Table of Contents

KieranTimberlake

American company
Written by
Gregory Lewis McNamee
Contributing Editor, Encyclopædia Britannica.
Fact-checked by
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.
Table of Contents

Date:
1984 - present
Headquarters:
Philadelphia
Areas Of Involvement:
architecture

KieranTimberlake, American architecture firm based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that became known for projects emphasizing sustainability, energy efficiency, and the reuse and conservation of existing structures and materials. The firm was founded in 1984 by Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake, its principal architects.

During the first decade of the 21st century, many of KieranTimberlake’s most prominent projects were at universities in the northeastern United States, among them Atwater Commons, a complex of residence and dining halls at Middlebury College (2004); the Sculpture Building and Gallery complex at Yale University (2007); and five residential colleges at Cornell University (2009). The firm’s projects often involved off-site construction; one example is the Loblolly House (2006), Taylors Island, Maryland. Cellophane House (2008), a five-story fabricated dwelling commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, highlighted the firm’s ongoing research into on-site assembly, disassembly, the life span of materials, and the development of energy-gathering “skin.” Later projects included the U.S. embassy in London (2017); Henley Hall (2020) for the Institute for Energy Efficiency at the University of California, Santa Barbara; and the Student Innovation Center (2020) at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Excerpt from the documentary KieranTimberlake: Loblolly House (2007) and Cellophane House (2008) (2009).
Checkerboard Film Foundation (A Britannica Publishing Partner)

Among the awards won by Kieran and Timberlake individually and by KieranTimberlake as a firm are the Rome Prize of the American Academy in Rome, the American Institute of Architects Architecture Firm Award, and the CooperHewitt National Design Award. Kieran taught at such universities as the University of Michigan, the University of Washington, and Princeton University, while Timberlake held visiting professorships at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, Yale, and the University of Texas at Austin.

Gregory Lewis McNameeThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica