Campus gets decade-long makeover

Altering both the physical and psychological impact of the campus, the Rodin Era has overseen a billion dollars in facilities spending.

The results -- including the construction of Jon M. Huntsman Hall, the Dental School's Schattner Center, Pottruck Health and Fitness Center and the renovation of the Quadrangle, Hamilton College House and the Class of '49 bridge that spans 38th Street -- are significant and easily attributable, according to officials.

"I think that early on in her tenure, Judy understood the linkage between Penn as a campus and as a University," said Vice President for Facilities and Real Estate Services Omar Blaik, whose office has directed the many renovation, construction and planning projects undertaken in the past decade.

Yet already, parts of the Campus Development Plan, approved by the Board of Trustees in 2001, look as if they may never come to fruition.

Originally, the administration released a 10-year, $300 million dormitory and dining overhaul plan that has since been significantly scaled back.

Moreover, renovations to Hamilton Village called for the construction of more low rise buildings and the addition of 1,000 beds.

Calling the original plan "extremely ambitious," Jim Riepe, chairman of Penn's Board of Trustees, said, "It was simply not doable in the time frame... that was suggested."

Suggesting that the $80 million renovations now underway in Hamilton Village have more "bang for the buck," Blaik said that the University has not abandoned the idea of building another college house in the area, but that plans remain on hold for financial reasons.

Having worked with the University under three presidents and one interim president, University Provost Robert Barchi commended the significance of changes made during Rodin's time at Penn, despite the recent setback.

"The University has changed more under Dr. Rodin's tenure than under any other president," Barchi said, pinpointing facilities and aesthetics changes as central to the University's transformation.

Rodin's focus on an "interface between the University and the community" has had a transformative effect, as the campus has become more open and inclusive of the community, Barchi added.

"I've been here for 30 years... and we used to be a fortress, a walled-off campus," Barchi said, noting that University buildings along Walnut Street used to have loading docks and parking lots -- yet few windows or points of access.

Since Rodin took the University helm, Van Pelt Library, the Annenberg School for Communication and the Graduate School of Education building, among others, have been reoriented toward Walnut Street.

In addition, more walkways lead to the street and more windows are positioned outward.

"The University is turning around to present its face to the community," Barchi said. "I can't overstate how important that is from a psychological perspective."

It is precisely this psychological perspective that makes these changes key to urban and community relations, Co-Director of the Urban Studies Department Elaine Simon explained.

The previous "conscious decision to look inward" stemmed from "just horrible kinds of design decisions for cities," Simon said.

The importance of the shift to face outward affects the entire perception of campus, according to Simon, who in part attributes Penn's jump in U.S. News and World Report's rankings to better and more urban-oriented facilities.

"It's become obvious how important the physical facilities are," Simon said. "I think [Rodin] and [former Executive Vice President] John Fry's approach was one... very much in line with an urban redevelopment perspective."

And this perspective was no accident.

In 1998, the University commissioned Olin Partnership -- a landscape architecture and urban design firm headed by Penn Architecture Professor Laurie Olin that has worked on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Philadelphia's new Independence Mall and London's Victoria and Albert Museum -- to create a 25-year master plan for the University.

"One of Judith Rodin's important contributions was to really push the sense of Penn as an urban campus -- to push the streets as the lifebloods," said Susan Weiler, a principal with Olin Partnership.

"Penn is probably one of the more beautiful and cohesive campuses in America" Weiler added, emphasizing the importance of Penn's attempt to "reconcile itself as a private institution... and integrate" with its urban setting at the same time.

Calling Yale University, by contrast, an urban campus that has "become an island" apart from the community, Weiler added, "It takes someone like Judith Rodin to really allow something like this to happen.... She certainly felt [community integration] was a very important aspect to nurture."

Rodin placed a focus on improvements to academic buildings, walkways and green space, according to officials.

"In the past 10 years of Judy's tenure, the majority of the schools have seen major, major improvements in facilities," Blaik said, also praising Rodin for "setting the stage for a campus that has walkways and green space."

Yet according to the Campus Development Plan, there is still work needed to be done on improving the facilities central to the academic core.

Noting that a significant portion of undergraduate teaching is "really quite remote from the center of campus," Olin Partnership Associate Richard Newton said that it remains a University goal to concentrate on academic facilities.

According to officials, this process is underway with the relocation of academic programs -- including those in the Psychology, Social Work and Education schools -- to place them close to campus.

With the 25-year plan just beginning to take effect, Rodin's successor will inherit the challenge of carrying through many of the current administration's ideas.

Plans include the development of the postal lands to the east and the extension of Locust Walk as a pedestrian bridge down to Center City.

Calling Rodin's input for the master plan "visionary," Newton said, "Someone coming in would hopefully see it as a tool."

"It's comprehensive... it's a guideline for growth, it doesn't dictate it," he added. "There's plenty of places [for a future president] to leave a mark."

Blaik and many University officials agree that Rodin certainly left hers.

Projects "as small as banners and signs on buildings to the expansion to the east," Blaik said, "can be attributed to Judy Rodin's leadership."

About this series Penn is a very different place now than it was back in 1994, when University President Judith Rodin first took the helm. And now that Rodin has announced that she will leave her position in June, the University is apt to see more changes in the future. For the next week and a half, The Daily Pennsylvanian will examine a variety of issues, events and people on and around campus that have been affected under Rodin's decade-long tenure. Topics will range from Penn's reputation in higher education to the build-up of retail around campus to expectations for Rodin's successor.

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