What's in a name? At Penn, quite a lot

In 1984, Orwell taught that world that war can be peace, hate can be love and slavery can be true freedom. At Penn in 1998, administrators hope to convince students that a high rise can be a house, a food court can be a cafe, and that Sansom Common -- well, Sansom Common can be everywhere. Change was in the air this summer, with the opening of the new Penn Bookstore, large-scale renovations to the Gimbel Gymnasium and several other retail comings and goings. But some of the changes most likely to catch students' attention were also, quite literally, in the air -- a spate of renamings, redefinitions and attempts to expand a successful "brand." And while the changes may strike many students as academic, if not a tad silly, they are serious business to the University, which now uses the new names exclusively and hopes students will soon do the same. Some of the new names actually represent a step back. Hamilton Village, the area extending from 38th Street to 40th Street and Spruce Street to Walnut Street, was known, until recently, as Superblock. Superblock, in turn, had long been the University's chosen name for the area, which had been known, before it was purchased and demolished by Penn, as Hamilton Village. Got it? Last year, Penn unveiled its new college house system, designed to reorganize the University's dorms into 12 college houses with expanded programming and support services. The new system's impact was felt by many students even before they set foot on campus. Instead of receiving letters about their apartments in High Rise North, for example, many students were baffled to find out they were instead living in Hamilton House. A mix-up? No -- each of the towering buildings, originally built in 1971-72 as part of the Superblock project, have recently been christened with a new name as part of the debut of the college house system. Besides Hamilton House, the renamed High Rise North, Hamilton Village, the renamed Superblock, also contains Harnwell House, the former High Rise East, and Harrison House, the former High Rise South. Similar naming changes took place at the Quadrangle, which is now home to several college houses of its own, and other dorms. Gregory House, for example, actually combines two wholly separate buildings -- the Van Pelt College House and the Modern Languages College House -- under a single symbolic roof. Not to be outdone, the architects of Penn's new retail strategy have done some of renaming of their own. Seeking to build on the new Sansom Common "brand," Penn recently gave the food court in the 3401 Walnut building the imposing sounding name of the Moravian Cafes at Sansom Common. Similarly, the graduate towers, the drab buildings behind the new complex at 36th and Sansom streets that are currently undergoing a large-scale renovation project, were recently renamed Sansom Place. Whether these new names will enter the lexicon of the average student is anybody's guess, of course.