With the help of a $30 million donation, the University will begin construction next year on a new 40,000-square-foot building, which will house the Annenberg Public Policy Center.
Financed through a donation from the Annenberg Foundation, which was established by the late Wharton alumnus Walter Annenberg, the construction project will dismantle the old Hillel building -- located on 36th Street between Walnut Street and Locust Walk -- to make room for the center beside the Annenberg School for Communication. Construction is scheduled to be completed sometime in 2008.
"We will spend the next eight months working on a design," Center Director Kathleen Hall Jamieson said. "To increase contact between the APPC and the Annenberg School, we hope to build a sky bridge between the two."
The Annenberg Center was created in 1994 after an initial donation from the Annenberg Foundation, which "exists to advance public well-being through improved communication," according to its mission statement. The center does not offer classes to undergraduates, but does hold lectures and conferences on the impact of communication on public policy, and also provides research opportunities for students in the University.
"Currently the APPC focuses on the areas of political communication, information and society, media and the developing child, health communication and adolescent risk," said Michael Delli Carpini, dean of the Annenberg School.
One of the current issues facing the Annenberg Center is that its staff is split between its offices at 3535 Market St. and the Annenberg School at 3620 Walnut St.
"The new building will make it possible for our scholars and the students who work with them to spend more time together," Jamieson said.
In addition, the building will provide a stage for University-wide lectures and discussions, as well as free up space in the current building, according to Delli Carpini. This new space will be used to expand the department.
"We hope that creating space for growth, while having the school and policy center located next to each other, will create a dynamic center for teaching and research on issues related to communication," Delli Carpini said.
The $30 million marked for construction was awarded at the same time the Annenberg Foundation gave $2 million to endow a chair in the humanities dedicated to Vartan Gregorian, a former provost at Penn from 1978 to 1980. An additional $500,000 was donated to be used for graduate student fellowships in the Annenberg Center.
The Annenberg Foundation, founded in 1958 by Walter Annenberg, is currently run by his widow, Leonore Annenberg. The foundation has already provided over $80 million in grants to the Annenberg Center.
