U. will not restore Addams Hall

The former church was destroyed by fire as it was being renovated into classroom and studio space. What was once a historic building is now just a doorway. The 114-year-old Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church at 33rd and Chestnut streets was demolished during winter break, ending any hopes the Fine Arts Department may have had of preserving the original building for use by its students. Rehabilitating the church from its present condition would have been "prohibitively expensive," according to Graduate School of Fine Arts Dean Gary Hack. The building was originally set to open in August 1997 as the $8.2 million Charles Addams Fine Arts Hall, named for the cartoonist who graduated from Penn in 1934 with a degree in Fine Arts. But efforts to renovate the church to provide much-needed studio, classroom and gallery space for undergraduate and graduate fine arts students were destroyed last March in a four-alarm blaze that caused structural damage to the back and side walls of the building. Since then, the building has stood untouched while University officials mulled over whether to rebuild the ruined structure or tear it down and start from scratch. In December, officials decided to demolish the church. It took nearly nine months to decide the building's fate because officials were waiting to settle claims with the insurance company responsible for the project, then-Associate Vice President for Facilities Management Omar Blaik said last month. The University had initially claimed a larger amount than the insurance company was willing to pay for the fire damage, he said. At the time, Penn officials estimated that the fire caused about $3.5 million of damage. According to Hack, the insurance settlement left the University with only a small fraction of the money needed for another building project. Officials refused to disclose the exact amount of the settlement. The demolition leaves GSFA with another problem: designing a new building that satisfies the donor, Addams' widow Lady Barbara Colyton. She wanted the church preserved. Duplicating the church's prior appearance would have involved taking apart the remaining walls stone by stone, finding a quarry where additional stones of that same color could be retrieved, then rebuilding the entire structure, according to Hack. "If it were a great cultural monument you would do that," Hack said. "This was a rather ordinary church, not worth spending enormous amounts of money to restore." The demolition process itself took almost two weeks, leaving nothing of the building but its entranceway. Hack said the original stones from the entrance will be taken down carefully and preserved. The Fine Arts Department is currently looking at several options for creating more space. Addams Hall would have only accounted for half the space the department still needs. Providing space for the department's entire needs would cost between $20 million and $30 million, he added. Hack said the department plans to retain the Blauhaus building, a blue shed at 33rd and Chestnut streets, for studio space and workshops even after it finds a new home.