Boston-based architecture firm Payette has finished construction on a striking new engineering building at Pennsylvania State University that reimagines collaborative academic design through its dramatic folded form. The Engineering Collaborative Research and Education Building, known as ECoRE, serves as the centerpiece of a newly master-planned engineering precinct on the university's main campus in State College. The 280,000-square-foot facility features five above-ground levels plus a dedicated basement housing specialized research laboratories, creating a dynamic new home for five distinct engineering departments. Its sculptural silhouette, wrapped in reddish brick and copper-anodized aluminum fins, establishes a bold architectural identity that signals the university's commitment to innovative, interdisciplinary education and research.
The building's most distinctive feature is its articulated facade system and L-shaped plan, which Payette manipulated through strategic cuts and folds to create a constantly shifting visual experience. The southeast elevation, which faces the main campus and serves as the primary entrance, showcases floor-to-ceiling glazing screened by vertical aluminum fins that cast intricate shadow patterns throughout the day. The remaining facades are clad in iron-spot brick that grounds the building within Penn State's traditional campus material palette while the metallic elements add contemporary sophistication. This combination of familiar and forward-looking materials helps the building bridge the university's historic context and its future-oriented mission. The folded geometry not only creates visual interest but also shapes unique interior spaces that support the building's collaborative program.
At the heart of ECoRE lies the Vertical Commons, a multi-level atrium that functions as both social hub and architectural centerpiece. This soaring space is surrounded by flexible study areas, informal meeting zones, and gathering spaces designed to encourage spontaneous interaction among students and faculty from different engineering disciplines. The atrium's design deliberately showcases the building's social energy, making collaboration visible and celebrated rather than hidden behind closed doors. A library and cafe open directly onto this central space, ensuring that academic and social functions blend seamlessly. The interior finishes feature white oak wall panels, polished concrete flooring, and metal railings that create a durable yet warm environment capable of withstanding heavy use while maintaining aesthetic appeal.
The building's functional organization reflects a sophisticated understanding of diverse research needs through its innovative skip-stop strategy. Because laboratory spaces require greater heights than offices or classrooms, Payette varied floor-to-floor dimensions throughout the structure, creating efficient double-height research zones while maintaining compact horizontal circulation. The below-grade level houses highly specialized facilities including anechoic chambers for acoustic research, wind tunnels for aerodynamic testing, advanced flight simulators, and a roto-craft ice-testing facility that requires unique environmental controls. This strategic stacking allows the university to co-locate cutting-edge research equipment while keeping the main floors dedicated to more flexible teaching and collaboration spaces that can adapt to changing pedagogical needs over time.
ECoRE accommodates five engineering departments and was explicitly designed to break down traditional academic silos by emphasizing shared resources and optimized space utilization. The building realigns research activities into thematic groupings that encourage engineers from different specialties to work together on complex global challenges. This approach represents a fundamental shift in how the College of Engineering conceptualizes its physical environment, moving away from department-owned territory toward a more fluid, resource-efficient model. The design team intentionally placed glass-fronted labs and research spaces along main circulation routes to make scientific work visible and accessible, inspiring younger students and fostering cross-pollination of ideas between disciplines that might otherwise remain isolated.
The completion of ECoRE marks a significant milestone in Penn State's long-term campus development strategy and reinforces Payette's reputation for designing sophisticated academic buildings that advance institutional missions. The project follows the firm's earlier completion of the Engineering Design and Innovation Building in 2023, creating a cohesive new precinct for engineering education and research. As universities nationwide reimagine how STEM facilities can better support innovation and collaboration, ECoRE provides a compelling model that balances technical functionality with inspiring architecture. Its emphasis on transparency, flexibility, and community building points toward future academic architecture that prioritizes human interaction and interdisciplinary discovery over rigid programmatic separation, potentially reshaping college culture for decades to come.
