New era begins for dorms, dining

The 10-year, $300 million plan officials announced Friday to overhaul Penn's dining halls and dormitories is the largest construction project the University has undertaken since the late 1960s, when it bought a neighborhood, tore it down, built a set of high- and low-rise dorms and rechristened the area Superblock. The new plan calls for the renovation of most existing dorms and dining halls, the construction of several more dorms in Superblock -- now renamed Hamilton Village -- and the likely demolition of the Stouffer Triangle. Officials hope the changes will lead more students -- 870, to be precise -- to live on campus, freeing up properties off campus to house graduate students and young families. The overhaul is also meant to provide the physical complement to the academic and programmatic aspects of the college house system, which was instituted this fall. Work will begin next summer in Hill House and parts of the Quadrangle. Later stages will displace students in the high rises -- one dorm per year -- when exterior and interior renovations of the buildings commence in 2001.