PROJECT NARRATIVE
History + Location
Another Generation
The Urban Outfitters Headquarters reclaims nine acres of the Historic Core at the decommissioned U.S. Naval Shipyard on what was, in the 19th century, League Island in Philadelphia. Adventuring out of their disparate locations downtown, the four corporate brands that make up URBN seized the opportunity to establish a new corporate campus through the adaptive reuse of huge masonry buildings centered around a 500 foot-long dry dock where the civic axis of Broad Street meets the Delaware River. The working traces of thousands of Navy men and women laid the groundwork to construct a new, dynamic landscape for the next generation of ingenuity.
Site + Scale
Industrial Strength
Though the Navy sailed away from the island in 1996, they left the industrial bones of the site intact. Partially buried in a sea of asphalt, over a mile of old rail lines and craneways provide an arabesque counter to the massive north-south grain of monolithic structures. The utilitarian pattern of historic industrial processes generated the design for sweeping paths, textured ground and dense plantings. New and revived landscape inscriptions amplify the sublime scale of the massive buildings, giant battleships anchored nearby, and jumbo jets zooming overhead. The strong landscape framework rendered with rich patinas, inspired by URBN design sensibility, orchestrates new productive flows and unifies the campus, rooting it in the site-specificity and history of the Yard.
Program + Collaboration
URBN Habitat
The company’s workforce has tripled over the past decade, making an incremental and facile site plan for the campus crucial. Because of his interest in the landscape, working directly with the Founder and Chairman of URBN was inventive and intense. The client inspired experimentation and even improvisation on a site where interesting stuff was continuously unearthed. Of course, the fashion designers had something to say about it too, which greatly enriched the design process. Iterative interaction with the architects and engineers fueled the designers to find beauty in the existing structures above and below ground, recombine found forms and recycled materials, respect history by reframing it anew. Now there are enormous spaces for events and more intimate places of the everyday. Studios teem with creativity; gardens bring on brainstorms and terraces invite staring out across the river. Big ole Building No. 543 welcomes the public for lunch around Dry Dock No.1, where one can imagine how big the USS New Jersey was.
Materials + Installation
Experimental Reuse
When it came to selecting materials for the URBN headquarters, site forensics unearthed the ‘life cycle’ palette: appliquéd asphalt, age-old concrete, tired brick, rusted metal, peeling surfaces of text and enough residue to reconstruct this industrial-strength landscape. Rather than the usual ‘hog and haul’ of a typical demolition plan, a salvaging strategy was deployed, harvesting what most would consider undesirable detritus. No imported materials were necessary, nor desired. Numerous full-scale mock-ups challenged construction-as-usual habits and became critical in developing tactics for reuse that proved to be cost effective. The make-over of on-site materials has URBN-ites feeling as if their new campus has actually always been there.
Ecology + Performance
Embodied Energy
The URBN campus expands the client’s aesthetic pursuit of material reinvention to establish a broader capacity for ecological performance. With the Yard’s expanses of concrete and asphalt reused on-site, nearly a thousand cubic yards of waste didn’t make it to a landfill and site perviousness was increased by about eight hundred percent. This new URBN sponge structures a network of bioswales that diminish runoff to the river, filtering water to support hedgerows that shade west facing window walls. In re- working the ground as biologically and culturally fertile, embodied energy goes beyond sustainability metrics to value human agency left by generations of workers at the Navy Yard.
Private Venture + Public Good
Legacy Landscape
As a catalytic model for the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation’s redevelopment of the 1200-acre former League Island, URBN set a high benchmark for not only the adaptive reuse of historic buildings, but also for the reinterpretation of a cultural landscape, one that distinguishes itself from the conventional Master Plan’s suburban streetscape and corporate front lawns. The innovative client was willing to challenge the norms and listen to his headstrong landscape designer, who insisted that Dry Dock No.1 be designated and designed as a public park, not merely an extension of the his company’s campus. Now a common sight at the Historic Core is Mayor Nutter ushering reportedly awestruck visitors as well as school bus loads of ecstatic kids from the Boys and Girls Club running around with designers’ dogs at the pet-friendly URBN headquarters. Satisfied customers: a private client who continues to share with the broader community, a momentous landmark of America’s ambitious legacy.