Wharton releases building plans

Groundbreaking for the massive $128 million facility is expected to take place April 16. After a five-year development process, Wharton administrators unveiled the design yesterday afternoon for the school's new $128 million, state-of-the-art business education complex set to be completed by late 2002. The 300,000-square foot facility -- to be constructed on the site of the former University Bookstore at 38th and Walnut streets -- will soon be home to the 4,700 students in Wharton's undergraduate and MBA programs, as well as administrators and four Wharton departments. It will also provide classroom space, additional computer labs, group workstations, study and social lounges and two new cafes. Administrators chose to go with the "complex" design of the building in order to account for the unique height requirements of bordering both Locust Walk and Walnut Street. "I think the building is a critical step forward," said outgoing Wharton Dean Thomas Gerrity, who has played a key role in the development and fundraising of the building. "We'll have a vastly improved classroom experience, better technology, new team-study rooms and double the size of our computer labs," Gerrity noted, adding that, "It is part of our master plan to bring life and vibrancy to Walnut Street and the campus environment, and to make it more attractive for students and faculty to live." Gerrity added that officials have already raised over $90 million of the estimated $128 million necessary to finance the project, mainly through private donations. He said administrators are currently fundraising for the rest of the nearly $40 million. The University Board of Trustees is expected to approve the budget later this spring. The building was designed by the renowned New York-based architectural firm Kohn Pederson Fox Associates. The firm's officials said they took a "biological approach" to create a highly functional building. The facility itself will have two main components, with separate entrances for undergraduate and graduate students. The entrance to the rectangular part of the red-brick and stone facility will face Locust Walk. It will lead to the ground and first floors, which will host classrooms, computer and behavior labs, study lounges, advising offices and an indoor-outdoor cafe. This part of the complex will also feature ground-floor space for Wharton's undergraduate and MBA clubs and conference-planning committees. There will also be a new 300-seat auditorium and multi-purpose space on the ground floor, which Gerrity said he hopes will attract speakers and conferences. Over half of the rest of the building's floor space will be dedicated to the eight-story, cylindrical drum-shaped tower overlooking Walnut Street, which will house more than 250 offices for the Management, Operations and Information Management, Marketing and Legal Studies departments, in addition to offices. On the top floor of this section, a 200-seat "colloquium" and multi-purpose conference center with a 40-foot skylight will provide meeting space for University functions. According to Assistant Dean for Finance and Administration Laurie Lundquist, unique "U-shaped" classrooms were developed to improve students' sight lines. High-tech classrooms will feature a variety of video-conferencing units and video production and editing stations for group projects. The classrooms "are like space modules designed to meet the needs of the academic philosophy Wharton represents," principal architect Bill Pederson said of the 57 group study rooms set aside for team-based projects. Similarly, the architecture lends itself to housing both the undergraduate and graduate programs. Lundquist explained that while undergraduates will enter the facility from Locust Walk, MBAs and faculty members will have their own entrance on Walnut street. According to Wharton Associate Dean for Administration and Finance Scott Douglass, who has directed the project over the past four years, the facility aims to create a highly functional building while keeping in mind the style of the University's traditional campus architecture, as well as the needs of students, faculty and Wharton's technology-laden and team-based curriculum. "We tried to bridge the gap by making [the new building] feel part of the tradition of Penn's campus but look to the future of the campus and the University," Pederson said. According to Pederson, the biggest challenge of designing the facility was adjusting its scale to suit the campus. "It's a big building, yet Locust Walk has some of the smallest buildings on campus. On the other hand, Walnut Street is starting to get bigger buildings such as Samson Common," Pederson said. A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for April 16 and construction is slated to begin in early summer.

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