Plan neglects northern campus

The administration's proposal to create a student center using existing campus facilities on Locust Walk and Spruce Street poses questions about the future of the northern sections of campus. Currently, a parking lot, parking garage, chilled water plant, several stores and the Mellon Bank building make up north campus -- the area encompassing Walnut and Sansom Streets. For years, past and present administrators have discussed and proposed methods of making that section of campus more prominent, lively and student-friendly. The culmination of this effort came in the form of the Revlon Center. And in 1990, administrators said they hoped to make Sansom Street a "second Locust Walk." But now, University President Judith Rodin and Provost Stanley Chodorow have rejected the Revlon Center student union concept in favor of a student center called the Perelman Quadrangle. The new proposal would involve Houston, Logan and Williams Halls, along with Irvine Auditorium. University officials say they are attempting to re-focus on the center of campus, making the area around those buildings safe and vibrant. "The idea is now to build up the center of campus," University spokesperson Barbara Beck said yesterday. "If you start building north of campus you're going to run into a real security problem and [the Perelman Quad] is where students hang out." But Acting Vice Provost for University Life Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum said north campus will still play an integral role in the future of capital planning. "The president and provost are actively considering our proposals to develop north campus in other ways," she said. And Rodin said last night that moving away from the north campus area "opens it up to a variety of possibilities." In 1990, then-Vice Provost for University Life Kim Morrisson released a report on the Revlon Center, detailing her desire for a student center and advocating the northern location. "Locust Walk is inescapably defined by the dominant institutions along its borders," she wrote. "If Penn is to have a 'university' identity, then we must break free of the limitations of our landscape." Then, Morrisson said she hoped the campus center would create a connection between Walnut Street and the heart of campus. But last night Morrisson said circumstances have changed since she was involved in the project. "At the time, it seemed that moving northward was a good idea," she said. "But one of the questions is what value you get for the options on the table and there is indeed value to [the Perelman Quad]." Using existing facilities is economically preferable to constructing a new building, Vice President for Facilities Management Arthur Gravina said last night. And the total space allocation in the Perelman Quad has over 28,000 more square feet than the Revlon plans allowed. McCoullum said she was "cautiously ecstatic" about the plan, adding that the VPUL has promoted many of the proposals involved in the Perelman Quadrangle. "Student space should have a strong central visibility and every component of this has been embedded in our program paper," she said. But just last spring, McCoullum and others cited the development of north campus as an immediate concern, and the main reason for the decision to locate the Revlon Center on Walnut Street. "We want to create a new, livelier north campus," McCoullum said last February. "What I think one of the most exciting things [at the University] would be is the creation of a Revlon precinct." But according to Associate Provost for University Life Larry Moneta, much has changed since Rodin and Chodorow took office. "Since the entire undergraduate education vision is being reviewed and reconsidered, [the north campus] is one issue that is now part of a much bigger plan," he said. Although development on north campus is now a long-term concept, administrators say the projects that have already begun will continue and will still serve valid purposes. The parking garage and chilled water plant built at 38th and Walnut had direct correlations with the Revlon Center plans. The garage was going to replace the 36th Street parking lot, while the main purpose of the chilled water plant was cooling the Revlon Center. But Gravina said both facilities will still have important functions for the University. "We needed a chiller plant independent of the Revlon Center," he said. "And we would ultimately have had to replace that parking anyway." McCoullum said the administration's current review of all capital planning will include consideration of the future of north campus.

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