Ruling to allow Smith demolition is appealed

A group of University members and Philadelphia citizens filed an appeal last week with a city agency to prevent the University's proposed demolition of historic Smith Hall. The group is appealing last month's decision by the Philadelphia Historic Preservation Commission to allow the University to raze Smith Hall to make room for a proposed science institute. Members of the group filed the appeal on the grounds that the University is destroying a historic building without exhausting all other options. This is the same argument the group used before the Commission last month. The Licenses and Inspections Review Board will hear the appeal within a month, and may overrule the Commission's decision. According to Philadelphia architect Gray Smith, one of those who filed the appeal, the action was taken to stop the University from "ruining" the historic area around Smith Hall. Smith, who is an urban designer, said the space provides an opportunity to walk through the past. "Aside from the architecture, which is an example of its genre, there are a lot of nice classical details that are adimirable," Smith said. "The emotion one feels when going to a historical space is why we save places like that." Because the appeal was filed against the Historic Commission, not the University, Vice President for Facilities Management Arthur Gravina said last week he does not know how the appeal will affect the University's plans for the Smith Hall site. But Gravina said administrators will probably appear at the hearing to support the Commission. "I believe that this is extremely important to us," Gravina said. "We're going to be compelled in our own self-interest to fight the appeal." Commission attorney Maria Petrillo refused to comment on the case last week, saying only that "the Historic Commission's decision was correct." The University plans to use the site for an Advanced Science and Technology Institute, which will provide additional laboratory space for engineering and science departments. Administrators opted for the Smith Hall site because they said its proximity to the Chemistry Building makes it a cheap and convenient location. Since announcing its plans late last semester, the administration has faced staunch opposition from the building's current occupants, the History and Sociology of Science department. Friends of Smith Walk, a group composed of students, professors and other people who want to preserve Smith Hall, and the University City Historical Society also filed the appeal. History and Sociology of Science Professor Robert Kohler, who is a member of Friends of Smith Walk, said he hopes the appeal will save the building and will make the administration realize there are alternate sites for their planned construction. Kohler said he opposes the University's decision-making process, saying administrators did not consider all options or consult with enough members of the University community before settling on the location. "The decisions were made by a very small group of people who weren't faculty, Trustees, or students," Kohler said. "If there'd been more people involved in the decision it would have been better."

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