EEB Hub’s new Navy Yard headquarters is next step of long-term vision

The Energy Efficient Buildings (EEB) Hub broke ground on Building 661, slated to be its new headquarters, late last month, the Inquirer first reported. The 36,500 square foot space has been vacant for nearly two decades.

The five-year, federally-funded $129 million research initiative run by Penn State has been operating out of Building 101, adjacent to the headquarters of Benjamin Franklin Technology Partners and several investment funds. The EEB Hub is focused on developing ways to make buildings more energy efficient. It’ll use its new headquarters as a “living laboratory” for its work.

The EEB Hub’s new headquarters will be finished next April, said Laurie Actman, the EEB Hub’s deputy director. It’s one part of the effort’s long-term vision: even after the five-year grant runs out, Actman said the hope is that EEB Hub will continue its research.

“We intend to be a permanent part of the Navy Yard,” she said in an interview with Technically Philly earlier this year.

The EEB Hub will focus on long-term planning this fall, Actman said.

The Hub is an integral part of the growing technology community at the Navy Yard, a place that Actman hopes will be “the premiere place in the country for any company who’s innovating in the building technology space.” One part of this push is the Hub Commercialization Center, a business incubator for clean tech companies that the Hub is running with Benjamin Franklin Technology Partners.