Trying to save the treasured BioPond Garden from being encroached upon by the forthcoming life sciences building, protesters stormed University Provost Robert Barchi's office Friday afternoon in search of answers.
The Friends of the BioPond Garden led a motley crew of about 20 students, staff and community members -- heralded by a towering puppet -- on a march from the garden and into the serene rooms of College Hall.
"We don't believe that the earth is flat, and we're not opposed to progress, but we think there should be some restraint on the building which is going on," area resident Richard Rogers said. "We are definitely opposed to building an edifice such as the building planned near the BioPond."
In a letter handed to Barchi, who has been active in the planning of the new building, the Friends argued for declaring the the garden "off-limits to new construction," saying that it provided a "cool, green retreat" for an urban campus.
They also wrote that since the garden is a fraction of its former size, "if construction isn't stopped, the garden will disappear altogether."
"The BioPond is one of the few things that I benefit from the University being here," Friends spokesman Chris White said. "It's one of the few places that... helps the community."
Microbiology Department staff member Laurie Zimmerman added that "there's hardly anywhere to go around here where you can't see buildings," saying the garden was such a space.
The protesters' attention was focused on the forthcoming life sciences building, which will be built along the western edge of the garden, replacing the greenhouses and the Mudd and Kaplan buildings.
Although this configuration will minimize intrusion into the garden, protesters questioned the wisdom of losing scarce green space and trees on campus and in the community.
They especially lamented the loss of the large trees and grassy area at 42nd and Spruce streets, which will be the home of the new Penn-assisted public school, and wished to save the garden from a similar fate.
But Barchi maintained that the natural environment was not only a key consideration in designing the life sciences building, but also for the newly-approved campus master plan.
"We could have built a much less expensive building... if we weren't restricting it to the footprint that we have," Barchi said, adding that the four-story building will be terraced so as not to impede sunlight from reaching the pond and garden. "We could have built an eight-story building for two-thirds the cost."
Although the new building will house the departments of biology and psychology, not all of those for whom the building is intended saw it as a benefit.
"It's scandalous -- we're biologists, we should be setting examples of conservation," said biology researcher Heather Craig. "Of all the places that shouldn't be ripped up, that's one of them."
Even the process of constructing the building, which will begin within the year, was a concern to many.
"There's no way any construction -- no matter how careful they are -- is going to avoid disrupting those gardens," White said. "There's going to be runoff, there's going to be vehicles that have to get to it and the garden is going to shrink all the time."
Barchi said that Penn's commitment to the BioPond and its surrounding environment can be seen in the recent overhaul of the pond, and the establishment of an endowment to care for it in perpetuity.
"We were hardly investing multiple millions of dollars into something that we intend to see disappear," Barchi said. "We see this as a little gem in our campus, and a little gem in West Philadelphia, and we are certainly going to be doing everything that we can do to ensure that future generations of our students and West Philadelphia residents have it."
