspectives who have some combination of authority, expertise and information relating to a particular issue. The workshops examine their past, present, and desired future to discover common ground and develop concrete action plans.

Initial facility programming and planning for the new uses involved careful analysis of each buildings limitations as well as opportunities to restore historic building fabric. Grouping common functions led to defining the buildings according to their best uses. The mansion, with its smaller rooms and more intact historic interiors, easily lent itself to office and conference room functions for the legal clinic and center administration.

The carriage house, which required significant gutting of later renovations, became the logical choice for the health, learning and gathering activities. STEM classrooms and spaces for design studios and technology and fabrication shops were located within the renovated classroom building.

This article originally appeared in the issue of .

Featured

  • University of Connecticut Upgrades Basketball Facility’s AV Systems

    The University of Connecticut recently partnered with Metinteractive to upgrade the AV systems of the Gampel Pavilion basketball facility on its campus in Mansfield, Conn., according to a news release.

  • University of Kentucky Integrates New Cleaning Technology

    The University of Kentucky in Lexington, Ky., recently installed a new cleaning system designed to improve cooling efficiency on campus, according to a news release. The Facilities Management’s Utilities and Energy Management Unit installed new chiller tubes into two of the chillers at the university’s Central Utility Plant.

  • Fort Collins to Convert 1980s Office Park into Junior High School

    The Liberty Common School, a charter-public school in Fort Collins, Colo., recently broke ground on an adaptive reuse project that will convert an 1980s-era office park into a 45,000-square-foot junior high school for seventh- and eighth-grade students, according to a news release.

  • Mesa West Capital Provides Loan to Refinance University of Georgia Residence Complex

    Mesa West Capital recently announced that it has provided a $133.9-million, short-term, first mortgage loan to developer LV Collective (“LV”) to refinance a student housing complex near the University of Georgia, according to a news release. Rambler Athens, a 750-bed residence hall adjacent to the campus, was completed in August 2024.