Smith Walk closes for construction of IAST

The new advanced science center is slated for completion in the fall and will house research by students in different schools across the University. Smith Walk -- which runs from 33rd to 34th streets between Walnut and Spruce streets -- will be closed until the fall due to ongoing construction on the Institute for Advances Science and Technology. The detour is routed through the Towne Building in order to access Hayden Hall by way of Chancellor Street, the road located behind Bennett Hall. IAST -- which will be located at the corner of 34th Street and Smith Walk -- will be renamed th Roy and Diana Vagelos Laboratories of the Institute for Advanced Science and Technology when it reopens in the fall, following a $10 million donation by University Board of Trustees Chairperson Roy Vagelos. The new laboratories will consist of a "center of excellence" in engineering and chemical engineering and the Institute for Medicine and Engineering. According to Provost Stanley Chodorow, the IAST project "is part of a long-term plan to improve and modernize space for science and engineering disciplines on the campus and put Penn's departments in a position to compete for the best faculty and students in the world." The Institute will combine research opportunities for students in the schools of Engineering and Applied Science, Arts and Sciences and Medicine. Other foundations, corporations, the Medical School and a grant from the U.S. Air Force are also financing the construction. "The completion of this project will give the University unparalleled leadership in scientific and technological research that will allow the integration of various sciences," Vagelos said in October. He added that his donation comes at a time when "fewer large research universities?can power the kind of research that is required for the 21st century." And University President Judith Rodin added that "the research conducted in [the Institute] will range from understanding of biological functions to bioengineering approaches to human injury and aging." She said the Institute provides the University with "an opportunity?to redefine the boundaries of today's science endeavors." The Institute, which is slated for completion in October 1997, was designed by Robert Venturi of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Inc. The general contractor is L.F. Driscoll Co. of Philadelphia.