ON CAMPUS

Ambler Yards transformed a collection of mid-century lab, office and industrial buildings into a 21st century working environment through targeted renovations and a new public landscape. Three major outdoor social zones - the Meadow, the Yard, and the Alley - invite round-the-clock passive recreation and public use with food trucks, farmers markets, beer gardens and local events. The past industrial use of the property requires on-going contamination monitoring through wells embedded in the landscape.

FROM LIABILITY TO ASSET

The scale of American Chemical’s operations were spread across 23 buildings and 284,000 SF. The buildings represented a range of eras from the early twentieth century to a vintage 1980’s renovation. Their industrial contents were often intact and, what was left, precisely organized. The design team was inspired by what was at hand. The raw materials were present to transform a twentieth-century liability into a twenty-first century asset.

A LIGHT TOUCH

The renovation of five core buildings close to the main campus entrance looked to preserve the majority of existing construction, enhancing new building entry portals, wayfinding, landscaping, and exterior recreation zones to bind together the overall campus experience. Buildings of various styles, ranging from the 1940s to the 1980s, share a language of wayfinding, materials and color.