U. to construct new student center

Fox Chapel High School '93 Pittsburgh, Pa. University alumnus and Trustee Ronald Perelman has pledged $20 million to a student center that will bear his name, University President Judith Rodin announced in April. Perelman's donation is the largest single gift earmarked for campus life in the University's history, doubling his 1988 pledge of $10 million for the Revlon Center student union project. "Judith Rodin's commitment to the quality of student life is a major element of her vision for Penn in the 21st century, and I am proud to be part of that effort," added Perelman, who is chairperson and chief executive officer of New York's MacAndrews and Forbes Holdings, Inc. The new complex, dubbed the Perelman Quadrangle, replaces the Revlon Center project -- first proposed by former University President Sheldon Hackney -- which would have erected a student center at 36th and Walnut streets. Perelman Quad will link Logan, Williams and Houston Halls with Irvine Auditorium, restoring the amount of space available for student activities to 85,827 square feet -- nearly the level included in original Revlon Center plans. Project plans call for the creation of meeting rooms, lounges, music listening and practice rooms, indoor shops and cafZs in all of the buildings, along with an art gallery and recital hall on Logan's ground floor. Irvine Auditorium will house a "flexible proscenium stage," able to accommodate audiences of 500 to 1,400, according to Provost Stanley Chodorow. A two-story glass atrium intended for 24-hour reading and quiet study will be built between Logan and Williams halls. The atrium is designed to flood the area with light and thereby increase safety, Chodorow added. Houston Hall, the nation's first student union, will be restored to its former grandeur, and a parking lot located next to Irvine Auditorium will become a park similar to College Green. Administrators hope the creation of this "great urban space" will draw students and faculty back to the center of campus, Rodin said, since it will be both modern in its amenities and historic in its ambience. The cost of the Perelman Quad project is currently estimated at $69 million, much more than the $40 million price tag former Interim President Claire Fagin gave for the scaled-down Revlon Center in the spring of 1993. But Rodin explained that $9 million in deferred maintenance funding has already been allocated and used for the repair of Logan Hall's exterior. She added that class reunion gifts are expected to contribute another $2.5 million to the building of Perelman Quad, placing the amount of funding yet to be secured at slightly below $40 million. Plans for Perelman Quad were drawn up by Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, a Philadelphia architectural firm that handled the restoration of the Furness Building and developed a concept plan for Dartmouth College, detailing what that school will look like in 15 years. Rodin said she expects construction of Perelman Quad -- which should take about three years to complete -- to begin before the end of this calendar year.

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