36th Street near Revlon to be closed

To make the area around the proposed Revlon Campus Center more open to pedestrians, the University plans to close 36th Street between Walnut and Sansom streets to vehicle traffic by fall 1996, Vice Provost for University Life Kim Morrisson said yesterday. The street closing is just one part of the north campus master plan that was presented yesterday in the Houston Hall Bowl Room by Gregory Clement, an associate partner of the Kohn, Pederson, and Fox architectual firm which designed the Revlon Center. The plan's goal is to "bridge Walnut Street with north campus" and find a "positive way to expand campus," Clement said. Morrisson said that with fewer cars and more people in the area, Sansom Street -- which intersects 36th Street near the building site -- "will be analagous to Locust Walk on the other side." "There will be some flavor of Locust Walk," she said. "I am most excited about what we can develop in the residential area." The plan includes three phases of construction which will expand campus two blocks north to include Walnut and Sansom streets, Clement said. The initial phase -- including the building of the Revlon Center on Walnut streets between 36th and 37th streets -- should be constructed by 1996. The Revlon Center will include the relocation of the Book Store, a basement arcade, several restaurants, a 24-hour study area, a browsing library and a music listening center. The building will also include performing arts space to accommodate a wide range of performing arts activities, the Women's Center, a Health Education Unit and Student Life Programs. A number of student offices will be housed in the center, but space has not yet been allocated. The plans originally contained a meeting room building across 36th Street from the Mellon Bank building, but the building has been eliminated from the plans due to budget constraints. The upper floors of the Mellon Bank building will be renovated instead in order to provide the same space the meeting room building would have offered. The Mellon Bank building renovations will cost about $500,000, according to Wharton senior Joel Yarbrough, a member of the building committee. The renovations, along with the construction of new retail stores all along Sansom Street, make up phase two of the project. The new building along Sansom will be about four stories high -- the bottom two floors containing stores and the top two floors housing meeting rooms for different University groups -- according to Clement. This phase will include the renovation of the Franklin Building Annex and the adjacent parking lot. The final phase of the master plan will include expanding Hill House into a residential quadrangle with a large courtyard in the middle. The idea behing the extension of Hill House is to create a "front door" for the University at the corner of 33rd and Chesnut streets. "The Hill-Quad extends the diagonal axis that starts at the Quad and runs through College Green," Yarbrough said. "The corner of the Hill-Quad would give Penn a front door. We could build a big gateway that butts up against Drexel." According to Clement, the gateway will let people say, "I have arrived at the University of Pennsylvania." Clement also said his staff is still working on an estimate for the cost of the plan. He added that he is "confident that [the project] is on budget." Although Morrison said that she, too, is confident that the University can raise the money for the project if it is approved, she asked, "Do we have [the funds] in hand, I don't know." The plan is being presented to the Trustees' Facilities and Campus Planning Committee today. Vice President and Secretary Barbara Stevens said last night she expects the Trustees to accept the plan "in concept" tomorrow. Stevens added that the Trustees' Executive Committee will likely pass the plan on Friday with few changes. "My sense is that the Trustees who have seen [the plan] are very enthusiastic about it," she said. "It is a very important project to the Trustees."