Thomas Jefferson university Medical Archives

Thomas Jefferson University Medical School is a storied institution in downtown Philadelphia. It has developed some of the most important methods, tools, and research in the medical profession and applies these successes to the training of doctors, nurses, and researchers in its labs, hospitals, and classrooms. At the center of the urban campus is the Scot Memorial Library where students access the accumulated knowledge of the medical school over time. Located on the fourth floor of the library are the medical archives, a collection of historic texts, drawings, surgical tools, and other objects that tell the story of medicine at Thomas Jefferson University. Previously located in a windowless, non-descript room accessible via keycard, the archival center was largely devoted to high density storage and the processing of objects for storage and/or display throughout the campus’s main facilities.

Thanks to a donation from an important, tenured Thomas Jefferson researcher, the new archival space will now be more public and accessible to the students. Studio Modh was brought in shortly after the donation was announced to program and conceive of a design for the new Archival Center.

The process began by examining spaces for learning that are centered on a collection of special artifacts. Historic libraries, presidential archives, and reading rooms gave the client and the design team a frame of reference for creating spaces that foster gathering as well as learning. This design conversation concluded two important motivations for any design solution: create an easily accessible public space for viewing curated objects from the collection and provide a learning space that could facilitate the display of the analog and the digital in equally compelling ways.

Philadelphia, PA

2024

 

The new Siegman Archives will be made of five elements. The Forum will be used for large group learning using digital and analog methods of learning The “Chamber”, an exhibition space that will be open to the student public for viewing artifacts from the collection. A scholar’s reading room for secure, close inspection of artifacts. A new, large high density vault for the current and future Collection. Demarcating the interior of the Archive and the existing quiet study areas will be a dynamic architectural acoustic wall of display cases and recycled plastics felt panels that animate the wall and attenuate sound.

The “Chamber” includes deep set window sills for object display and specially designed display walls that echo the book stacks of the library.

The common corridor of the Library is called the “Medicine Cabinet” and is a interplay of acoustic surfaces and recessed display cabinets.

The walls of the archive face an existing quiet study room. Studio Modh developed a texture of folded PET panel strips forms a absorptive/disruptive acoustic surface that nods to the exterior brick details of the existing library. Display cases of varying sizes are incorporated into the wall. The team worked with a manufacturer to develop a minimum number of panel modules with enough variation to create a comprehensive sculptural whole.

A new “Reading Room” is for scholars to perform intensive research over an extended period of days. Managing the care security and security of the collection while maintaining accessible scholarship is a key goal of the project. Historic tables that are part of the Collection have been refinished and are going to be reused within this reading room. Brightly colored yellow high density shelving units are visible through an interior window.

A new “Forum” is designed to facilitate the analog and the digital in a luminous, seamless space for visiting faculty and students.

To break up the relentless cadence of the fenestration in the existing building, the walls are deepened to modulate the form and mitigate the intensity of sunlight on the artifacts on display.

 

Construction progress with anticipated completion in April 2024.