2500 League Island Boulevard is a state-of-the-art flex production building centrally located in the heart of the Philadelphia Navy Yard, at the burgeoning district’s office and industrial sectors. The structure provides a highly flexible work and production environment to cater to the expanding technology and cell therapy industry in Philadelphia. The project is poised to expand on the resurgence of The Navy Yard as a highly significant place of industry and innovation in the city.
The single story building is over 130,000 GSF presenting a lengthy 830’ façade to the public on the north elevation. The building massing is eroded by two voids and the main points of entry are carved from the corners of each end of the building. These corners of glass are clad with a custom sunshade which punctuates the insulated precast panel façade. The dark precast panels stand in contrast to the battleship gray of the adjacent naval vessels and break down the scale of the façade through a panelization of textured and smooth surfaces that is accented by reflective glazing, metal panels, and fins. The resulting fabric of textures and accents provide scale at the level of the building, vehicle, and pedestrian.
Working in close coordination with the fabricator, the precast panels were designed to optimize reuse and simple form adaptability to create a variety of panel subtypes stemming from eight panel families. The process of reusing the form layout panel to panel and allowing for simple modifications presented advantages in production time and limited material waste.
Planning for the possibility of a variety of uses, the building utilizes a 30’ clear interior defined by a column grid that provides the ability to support office, manufacturing, and warehousing functions. Potential areas of loading are incorporated into the façade via knock out panels in the precast panels on multiple locations and the structure has the ability to support a future mezzanine. The large open floor and two building entries provide for a use by a single or multiple tenants and a variety of uses.