The Building and its Client The new Hillel at Steinhardt Hall serves as the center of Jewish student life on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. It is the largest Hillel building of any college or university in the country, serving over 6,000 Jewish students at Penn Hillel and also as the headquarters for Hillel of Greater Philadelphia. The building is designed not only to respond to the needs of the Jewish student community but as an open and friendly place of meeting, socializing and dining for all Penn students. Hillel provides the only kosher dining facility on campus in addition to activity rooms, a library, an auditorium, a Beit Midrash (Hebrew-language study center and library) and offices. The building can accommodate up to five separate Sabbath services on weekends, close to 250 students per daily meal and up to 350 after Friday evening services. An Architecture Sensitive to its Context Located on 39th Street, between Walnut Street and the campus’s beloved Locust Walk, the building is inserted between two large 19th century dwellings on the Historic Register. It faces an open green and is directly across from the campus high-rises that house 75% of the student population Hillel serves. As a building of 35,600 square feet neighboring those close to a third of its size, it is carefully designed with many features that diminish its mass. For instance, the entry is fronted by a porch of generous proportions that serves as a transitional formal and social space from exterior to interior – and serves as a viewing platform for sports activities occurring on the green it faces. Additionally, the third story is set back from the lower stories and the building gently deflects at the glass corner from the adjacent fraternity house. Key Design Features In massing and materials, Hillel is linked to Penn’s prevailing architectural traditions, while the irregular rhythm of the etched art glass corner on the southwest façade breaks its classical symmetry and creates a modern counterpoint to the historic red brick. While the front façade’s steel cornice and curved limestone and metal entablature are historical design elements that refer to neighboring buildings, they are executed in modern materials. Interior features such as the lobby’s Jerusalem Stone wall – an ancient material from the land of Israel, is offset by contemporary steel and glass signage. Abundant glazing lends permeability to the exterior façade and visual accessibility to the interior, decreasing the building’s largesse by day and enabling dramatic illumination by night. Hillel is a signature building that firmly establishes itself as a modern edifice while reinforcing the scale and quality of the surrounding historic buildings. It distinguishes itself as a vibrant hub of activity and enlivens a formerly dormant stretch of this super-block of the Penn campus. By Jacobs/Wyper Architects | 
