Having gone without serious renovations to its classrooms for almost a century, the School of Veterinary Medicine is revamping its teaching and research facilities with a new building.
Located at 38th Street and Baltimore Avenue, the new structure aims to bring the school up to par with its reputation of high-quality animal care.
"These are the worst classrooms in the country for a vet school," said Administration and Finance Vice Dean for the Veterinary School Barry Stupine, adding that the prospect of a new building "improves the morale of everyone here."
Construction around the Vet School is not limited to the new building.
Devised around the same time the Vet project was being developed, the University and the City of Philadelphia have announced plans to reconfigure and reconstruct the intersection between Baltimore, University and Woodland avenues and 38th and 39th streets.
"It was a horrendous intersection for people passing through there," said University Managing Director of Design and Construction Management Mark Wilson.
He added that the improvements will make the intersection easier to navigate -- especially for pedestrians and bicycles.
Talks regarding a new building for teaching and research activities have been on the school's agenda for a long time.
"We've been talking about this structure for many years, since the early '70s," Wilson said.
Plans for the project were announced about 14 months ago. The final design drawings will start in a few weeks.
The groundbreaking is scheduled for April 17 and construction will likely begin sometime during the summer, continuing through August 2006, according to Wilson.
One of the reasons behind the project's delay was the large sum -- $54 million -- necessary to make it a reality. This problem, however, seems to be nearly solved.
"As of December, we have raised $47.3 million," Veterinary School Communications Director Helma Weeks said. "In the summer of 2000, we got a grant from the state of $18 million."
Thanks to these endowments, the school will be able to locate its new classrooms and research space in a separate stand-alone structure, with an aerial bridge connecting it to the Veterinary Medicine Old Quadrangle Building, located at 3800 Spruce St.
On the first floor of the new building there will be two major auditoriums, each seating 150 students.
"These are sorely needed now by the Vet School," Wilson said.
On the second floor, there will be a new library, as well as three or four seminar rooms and laboratories. Additional mechanical space will be located on the top floor.
Another of the building's innovative elements is the area for laboratory animals, which will be shared by the Veterinary School and Penn's School of Medicine. About 20,000 cages will be available, 8,000 of which will used by the Vet School.
Officials said this arrangement will simplify the working relationship between the two institutions.
"We do a lot of collaborative work with the Med School, and now we'll be able to do that in one building," Stupine said.
