With construction to Levine Hall completed last spring, the Engineering school already has a new construction project underway.
Interior demolition work on Pender Laboratory began Monday to make way for Skirkanich Hall. The new building expected to open in fall 2005 will out-do its predecessor both in overall size and laboratory space.
"It sounds wasteful to tear down a building just to put up a new building... but we had to do it this way," Bioengineering Chairman Daniel Hammer said. "The Engineering School is really desperate for wet laboratory space."
This type of laboratory space is necessary for biological and chemical work requiring ventilation. The Pender Laboratory site located at the 3300 block between Walnut and Locust streets previously housed electrical engineering facilities.
"Space is tight now that Pender has been emptied out," Hammer said. The Pender Laboratory offices have been relocated to the Moore Building and to Levine Hall.
When it is completed, the new facility will provide a departmental building for bioengineering. The bioengineering program does not currently have its own building, despite offering the second most popular major within the Engineering School.
Calling the beginning of the demolition "a particularly happy day for Penn Engineering," Engineering Dean Eduardo Glandt said in an e-mail statement that the new facility will add about 30,000 square feet of wet laboratory space.
Although a wrecking ball will not be used to complete the deconstruction of Pender Laboratory until later on in the summer, the entire demolition process is slated to be completed before the fall semester.
"Construction of Skirkanich will start in the fall," Glandt wrote. "Because demolition is noisy, it's best done during the summer."
The plans for the $38 million, 55,500 square foot facility call for an auditorium for 120 people, two lounges, administrative offices and separate instruction labs for freshmen, sophomores and juniors in bioengineering, according to Glandt.
Construction will be funded by a $14 million Leadership-Development Award from the Whitaker Foundation given to the bioengineering program. This grant was won by Hammer and stipulates many of the building's specific features and the use to which it can be put, including the amount of laboratory space allocated for undergraduate students.
Penn Trustee and Engineering overseer Peter Skirkanich and his wife Geri also contributed $10 million for the construction.
The exterior of the modernized facility will reflect the up to date laboratories it will hold. While the specific material choices for the facade have not been finalized, Skirkanich Hall will feature glazed brick according to Glandt.
"The style will be modern and contemporary design," Hammer said.
"We are very excited to see this project moving forward," Glandt wrote. "We have been planning it for years."
