Arco Chemical Company
Research & Engineering Center
Newtown Square, Pennsylvania

600,000 sf / 55,740 sq m

This 600,000 sf technology building is designed to function both as a headquarters and as an engineering and research center. The complex takes advantage of its park-like setting with a horizontal, glass-walled design sited unobtrusively among stands of mature trees. The building’s two-story profile is softened by rounded canopies of extruded plastic which shade the glass from solar heat gain. The center is divided into three blocks, each housing a separate division — polymers, chemical and engineering, or offices — that previously had been in a separate city. These laboratory blocks are color coded with red, yellow, or blue and green accents and are interconnected by a series of six atria.

Existing slate-roofed 100-year-old school buildings were remodeled as an executive conference center, and the whole complex is tied together by sensitive landscaping. A pilot testing and manufacturing plant tucked discreetly behind the research and office buildings was designed and engineered to respond to stringent hazard controls.

At the time of its completion in 1981, the project was recognized with several local and national awards, including the Delaware County Planning Commission, Award for Excellence in Site Design & Landscape Planning (1981) and the Industrial Research and Development, Laboratory of the Year, High Honors (1982).