Following the launch of the Sputnik in 1957, the U.S. government made a concerted effort to foster materials research, based on the assumption that basic research would allow for the development of advanced materials. The Federal Council on Science and Technology responded to the technological demand by suggesting the creation of federally funded interdisciplinary laboratories in universities, bringing together scientists from metallurgy, physics and chemistry to provide developments in fundamental research and to train a new generation of scientists. In 1960, ARPA implemented this plan and awarded three universities four year contracts to develop materials science. Within a few years, the program grew to twelve universities, when it was transferred to the National Science Foundation in 1972. Our paper considers the initial ARPA contract with the University of Pennsylvania in 1960, which set out to not only increase materials science knowledge production, but also to double the number of scientists trained in materials sciences. With ARPA funding, supplemented by university and private funds, Penn constructed a new building, the Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter (LRSM) to house its new interdisciplinary materials research program. In this paper we examine how the building’s designs were meant to foster interdisciplinary materials research between members of several departments and how it was subsequently adapted to meet the demands of interdisciplinary research, highly-sensitive instrumentation, and changing scales and types of technological equipment. Perhaps most important in the plans for the new building were the Central Materials Processing Facilities, a series of shared laboratories and work spaces. In our study, we aim to understand the intended use of these Central Facilities in terms of encouraging interdisciplinary research and the subsequent series of renovations since the 1960s. Our source materials from the Penn archives include a rich collection of news releases, media coverage, original ARPA proposals, and LRSM Executive Committee meeting minutes. We also study the original – and subsequent – blueprints and floor plans for the LRSM. We seek to interpret how the evolving demands of technological and scientific research impacted the built environment, in terms of both successes and failures in attempts to foster interdisciplinary research, as well as the practical physical demands of new technologies.