Levine Hall to open in spring

After more than two years of construction, it appears that Levine Hall may be ready by the spring semester.

The School of Engineering and Applied Science's new computer science building, located at 3340 Walnut Street, is currently scheduled to open this December.

Construction on the 40,000 square-foot structure -- which will double the space available for the computer science department, allowing the department to expand and improve -- began in June 2000. Classes have already been scheduled in the building for the spring 2003 semester.

The new building, which was designed by architectural firm Kieran Timberlake Associates, will connect on each level to the Towne building and the Graduate Research Wing of the Moore Building, allowing the free flow of students and faculty between the three buildings.

Frank Daly, director of design and construction, said he is confident that Levine Hall will open on time and added that most of the structure is already complete. In spite of a six-month delay due to cost overruns from November 2000 to May 2001, Daly said the construction process has gone smoothly and that the duration of the construction is not atypical for such a building.

With a budget of $20 million -- which includes a $5 million donation from 1946 Wharton graduate Melvin Levine and a $10 million grant from the United States Air Force -- the building will add many new amenities for both faculty and students.

The new offices in Levine Hall will help to bring the entire computer science department into one building and will also accommodate the growing faculty, which has recently taken on seven new members and plans on making three more additions.

Levine Hall "will help to attract first-rate new faculty to Penn and show that the administration has a strong commitment to computer science," said Artificial Intelligence Professor Mitchell Marcus, who chaired the CIS Programming Committee while the building was being designed.

According to CIS Department Chairman Fernando Pereira, Levine Hall will allow the department to "compete with the other schools at Penn that are also constructing new buildings."

The building will also offer students a 150-seat auditorium that will provide more room for the computer science department's popular introductory level courses, which are currently being taught in smaller, less accommodating rooms.

"I am very excited about the opportunity to expand and have this new space to work with students, welcome our new faculty and work more efficiently," Pereira said.

Thomas Stump, the executive director of budget and administration at the Engineering School, said he believes Levine Hall will help to facilitate better interaction between departments in the school.

The building will provide many new classrooms, research laboratories and meeting spaces as well as a $225,000 cybercafe, made possible by a donor who wished to remain anonymous.

The newly-redesigned alleyway leading to Levine Hall will be referred to as Chancellor Walk and has been designed in the same vein as Locust Walk. The entrance of the building will be situated in a remodeled courtyard.

Presently, the active curtain walls, which are the glass walls on both sides of the building, are being installed.

Once this is finished, Levine Hall "will start to look much more complete to the public," says Daly.

The glass wall structure, which is manufactured by an Italian company named Permasteelisa, is the first of its kind to be used in the United States. The glass walls will be highly transparent, a quality that Stump says will make Levine Hall look "beautiful, especially at night."

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