March 23, 2009
By Brandon Gollotti
For PlanPhilly
When Amy Gutmann became the President of the University of Pennsylvania on July 1, 2004, she used her inaugural address to introduce the “Penn Compact.” The directive was anchored by her vision to make Penn “a global leader in teaching, research, and professional practice, as well as a dynamic agent of social, economic, and civic progress.”
This intangible compact began being transformed into a physical reality when Penn purchased the Postal Lands, approximately 24 acres, to the east of the university. In order to take advantage of Penn’s acquisition and Gutmann’s long-term goal, the University underwent a two-year master planning process involving students, department heads and other leaders of the university community.
The work focused on three main goals. The first was to increase research space, classroom space, housing, and recreational space. Another goal was to better link University City to Center City, a connection hindered by the Schuylkill Expressway and three sets of railroad tracks at varying elevations. Finally, the process needed to demonstrate Penn’s commitment to environmental sustainability. The final outcome was a land use and urban design plan called Penn Connects. Today, Penn Connects serves as the outline for the Penn campus’ development and integration into the city.
Recently, PlanPhilly had the opportunity to sit down with Anne Papageorge, the Vice President of Facilities and Real Estate Services, and David Hollenberg, the University Architect, in order to discuss the current status of the projects involved in the long term planning vision for the University of Pennsylvania.
Penn Park, Phase 1
Model of Penn Park.
On Feb. 26, 2009, Architect Michael Van Valkenburgh unveiled the model for Penn Park, the principal project on the former postal lands. While the plan includes a parking lot for 300 cars, the park is enhancing a desperately desolate concrete landscape into a large, vast open space. David Hollenberg said “it was the first time that Penn had the opportunity to design open space of this magnitude.”
The University did not always show this regard for the neighborhoods around it. For example, in the 1960s and 1970s, the Redevelopment Authority acquired and then demolished residential and commercial neighborhoods (around 6 million square feet in all) to allow for Penn expansion. The most prominent case in point is the University’s superblock at 40th and Walnut, which compressed four city blocks into one, creating three high-rise housing dormitories for students that were out of scale with the original neighborhood.
“In the 1950s and 60s,” Praxis Director Harris Steinberg adds, “the University wanted to create an inward facing campus. In turn, this had a negative impact on the surrounding communities.” Now with Penn Connects, Steinberg believes, the University has had a philosophical change in the way its campus should physically and visually interact with the city. With Penn Connects, Penn hopes to create a beneficial environment not just for its students and faculty, but for all Philadelphians as well. “We wanted to be good stewards of the land” this time, said Anne Papageorge, the Vice President of Facilities and Real Estate Services.
The proposal for Penn Park calls for three playing fields, a dome to cover a field during winter months, a 12-court tennis center, a softball stadium and possibly a ropes course on the eastern edge of campus between Walnut Street and South Street against the Schuylkill River.
Papageorge says the final plans will all depend on funding as some things (e.g. the softball field) take priority over others (e.g. the ropes course). The current design of the park is also environmentally friendly, as it includes storm water management and features native plants of the region. According to Papageorge, the first phase of the park is scheduled to open spring 2011.
“The ultimate goal,” says Papageorge, “is to make this area alive with 24/7 activity.” Over time (and with appropriate funding), Papageorge says the northern edge of Penn Park will eventually become a mixed-used development to include office, retail and residences for the university and city.
Cira Center South
Proposed design of Cira South.
On the northern side of Walnut Street is the future location of Cira Center South, a development set to include a 42-story office and hotel tower on Walnut Street, a 25-30 story residential tower on Chestnut Street, and a 2,400-space parking garage in between. This development project is a partnership, through a 90-year ground lease, with Brandywine Realty Trust, a Radnor-based development company which was involved with the original Cira Center behind 30th Street Station.
The parking garage, the first part of the project that is set to be completed, is scheduled to be finished by the fall of 2010. This coincides with Brandywine’s Post Office redevelopment across Chestnut Street. The Internal Revenue Service is scheduled to occupy that entire facility by the third quarter of the same year.
The future of the other two tower components of the complex are still unknown as Brandywine is looking for another major tenant, besides Penn. Last year, the biggest potential occupier that would allow Brandywine to break ground on Cira South was BlackRock Inc., an investment management firm, which was interested in moving some of its operations out of Plainsboro, N.J. However, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal, in the current economic crisis, it is uncertain if BlackRock is still contender for the project, especially since the firm lost more approximately 50 percent of its value in stock in the last year.
Brandywine Realty's Tony Rimikis, Senior Vice President of Development Services, also said that there is no new updated information regarding Cira South.
While the land is leased to Brandywine, Penn is “not out of control” of the development of the land says Papageorge. In the contract, she says there are design guidelines which give the University control of some of the design aspects of the development.
Hill Square College House
Conceptual model of Hill Square College House.
Another major development in Penn Connects is Hill Square College House. In the late 1950s, Hill Square was created as the result of the closure of Woodland Avenue and the underground tunneling of the trolleys in West Philadelphia. Today, Hill Square is recognized by college students as one of the closest areas of open space, making it ideal for future on-campus housing. To preserve as much of the usable open space, the original design plans call for three buildings of varying heights to be built along the perimeter of the field.
The new 300-400 bed college house, designed by Patkau Architects, will feature housing for students as well as residential advisors, faculty, and suites for the house master. The ground floor will include retail, dining, and social spaces.
Currently, the project is wrapping up its schematic design phase, but the timing of the project is dependent on fundraising. Papageorge announced that there has not been a naming-rights donor as of yet and that getting one is partially dependent on the project’s future.
Medical Center
In the middle is the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine and on the right is the Roberts Proton Therapy Center.
Many of Penn’s medical construction projects are either on schedule or completed. Construction on the $300-million Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine (CAM) is finished and Papageorge says that doctors are “moving in floor by floor.” Adjoining CAM is the Roberts Proton Therapy Center which is still under construction. This center will be the largest proton therapy center in the world to treat cancer and only one of six such centers in the country.
The $261-million Anne and Jerome Fisher Translational Research Center, by Rafael Viñoly Architects PC, is scheduled to be completed by the fall of 2010. The research center provides a space for interdisciplinary research near Penn’s medical center and to facilitate “communication and the exchange of ideas among clinicians and researchers on new discoveries, techniques and technologies”
Other noteworthy Penn projects in the area
- At Franklin Field, the Weiss Pavilion is under construction. This project is going to infill the Northern arcade with a new weight training and fitness center.
- On 36th Street near Locust Walk, the Annenberg Public Policy Center is set to be completed by the summer and will open to students and faculty before the start of classes in 2010.
- At 201 S. 34th, construction is underway of the Music Building. It is scheduled to be completed in Fall 2009.
- The Weave Bridge was recently completed to allow students to access the athletic fields.
- The Schuylkill River Pedestrian Bridge is listed under Phase 3 (2015-2025) of Penn Connects and will be completed only after appropriate funding is found.
- Castor Building Improvements will include a new Locust Walk entrance with a new façade. Hollenberg says it’s a “modest, but wonderful project.”
- University Museum Expansion is another part of Penn Connects that is waiting on the appropriate funding before plans are moved forward. Before proceeding with any construction, a new museum director is working on “increasing access to the public and the number of memberships” says Papageorge.
- The student apartment complex, Radian, located on the 3900 block of Walnut Street, currently houses approximately 500 beds and has retail at the ground floor.
- Opened in 2007, Domus, at 34th and Chestnut Streets, is a luxury apartment complex that has 290 apartments and 23,000 square feet of retail.
- Located at 3939 Chestnut Street, the Hub 3939 is expected to compliment the original Hub next door. The new apartment building is expected to begin construction in early 2009 at a cost of $19.5 million.
Anne Papageorge, the Vice President of Facilities and Real Estate Services, and David Hollenberg, the University Architect, overlook the model of Penn Park.
Brandon Gollotti joined PennPraxis as an intern in the spring of 2009. He is third year student who is currently attending the University of Pennsylvania pursuing a B.A. in Urban Studies and a minor in History. Before coming to PennPraxis, Gollotti worked on several projects out of PennDesign, including Mapping DuBois and PhilaPlace. Contact him at brandongollotti@gmail.com
Comments
A giant parking garage on Cira Center South? Really? When there's already a parking garage attached to the Cira Center (North?)? When the two buildings straddle the second busiest train terminal in the country, which services both regional rail and Amtrak, not to mention a subway line and numerous buses, with trolleys close buy? AND it's the first part of the project to be built?
That area will never be more than a glorified highway onramp if developers and the city keep thinking like this.
Look forward to a parking garage with empty lots around in by 2012.
Wonderful stuff. It makes me want to get a job working for Penn or at least be supportive of Penn as a Philadelphia resident and to encourage Penn graduates to stay here in Philadelphia after they graduate. We have a wonderful city made better each year by forward thinking organizations like U of Penn and Penn Praxis.