Plans for campus involve enhancement, expansion

St. Louis, Mo. Strategic acquisitions to the east and south of campus and enhancement of its northern and western borders are the mainstays of the Campus Master Plan, University President Judith Rodin announced last fall. The plan aims to secure the University's connection to the city and strengthen relations with neighboring institutions, Rodin said. The Civic Center, the parking lot at 33rd and Walnut streets and the land around the 30th Street Post Office are among the sites targeted for acquisition to the east and south of campus, Vice President of Facilities Management Art Gravina said. Such purchases could support recreation facilities and laboratories, Gravina said. Other plans for east and south campus include improving safety and cleanliness and encouraging economic development. The rest of Rodin's proposals involve enhancing, renovating and improving current facilities to the north and west -- not buying new land there. And the development of "Sansom Commons" will create an upscale retail district centered around a new hotel and the Barnes & Noble superstore, at 36th and Walnut streets. On the west end of campus, the aim is to revitalize the area and reconnect Superblock to main campus, Rodin said. And the Wharton School recently selected an architect to design the school's new facility, which will be built on the current bookstore site at 38th Street and Locust Walk. As planning continues for the new Wharton classroom building, administrators are evaluating which schools or departments might receive use of Vance Hall following construction of the new building. The Social Work and Education schools and the Political Science Department are among those that may be considered for the space -- which would likely become available in the next three to four years, according to Vice President for Facilities Management Art Gravina. Rodin explained that the new Wharton building -- which will house Wharton's MBA program and several undergraduate activities -- is intended to serve "as a replacement for Vance Hall," thus reducing Wharton's need for the space within the graduate school building. Biology Department members and University officials continue to detail plans for renovation and rebuilding of the department's current facilities, a process which School of Arts and Sciences Facilities Director Charles Bronk said will likely last until June. The plans will attempt to meet the department's "desperate need" of improved and expanded research, teaching and laboratory space, Biology Department Chairperson Andy Binns said. Plans currently call for demolishing the Kaplan Wing of Leidy Laboratories on Hamilton Walk, and the construction of a new building in its place, Bronk said. Administrators expressed confidence that the Psychology Department will receive use of the northeast corner of 34th and Chestnut streets for construction of a new Psychology facility, despite a recent fire at the adjacent Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church. The University had been renovating the church for a new fine arts facility scheduled to open in fall 1997 as the Charles Addams Fine Arts Hall.