New Science Center Groundbreaking Ceremony
Today, May 03, 2011, the Groundbreaking of the New Science Center took place, marking the beginning of construction. The New Science Center will be the first academic building constructed at Cheyney University in 35 years.
Swarthmore Co-op Gets a Makeover, CKd Style!
Have you been to the Swarthmore Co-op lately? If not, stop by and see the newly designed front-store checkout, featuring a bench and tables to enjoy lunch, a bar counter to sip coffee and chat with the locals, a new flower stand to help you pick the perfect bouquet for your dining table or special someone, and new counter design to separate basket holders from carriage pushers to help speed up the checkout process. Be sure to bring your reusable bag if you are planning on shopping!
Click here to see concept renderings and photos.CuetoKEARNEYdesign Wins Science Center Project
Swarthmore, PA (December 2010) – CuetoKEARNEYdesign, a full-service architecture and interior design firm, has been selected by the US Pennsylvania Department of General Services and Cheyney University as the lead designers for a new Science Center at Cheyney. The 40,000 sf building will include a planetarium, labs for the chemistry, biology, physics and computer science departments, lecture halls, lounges, and faculty offices. It is targeted for LEED Silver certification.
“This is the first new academic building on the Cheyney Campus in 35 years,” said architect Claudia Cueto, principal of CuetoKEARNEY design. “It demonstrates Cheyney’s profound commitment to the sciences."
The building will be located in the academic core of the campus, a beacon highly visible from the campus ring road and public parking, addressing both overall campus and individual student realms. The light-filled glassy head house provides a dynamic and inviting visual connection to the student activity within.
Sustainability features of the new building will include daylighting, a demonstration green roof, rain water / gray water recycling, a rain garden, highly efficient mechanical systems and use of recycled and local materials.
Originally conceived as a renovation of the existing 1970 Carver Science Building, the project was re-defined as a new building following a feasibility and campus planning report prepared by CKd. The project is slated to open in the fall of 2012.
Cheyney University of Pennsylvania is a public, co-educational historically black university that is a part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. Cheyney University has a 275-acre campus in the town of Cheyney, Delaware County, southwest of Philadelphia.
CuetoKEARNEYdesign is a full service, MBE/WBE firm that creates inspiring environments. Founded in 2004 and based in Swarthmore, PA, the firm has designed new college facilities and renovated historic structures, all strongly influenced by sustainability issues. CKd’s award-winning work includes academic buildings, residence halls, libraries and performance spaces for Princeton, Swarthmore, Widener, and Cheyney among others.
Swarthmorean Press Release: Small Swarthmore Architectural Firm Tackles Projects Huge to Tiny
Publiched in THE SWARTHMOREAN, Volume 82-Number 50, December 17, 2010.
The local firm CuetoKEARNEYdesign is responsible for bringing neon to the campus of Cheyney University. The renovated Marian Anderson Music Center now features a marquee sign with the famed singer’s name in lights, not exactly neon but rather highly efficient LED lights. The center re-opened last month when Bill Cosby headlined the opening gala. When the architects of CuetoKEARNEYdesign were selected to renovate the music facility, they soon discovered that the building’s 500-seat concert hall produced a dead sound, and that the Commonwealth’s Department of General Services (DGS) had not budgeted for an acoustician. “The state felt that this was a life cycle renovation” said Tim Kearney, a principal in the small Swarthmore-based company, “but we knew we had to address the sound quality in the main space”. So CKd paid for an acoustical consultant out of their own fees.
Cheyney University officials were pleased with CuetoKEARNEY’s work and, along with DGS and PASSHE (PA State System of Higher Education) recently chose CKd to design the school’s first new academic building on the campus in 35 years.
“We think of ourselves as educators as well as architects” says Kearney (who also teaches at Penn and Drexel). For the newly designed George Washington Carver building, he had to explain to university officials that although the 275-acre campus had plenty of room on which to build, it made good design (and academic) sense to bring the new science building closer to existing buildings and use it to help define an academic quad. This, he said, would stimulate encounters within the academic community. He and his colleagues have also designed ‘hang-out’ spaces on each floor, with floor to ceiling chalk boards and places to plug in laptops, to facilitate casual interaction between students and faculty.
The new Carver Science building will be the first to herald the Cheyney University name. “There is no building with the school’s name on it,” explained Kearney. “The new sign will be a gentle beacon in the center of the academic campus.”
Known for imbuing their buildings with green and sustainable features, CuetoKEARNEY has incorporated features in the new Carver Science Building that will maximize daylight harvesting and minimize energy consumption. Extensive green roofs will mediate storm water and will be accessible for student projects. Other roof drains will feed a cistern system, collecting water that will be used to flush the toilets in the building. A series of rain gardens alongside the building will collect rainwater and use native and perennial plants for both aesthetics and the reduction of water runoff. In addition, the Carver building will include double-glazed windows, light sensors, the use of recycled materials (contractors are required to recycle 50% of construction waste), low-emitting paints, certified wood from properly managed forests, and laboratory fume hoods with variable fans that minimize heating and cooling when not in use.
Named for the noted African-American scientist, botanist and inventor, the Carver Science Building is targeted for LEED Silver designation, an international green certification that ensures high environmental quality and energy savings in structures. Not only will the building and its systems be energy efficient, they will be “a teaching tool” to demonstrate environmental commitment.
Heidi Sentivan of Rutledge, who is a senior associate at CKd, says construction of the building will begin this spring and will open in the summer of 2012. The building, whose cost is budgeted at $17 million, will feature a planetarium whose dome will be highly visible and accessible to the public. A large-scale mural of the Carina nebula, taken from the Hubble telescope, will be placed in the two story lobby. The public areas are sheathed in glass, opening the activity of the building to the campus.
Although they are known for their work with college and university buildings (beating out a number of larger design firms to design Widener’s latest residence hall), CKd also works on smaller interior and residential projects including Beardsley and Pearson Halls at Swarthmore College and many additions around town, several of which have been featured on the annual Swarthmore House Tour. Their pro bono work includes the Sparrow House behind SRS, Paulson Park at Rutgers and Strath Haven, the Moot Court at Philadelphia’s Constitution High School, the preliminary design of the Princeton Avenue underpass (that allowed the borough to get the grant), the design of the exterior trash/recycling containers at SRS, the ‘Childhood Memories’ treehouse at the Tyler Arboretum and the re-design of the front of house interior at the Swarthmore CO-OP.
Architect Claudia Cueto, who is the other partner who gives the firm its name, is married to Tim Kearney, and is currently working on the furnishings for the New World Symphony Building in Miami. NWS, an orchestral academy, hired CKd upon the recommendation of Gehry Partners, architects of the new building with whom Claudia had done similar work for the Lewis Science Library at Princeton University.
As the firm’s literature says, “We are a small office with large experience, choosing to remain small so that we can guarantee personal service to our clients.”
For more information, call (610) 544-1722 or visit www.cuetokearney.com.
NWS Campus Building Nearing Completion
The New World Symphony Campus Building is nearing completion in Miami Beach. Designed by Frank Gehry, the building provides a stunning setting for the NWS's unique orchestral academy and their innovative performance formats, expanded educational programs, distance learning and community outreach programs. When the project team needed help with the interior design and furnishings, they turned to Swarthmore based Claudia Cueto and her firm CuetoKEARNEYdesign. Claudia had provided similar services for the Gehry designed Lewis Science Library at Princeton University and, based in Gehry Partner's recommendations, the NMW board of directors selected CKd for this fast track aspect of the project. Claudia and staff architect Jennifer Stunzi are working closely with the staff and board of NWS and Gehry Partners to get the spaces ready for the grand opening in January of 2011.
The New World Symphony was founded by Michael Tilson Thomas and Ted Arison in 1987 and is America's only full-time orchestral academy preparing gifted graduates of prestigious music programs for successful careers in orchestras and ensembles.
CKd at the Flower Show
CuetoKEARNEYdesign has once again designed the Camden Children’s Garden’s exhibit at the Philadelphia Flower Show. The exhibit highlights the Children’s Garden’s and exhibit sponsor Campbell’s Soup Company’s commitment to healthy eating and the burgeoning field of urban agriculture. The large soup and salad plates were fabricated by the Sculpture Workshop, Electromechanical Systems created the windmill and water tower and Michael Wommack provided all the decorative painting. The Children’s Garden staff will construct and plant the exhibit.
The show runs from February 28th to March 8th at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
Totally Terrific Treehouses @ Tyler Arboretum
Tyler Arboretum is reprising its successful “Totally Terrific Treehouses” Exhibit this summer at the Media Pennsylvania 650 acre oasis of natural beauty. CuetoKEARNEYdesign is providing pro bono design services for the Tyler volunteer’s “Backyard Memories”, a treehouse based on the volunteer’s childhood memories.
Working closely with the group of retired but hard working volunteers, CKd designed the fun and sustainable exhibit using recycled and found materials including lumber and posts milled from fallen hemlock trees on the site. The design features a hideaway open clubhouse with a green roof and a lookout perch accessed by a spiral stair lent by the Iron Shop in Broomall.
The design team includes Ann Rothmann, structural engineer and Geoff Anderson, landscape architect with Rodney Robinson Landscape Architects.
CLICK HERE TO SEE PHOTOS OF THE TREEHOUSE!
CKd @ Cheyney University II
We are pleased to announce that the Pennsylvania Department of General Services (DGS) has appointed CuetoKEARNEYdesign as the lead professional for the renovation of the Carver Science Building at Cheyney University!
This $17million project will create state of the art research and teaching facilities for Cheyney’s Science program and will restore the University’s planetarium.
The project team includes HERA, Laboratory Consultants, Gillan & Hartmann Mechanical Engineers, Klein & Hoffman Structural Engineers and Hunt Engineering, Civil Engineers.
CKd at the Flower Show
Once again, CuetoKEARNEYdesign has designed the exhibit for the Camden Children’s Garden at the 2009 Philadelphia Flower Show. The theme of this year’s show is ‘Bella Italia’ and the garden’s exhibit uses a depiction of the first Montessori school courtyard, a reclaimed blind courtyard adjacent to a tenement in Rome. The exhibit shows how urban spaces can be reclaimed as hands-on teaching and learning spaces and features a kid’s vegetable garden, fruit trees and areas for healthy outdoor activities. The exhibit is consistent with the Children’s Garden’s mission to promote healthy eating and living through community gardens and urban agriculture. The show runs from March 1st to 8th at the Philadelphia Convention Center.
Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor Dedicates New CuetoKEARNEY Designed Mock Courtroom at Constitution High
The Mock Trial team from Constitution High School in Philadelphia meets with retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and 3rd Circuit Judge Marjorie Rendell at the dedication of the CuetoKEARNEY designed Moot Court.
November 30, 2008. Constitution High School dedicated their new Moot Court today in honor of retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. CuetoKEARNEYdesign provided pro bono architectural services in the project organized by Ballard Spahr as part of their ‘pipeline’ community outreach efforts designed to promote interest and diversity in the legal profession by targeting minority high school students. Working closely with the students and staff at the Philadelphia Magnet school, CuetoKEARNEY designed a flexible court space in a section of Mr. Ackerman’s Civics classroom featuring a judge’s bench, witness stand and jury box. Network Arts, a Philadelphia based non-profit arts group headed by Earl and Josie Stamm, also worked with the students to create a new school emblem that artist Ricki Lent transformed into the mosaic seal that graces the judge’s bench. Kennedy Woodwork of Philadelphia built and installed the furniture quality millwork and Michael Wommack provided the decorative painting that finishes the space wonderfully. The project was overseen by Mary Gay Scanlon, Ballard’s director of pro bono services.
The crowded dedication was presided over by Justice O’Connor and Third Circuit Judge Marjorie Rendell and was attended by Mayor Michael Nutter, Philadelphia School Superintendent Dr. Arlene Ackerman, Principal Tom Davidson and members of the school’s Mock Trial team and their Ballard Spahr volunteer coaches. The students presented CuetoKEARNEY and Network Arts with engraved gavels to commemorate the event.
Click Here to read the KYW 1060 Newsradio article. (.pdf)
Click Here to read the Philadelphia Inquirer article. (.pdf)
Claudia Cueto Elected to AIA Philadelphia Board
November 18, 2008. We are pleased to announce that Claudia Cueto, AIA, has been elected by her peers to serve on the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Claudia, the founder and principal of CuetoKEARNEYdesign Architects, ran on a platform that emphasized her experience balancing work and family, the role of women within the profession and the concerns of suburban professionals within the greater Philadelphia AIA community.
Completion of Lewis Library
September 11, 2008. Princeton University announced that the Lewis Science Library has opened for the fall 2008 semester. Designed by Gehry Partners of Los Angeles, the distinctive building houses the university’s collections for astrophysics, biology, chemistry, geosciences, mathematics, physics and statistics. The University engaged CKd’s Claudia Cueto to develop the FF&E (Furniture, Fixtures and Equipment) budget during the initial design to help define the scope of the project. Subsequently, Princeton hired Claudia in association with Krieger Architects to work with Gehry Partners to develop, specify and detail the custom furniture, to work with the librarians and Gehry Partners to select specify and coordinate the furniture and to oversee the installation. Follow the link below to an article on Princeton University’s Web site: Click Here to read the article.
CKd Part of Swarthmore House Tour
CKd is pleased to announce that our office and building will be a part of Swarthmore's House Tour, hosted by the Friends of the Swarthmore Historical Society. The tour will take place Sunday September 28, 1pm - 5pm.
CKd at Princeton University
In March of 2008 Princeton University selected CuetoKEARNEYdesign to complete a preliminary feasibility study for the future renovations of New South, an Edward Larrabee Barnes building located in the south-western edge of Princeton’s campus. The building was originally built in the 1960s and has undergone several renovations in the past decade. The current renovations are scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2010 and will accommodate a variety of new academic and administrative user groups.
Jennifer Baker Short-Listed in Septa Contest
CKd Wins Award at 2008 Philadelphia Flower Show
The Camden Children's Garden's exhibit "Children Jazz It Up" was awarded the PHS Award of Merit for Creativity in the Nonacademic Educational Division at the 2008 Philadelphia Flower Show. The exhibit was also awarded the Special Achievement Award of the Garden Club Federation of Pennsylvania for unusual excellence in creativity for exhibits under 1,000 square feet. This is the 5th consecutive Flower Show exhibit designed by CuetoKEARNEYdesign for the Garden and their 4th award winner. CKd works with the staff at the garden to conceptualize and detail the design so that it can be assembled in advance at the garden and then brought to the Philadelphia Convention Center. Elements of the design will find a permanent home at the garden on the waterfront in Camden, New Jersey. The show runs through March 9th, 2008.
Denise Disney joins CKd!
CuetoKEARNEYdesign is extremely pleased to announce that Denise K. Disney AIA has agreed to join the firm as a Senior Project Manager. Denise has been a practicing architect for over 16 years with an emphasis on performance, entertainment and sports facilities and brings a wealth of experience from her previous positions at the powerhouse firms of Gehry Partners in Los Angeles and HNTB in Kansas City.
CKd at Cheyney University
CuetoKEARNEYdesign has been awarded the renovation of the Marian Anderson Music Building at Cheyney University. This 4.5 million dollar project is slated to begin in November. The project team includes Gillan & Hartmann Mechanical Engineers, Ann Rothmann Structural Engineers, Metropolitan Acoustics and ICI cost consultants.
CKd at Swarthmore's Art and Art History Facutly and Student Opening in Beardsley
On September 18. 2007 CuetoKEARNEYdesign joined Swarthmore's Art and Art History Faculty and Students to celebrate the opening of the new Senior Studio Space in Beardsley. Everyone in the department was very excited about the transformation of the space and the students absolutely love their studio. Below just a few pictures from the event.
Wedding Bells Ring
Some news to share: On July 28th, 2007, Ashley Hedrick married Tim Mulvaney in Green Lake, Wisconsin. Both the bride and groom were stunning and the wedding was beautiful. All our love and happiness to the newly married couple!
